Course

CALISTA Intelligent Advisory (CIA) : A One-Stop Trade Advisory Service for Traders and Logistic Service Providers

As a trader venturing into a new market or dealing with imports and exports, you will need to know the necessary information and documents required for customs.

Mr Hoo Wei Chet, Director (Product) at GeTS, shares how the company’s trade advisory services have helped to simplify the process, and how its global supply chain platform CALISTA is particularly useful for e-commerce logistics service providers.

Q: Can you share with us more about GeTS’ trade advisory services?

Wei Chet: We aim to be a google-like search tool for traders to find all the information they need, instead of having to go through various sources and websites. With CALISTA Intelligent Advisory, traders can obtain HS codes required for the origin and destination countries, the taxes and duties applicable for a particular product, and check on available Free Trade Agreements (FTA) to see if they qualify for any tax deductions. Importation and exportation guidelines, as well as sample documents, are also available on our platform. Today, traders and their correspondents can search for compliance content for over 180 countries.

Q: How is CALISTA different from what is already available in the market?

Wei Chet: There are many companies these days that offer FTA searches and HS code recommendations. However, what makes our product different is our ability to recommend accurate HS codes based on a layman’s product description. Using natural language processing, we process the description and create a model to find the actual product description used by Customs, and then retrieve the HS code associated with the product.

While natural language processing is not uncommon in the market, most platforms are not as detailed as ours, which processes to the level of product brands. For instance, you can key in “Toyota Wish” into the product description, and the system will be able to identity the type of automobile and its capacity based on the brand.

To obtain even higher accuracy, our HS code recommendations are not only based on natural language processing but are also checked against our database to confirm its high usage.

Q: What are some of the common features your team has developed for CALISTA and how are they beneficial for users?

Wei Chet: Our HS code recommendation service is one of our common features that we offer across our products. For instance, this feature is available for all our trade compliance filing service which has Customs connectivity of 61 nodes. Our platform processes the packing list prepared in a foreign language, translate the list to English and retrieve the recommended HS codes via API. This is particularly useful for e-commerce where the packing list can be very long.

Another common feature we have is the CALISTA MobileApp, where our customers can use our modules on the go. The app is currently available in iOS Store and Google Play Store.
 
We have also developed a Single Sign-On (SSO) module that links all our different applications together, so that users can obtain access to multiple applications, such as CALISTA, hive and TradeWeb, through a single login session.

 
Q. The boom in the e-commerce industry has opened up new opportunities for logistics service providers (LSPs). In what ways can CALISTA help LSPs to integrate into e-commerce?

Wei Chet: Freight forwarders need to manage their rates and have them ready for the marketplace. With CALISTA freight exchange, they can manage their rates, publish them on our platform and connect to e-commerce marketplaces such as Lazada and Shopee without needing to individually establish the links themselves. In this way, LSPs, especially those that are SMEs, can save time and reduce investments in technology.

Q: How does CALISTA enable LSPs to be more competitive in the marketplace?

Wei Chet: By giving them the necessary tools and technical assistance, they will be ready to take on and cope with the demands of e-commerce. For instance, many e-commerce marketplaces expect regular service updates and compliance with strict service level agreements from LSPs. To support that, we offer the CALISTA MobileApp as a solution for LSPs to track and trace their deliveries in real time.

Q: How can consumers benefit from this marketplace integration?

Wei Chet: When we partner with e-commerce players, we are not just offering alternative shipping options to them but also to the broader merchants and consumers. When LSPs are more competitive and have more opportunities to participate in the marketplace, consumers also have more delivery options to choose from. This will encourage LSPs to be more effective operators, and in the long run, lower logistics and shipping costs.

This is the fourth part of our series on powering trade connectivity. Stay tuned for more in the coming months!

CALISTA® is a registered trademark of Global eTrade Services, GeTS Asia Pte Ltd. All information contained here is proprietary to GeTS and may not be used, disclosed or reproduced without prior written consent of GeTS.


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