Mr Eugene Khoo gives a presentation on Xilinx's experiences with TradeXchange.

100 per cent data accuracy – this was the milestone that Xilinx Asia Pacific managed to achieve with the use of TradeXchange, a cross-industry platform that facilitates Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Government (B2G) trade processes for companies conducting business in Singapore.

Xilinx, a global manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, was presenting its experiences with the use of TradeXchange at a seminar organised by Singapore Customs, EDB Singapore, SPRING Singapore and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The event, which attracted over 100 participants, was held at the Singapore Customs Auditorium on 28 October 2011.

The aim of the seminar was to generate greater awareness of TradeXchange. Developed by CrimsonLogic, TradeXchange aims is to boost Singapore's competitiveness in trade and logistics through the use of infocomm technology to provide seamless inter-connectivity among commercial and regulatory entities. It also facilitates trade finance and marine cargo insurance applications with participating banks and insurance companies which are connected to the platform.

In addition, the use of common standards and TradeXchange as a single platform for integration also allows data to be re-used, reducing the need for multiple data entries between different B2B and B2G trade processes.

Mr Colin Lincoln of QBE Insurance talks about how TradeXchange helped facilitate the electronic submission of trade declarations.

In the Xilinx example, the use of TradeXchange allows the company to receive export permits from forwarders in less than two days – half the time it used to take before Xilinx used TradeXchange. The ability to ensure data accuracy also eliminates the need to spend man hours on verifying export permits. Furthermore, any amendments to the forwarders can now be automatically triggered by Xilinx’s enterprise resource planning system.

Another company which shared its experiences at the seminar was QBE Insurance (International). According to QBE, TradeXchange helped facilitate the electronic submission of trade declarations and provided the company with a platform for streamlining data entry and for data storage.

TradeXchange has also allowed DBS to speed up its processing of trade finance applications as the exchange of trade financing documents between businesses and DBS could be done electronically. This allowed DBS to do away with some of the manual verifications that it previously had to go through with buyers to confirm if the supplier’s invoice amounts were correct and if the goods have been received by that buyer.  More importantly, TradeXchange has also created more business opportunities for DBS. By leveraging on TradeXchange, DBS was able to start a supplier financing programme for Dairy Farm’s suppliers.