Freight Forward: GTM Insight Series – Edition 2

Practical Strategies to Navigate Trade Complexity

If Edition 1 helped frame the “why” behind the current state of global trade, this post focuses on the “how.”

Trade teams are being asked to do more with less — fewer systems, fewer people, tighter timelines, and higher expectations. Whether it’s classifying goods accurately, staying current on new regulations, or minimizing landed cost, the day-to-day challenges are real, and they’re multiplying.

But here’s the good news: tackling trade complexity doesn’t require an enterprise-wide transformation. Often, meaningful progress comes from tightening processes, aligning data, and using the systems you already have more effectively.

Strategy 1: Centralize Your Product and Classification Data

Many compliance issues begin at the master data level. When multiple regions, brokers, or systems are managing their own classification logic, the result is inconsistency, delay, and added risk.

What to do:

• Build a single source of truth for product data and HS classifications

• Standardize how new items are introduced and classified

• Use automated validation tools to reduce manual review

  
  

Why it matters: Consistent classification enables accurate declarations, reduces clearance delays, and lowers audit risk.

Strategy 2: Simplify Trade Lane and Partner Management

Trade lanes are evolving — but many businesses still rely on static spreadsheets and past performance to guide sourcing and fulfillment decisions.

What to do:

• Regularly review duty rates, lead times, and carbon impact across active lanes

• Reassess broker and freight forwarder performance

• Use digital tools to compare landed cost across routes and partners

  
  

Why it matters: Optimizing trade lanes can reduce landed cost, shorten cycle times, and improve overall resiliency.

Strategy 3: Digitize Your Trade Document Process

If documentation lives in emails or PDFs on a shared drive, there’s a good chance your team is spending too much time chasing files and fixing errors.

What to do:

• Automate document generation from structured data

• Store customs documents centrally and link them to transactions

• Integrate with brokers for real-time visibility into filings

Why it matters: Document automation reduces risk, saves time, and supports cleaner audits and faster exception resolution.

Strategy 4: Turn Compliance into a Configurable Workflow

Regulations are changing faster than manual workflows can keep up. But managing compliance doesn’t have to mean chasing updates or rewriting code.

What to do:

• Use a rules engine to embed restricted party screening, license checks, and embargo controls

• Establish update cadences for regulatory content feeds

• Configure alerts and exceptions for non-compliance scenarios

Why it matters: A configurable compliance layer reduces your reliance on manual oversight and allows you to scale as regulations evolve.

Bringing It Together

Global trade is complex — but that doesn’t mean your processes have to be. When trade teams align data, simplify decision points, and lean on the right tools, they can manage risk more proactively and operate more efficiently.

In Edition 3, we’ll look at how Oracle GTM — paired with Lumentra’s Lightspeed methodology — can help teams put these strategies into practice faster and with greater impact.

Next up:

Edition 3: How Oracle GTM and Lumentra Lightspeed Drive Better Trade Execution