eCustoms
The A to Z of Foreign Trade Compliance

The year 1981, often remembered for the introduction of the first Personal Computer (PC), also marked the birth of a company—eCustoms—that would soon become a global name for its superior trade compliance solutions. Headquartered in Buffalo, NY, eCustoms has since been solving some of the most challenging cross-border and foreign trade compliance and operational issues with its Visual Compliance suite of systems, technologies and services.

With its primary benefit to aid with trade and financial compliance, eCustoms has always demonstrated how simple yet imperative it is to implement efficient compliance programs in an era when regulations change almost overnight. “We have achieved this by developing a range of modular solutions that enable clients to get their compliance program up-and-running within days, along with additional components to bolster their compliance programs in the future,” says Marc Roy, President, eCustoms. The company’s Visual Compliance suite of solutions is comprised of a number export, trade and financial compliance modules that work together to address a wide variety of business requirements. The suite is designed to facilitate easy activation of new modules when required, and fulfills both the need to address a wide range of regulatory jurisdictions, as well as flexibility to implement different levels of automation. Further, the solutions support flexible deployment strategy based on individual organization’s specific governance, risk, and compliance needs. While majority of eCustoms’ clients opt for web-based SaaS model that provides the flexibility to implement solutions quickly and efficiently, there are also options for client-hosted versions of their solutions, if customer requirements dictate.

Solving cross-border and foreign trade compliance and operational issues with its Visual Compliance suite of systems, technologies and services

“One of our strengths is our ability to integrate into virtually any business system. We have been able to help clients in providing solutions that work with multiple and disparate business systems,” adds Roy.

For instance, one of eCustoms’ clients, a world-leading international transportation logistics company, was looking for a reliable, efficient, and consolidated Trade Compliance solution to manage its compliance needs in thousands of locations across 100+ countries. Once subscribed to eCustoms’ Visual Compliance, the organization has been able to access all the lists needed to avoid committing export violations. The solution further enhances their compliance needs by automatically re-screening all past searches every day and sending an email alert in case of any change in the entry, allowing the client to stay informed about suddenly debarred parties which were previously cleared. Visual Compliance also maintains audit records of all searches performed to help ensure that their client is doing their due diligence in case their export process ever comes under government scrutiny. With eCustoms’ solutions, the client is experiencing faster and accurate screening while benefiting from lower costs, and greater internal productivity.

eCustoms’ three decades of experience in the compliance space has allowed it to identify that multi-jurisdictional nature of regulations is nothing new. To help clients address these ever-changing needs, the company makes significant investment in building and evolving a global suite of innovative solutions—a great example of which is mobile technology. With the VC Mobile, clients can efficiently handle mobile export compliance issues, keeping up with their responsibilities while they are away, and be more productive once they return to their desks.

Keeping eCustoms ahead of competition is its strong in-house teams that include a combination of regulatory experts and development professionals. Working in tandem with these same professionals, the company’s development team is constantly improving and evolving its offerings, to ensure that new regulatory requirements are translated into solutions before they take effect. “Thanks to our innovative solutions, we have made significant impact on the industry by making it easier to implement and evolve compliance solutions for our customers than in the past,” concludes Roy.