For a textile firm, Zepol's TradeIQ™ streamlined the offshoring process by eliminating the need for an external consultant. Instead, the firm chose the right partner based on reliable trade data intelligence.

Challenge

During the late nineties, a textile and apparel firm began outsourcing its manufacturing. At the time, outsourcing to foreign suppliers meant lower costs. However it also involved expenses that were rarely talked about by the advocates of offshoring. While the costs were lower per item, it was an expensive process to find, develop and maintain a relationship with a company halfway around the world.

First, the textile firm needed to develop contacts that were familiar with the area it was interested in sourcing from; this meant hiring an expensive consultant. The consultant would then provide a list of companies that may have the required capabilities. Next, the firm would send a high level employee to Asia to begin narrowing the list provided by the consultant to manufacturers that actually could meet its needs. When it finally decided on a source, negotiations began in which the potential partner would make claims about past relationships that could not be verified.

Once an agreement was reached, questions began to come from the sourcing department's managers. Was the new supplier living up to the exclusive manufacturing agreement it had signed? Could the firm further diversify its supply chain in case of unexpected events? Did it investigate other manufacturers not on the consultant's provided list?

Solution

In 2006, the Vice President of Sourcing came to the conclusion that the firm was spending far too much on this process and it needed one thing: information. It needed a source of data that was accurate, timely and detailed. It preferred an application that could easily provide these answers, but also act as an ongoing tool for tracking suppliers. With these needs in mind, the firm approached Zepol to provide them with an easy-to-use solution that anyone in the organization could use.

Zepol's Supplier Process

Zepol's TradeIQ™ was the only tool on the market that met these requirements by using a unique data set that was not only detailed and timely, but could also deliver amazing flexibility. Zepol showed the firm that there was little need to hire an external consultant; instead it could investigate the manufacturers in a region that already were exporting products to the United States. By gathering a list of manufactures on its own, the company saved thousands of dollars. This list more than paid for the subscription to TradeIQ™.

Zepol's TradeIQ™ shows the actual Bill of Lading a company is using to send product to the U.S. This provides an invaluable window into a manufacturer's capabilities before one spends valuable resources on an overseas factory visit.

Results

The textile firm used the unique TradeIQ™ interface to diversify its supply chain by exploring what other countries were exporting to the U.S. With this capability, it was able find both low cost and premium suppliers and choose the right partner per its requirements.

With the saved search functionality built into TradeIQ™, subscribers can easily track what companies their suppliers are shipping products to. With this capability, they have evidence and can hold suppliers responsible for breaking exclusivity agreements.

During the negotiation process, the onsite manager can log into TradeIQ™ to verify any business relationships the manufacturer claims, because Zepol does not limit usage by IP address and holds over six years of historical data.