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PRESS COVERAGE EDI yields time savings of up to 85% for Hallmark CardsCanadian Sailings TORONTO – "The time savings alone in import document preparation are running at about 85% per truckload," said Iris Jameson about Hallmark Cards' recent expansion of EDI technology into their import department. "Our system electronically receives shipment information directly from our U.S. head office. Then it uses this information to automatically create our import documents. What used to take all day to document, we now do in less than an hour." According to Ms. Jameson, the benefits of the new EDI system to Hallmark extend beyond the time savings in the import department. For example, landed costs are automatically reported by cost-center. This cuts down the accounting department's workload. Also, the system makes sure the lowest possible import tariffs are applied to – every product, so staff now has the time to make sure suppliers are properly completing exporter's certificates of origin. "It did take us three steps to get to this point, however," said Ms. Jameson. "The first was when we stopped using a customs broker to prepare our import forms." A pioneer in the field of in-house customs clearance, Jameson says she stopped using a customs broker because "taking over the function ourselves just made a lot of sense. It was the only way to get what we wanted more control over the tariffs being assigned to our products and immediate access to our shipment status and product costing information. "The second step was when we purchased an importing software system," says Jameson. "We were looking for something that would cut out the repetitive parts of the job, and give us more control over our accuracy levels." The system the company purchased from import/export software specialists MSR "fit the bill." It allowed Hallmark to store and retrieve all of their tariff classifications, duty rates, exchange rates, and other import-related information. As well the system handled all of the recapping, calculations, forms printing and reporting. This year Ms. Jameson took the third step when Hallmark's new methods of distribution, coupled with an expanded product line, caused a surge in import paper work. The goal was to find a way to handle the volume without adding staff. "That's where EDI came in," she said. "The shipment information was already being entered into a computer at the other end. What we needed was a way to transfer it to the computer at our end so we didn't have to enter it again." The link was established with a little 'customization' work by the software supplier. Shipment information is now received by the department's computer and automatically processed by the same importing software. "We're really pleased with the results," said Ms. Jameson. "Using EDI has saved us more than we had expected. All it takes is a few keystrokes to start the data transfer, and a few more to start the system processing the information. But the real beauty is that it's given us the time to find other ways to cut our costs." |
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