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In today’s volatile trade environment, supply chains are no longer evaluated solely on cost and speed. Resilience, compliance, and visibility have become equally critical factors. Organizations operating globally are under increasing pressure from rapidly evolving trade regulations, sanctions, environmental expectations, and geopolitical shifts.
Against this backdrop, the tight integration of SAP EWM, SAP TM, and SAP GTS is emerging as a strategic enabler, connecting physical logistics with regulatory intelligence from warehouse to border. Let’s explore more on this topic.
The End-to-End trade execution flow.
At a high level, each system plays a distinct but complementary role:
- SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) orchestrates inventory, picking, packing, and staging.
- SAP TM (Transportation Management) optimizes freight planning, carrier selection, and execution.
- SAP GTS (Global Trade Services) ensures trade compliance across customs, sanctions, embargoes, and preferential trade agreements.
Individually, these systems deliver operational excellence in their fields. Together, they create a closed-loop, compliance-driven supply chain where trade checks are embedded into execution itself, rather than being treated as a downstream control.
How the integration creates value.
When SAP EWM, TM, and GTS are integrated effectively, compliance becomes proactive and automated, enabling:
- Trade compliance at source Embargo and sanctioned party screening triggered at delivery creation prevents non-compliant shipments from leaving the warehouse.
- Customs-ready transportation TM freight units enriched with GTS customs data enable smoother cross-border execution and fewer carrier disruptions.
- Duty and tax optimization GTS preferential origin determination and trade agreement utilization help reduce landed costs, particularly relevant as organizations reassess sourcing strategies amid near-shoring and community-shoring trends.
- Real-time visibility for leadership Executives gain insights into compliance exposure, blocked shipments, and duty savings, supporting faster, risk-aware decisions.
Practical scenarios that deliver impact.
Export controls: Stopped at source.
- Outbound delivery created in EWM triggers GTS screening.
- High‑risk shipments are blocked instantly.
- TM planning halts automatically.
This avoids penalties, reputational risks, and return freight costs, all without manual intervention.
Preferential origin: Driving hard dollar savings.
- GTS calculates origin eligibility from BoMs and trade rules.
- Certificates flow into TM and execution automatically.
- Customs processes recognize and apply duty benefits.
Result: Lower duties and stronger landed cost competitiveness.
ROI-beyond risk avoidance.
While avoiding penalties and shipment holds remains fundamental, the ROI of an integrated GTS landscape extends further including:
- Reduced cycle times at borders through accurate, first-time-right customs filings.
- Lower duty spends via automated preference determination and free trade agreement usage.
- Improved working capital estimation through predictable cross-border lead times.
- Stronger audit readiness and governance with traceable compliance controls.
In a climate of heightened regulatory scrutiny, such as expanded sanctions regimes and increased enforcement of forced labor regulations: these benefits are no longer optional.
Common integration challenges and how to address them.
Despite the value proposition, organizations often encounter hurdles, which can be easily mitigated through proper planning as in below cases:
- Fragmented master data across logistics and trade functions.
- Late compliance checks causing operational delays.
- Over-customization of legacy GTS landscapes.
Key considerations for a successful integration.
Leadership teams should keep the following in focus:
- Align business ownership across logistics, finance, and compliance.
- Design for scalability as trade regulations evolve worldwide.
- Embed compliance KPIs into supply chain performance metrics.
- Plan change management: trade compliance is as much about people as systems.
Looking ahead.
As global trade grows more fragmented and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, companies that tightly integrate warehouse execution, transportation planning, and trade compliance will gain a decisive edge.
A unified SAP EWM–TM–GTS landscape turns compliance from a reactive checkpoint into a strategic asset, enabling control, visibility, predictability, and resilience across cross‑border operations.
This is where Westernacher Consulting brings unique strength..
With deep SAP GTS expertise and proven integration experience, we help organizations simplify regulatory complexity and embed compliance directly into logistics execution, enabling smarter, faster, and more reliable global trade. Discover what a future‑ready GTS landscape looks like with Westernacher Consulting.
