TradeLink Technologies
Linking the Digital Trade- Thread

Back in the late 90s, one of the leading apparel organizations in the U.S. wanted to do direct shipments from factories in Asia to their retail customers. The firm wanted to send about 50 million dollars worth of Free On Board (FOB) items directly to 14 retail customers in about 30 different destinations. So the firm decided to partner with a B2B company, but the execution came out poor, due to the lack of global resources. “They only wanted to work in Hong Kong and southern China in those days and they didn't realize the potential of the global supply chain,” says Dan Entac, Managing Director, TradeLink Technologies.

After comprehensively inspecting the market, and comprehending the needs of the global players who wanted to do more direct shipments to third party suppliers globally, in 1999, Dan decided to start TradeLink Technologies.

Today, the solutions catered by the firm are utilized by over 7, 000 suppliers in over 70 countries. This includes over 300 significant importer/brand and logistics companies that are TradeLink's business partners. TradeLink’s solution portfolio includes ShipOne for LOGISTIC Supply Chain Solutions and PackOne for SUPPLIER Provider Solutions. TradeLink’s Supplier Supply Chain Solution, PackOne receives a Buyer Purchase Order over the Internet in an XML standard from a Cloud Based portal called TradeLinkOne and makes it available to the Supplier to create shipment documentation and statuses. Further, the application also produces electronic versions of the Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN) or packing list, invoices, and statuses. The aim of PackOne-and all of TradeLink's solutions for that matter-is a more interconnected supply chain, one that affords enhanced, real-time supply chain visibility and critical decision-making tools to all players involved. The firm also caters to logistic provider solutions through ShipOne. “We developed our products primarily for third party suppliers but what happened was we got into the footwear industry where importers not only want to guarantee what's being packed inside of a carton but they also want to ensure the accuracy of the shipment and the cartons going into the container,” states Entac. And thus the firm created ShipOne.

Our technology fuses the best of cloudbased technology with the existing technology of our customers - that's probably the biggest difference we cater

The application supports multiple supplier shipments by scan-receipting uniquely bar coded cartons, containerizing these shipments, and forwarding this information back to the importer or logistics provider. ShipOne also supports the same cross docking process by de-consolidating the large containerized shipments into smaller shipments and facilitating the hand over to ground transportation for delivery direct to store or direct to customer. TradeLink also supports all of the logistics customer shipment messages.

So what makes TradeLink different from any other vendor in the market?

“Well our goal is to provide the best Supply Chain solution in our niche; we utilize the best technology and are not driven to sell software or hardware as part of the solution unless it fits the customer. In most cases our software works on existing hardware and computer equipment. We also go in knowing that our SC solution has to be customized a small amount to fit the customer’s supply chain requirements,” answers Entac.

Being a golf enthusiast, Entac knows technology plays a part in being successful so he always looks for what’s new and improved, that’s what defines his firm’s roadmap. We’re always looking to improve the current solution set by adding more features such as cloud based reporting, metrics and analytics; and new processes such as Trade Finance and more WIP visibility.

We’re fortunate as many of our current customers are also improving and demanding more when it comes to the supply chain and so that drives TradeLink to take an active part in some of the better global supply chains.