Despite hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in developing, introducing and marketing new technologies, the supply chain industry continues to jostle between businesses skeptical of accepting and adopting electronic trade document transfer and early adopters who appreciate the efficiencies technologies bring to their operations and ecosystems, according to a study released by CargoX.
In fact, around 15% of the respondents stated that their companies ran completely off paper documents, while one-third mentioned they had digitized anywhere between 10-40% of their trade documentation and a further one-fifth stated they had roughly digitized half of their paper documentation.
“For businesses, being early adopters and willing participants in an electronic trade document transfer network will immensely help their operations. Besides freeing them from holding onto paper documents, it greatly enhances transaction speeds by cutting document delivery times from days to minutes,” the study says.
From CargoX:
- Roughly 30% of respondents were hesitant to become early adopters and would make the transition only after there is a reasonable volume of trade documentation moving through digital networks.
- Roughly 32% of the respondents also saw the lack of an integrated platform as an issue. An additional 27% saw legislative, regulatory and compliance-related issues as compelling reasons for adoption being stymied.
