German technology company taps Amber Road for product classification

Privately-owned Heraeus has begun using the global trade management (GTM) solution provider’s Global Product Master tool as part of an overhaul of its trade management strategy.    The German technology company Heraeus has begun using global trade management solutions provider Amber Road’s product classification tool.
   Privately-owned Heraeus , which specializes in technologies around precious metals, and serves a diverse range of customer verticals, will use Amber Road’s solution to support its international growth. The company has broken out its global business into 11 separate unites and established a long-term global trade management strategy, starting with an overhaul of its product classification processes.
   The Amber Road solution will centralize product classification for the global group, replacing largely manual classification processes handled ad-hoc by the company’s various business units. Amber Road’s Global Product Master product provides a central repository for all trade-related attributes and is used to enforce trade policies, provide reporting, and power other trade solutions to automate cross-border transactions.
   The tool is intended to help Heraeus achieve correct classification of its full product catalogue with a properly documented and standardized process viewable across the enterprise and by trading partners.
   “Amber Road is an excellent fit with our larger initiative to centralize all aspects of trade compliance,” said Tobias Bahr, head of international VAT, customs and export control, and senior tax manager international, at Heraeus Holding GmbH. “Because the product classification module is part of a larger export controls solution, we are able to start small and grow with a clear pathway toward our vision for an end-to-end global trade management process where the Amber Road solution is fully integrated with SAP.”
   “We are seeing an increasing number of companies implementing a global trade management platform as a complementary solution to their ERP system,” said Rick Meyer, vice president of sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Amber Road. “Along with this trend, more companies are choosing a solution that delivers trade content fully integrated with the logic, which is fundamental to the kind of end-to-end global trade management program that Heraeus is working towards.”