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On March 21st and 22nd, we will host our annual Global User Group Conference, at the Buckhead Sheraton in Atlanta, Georgia. The event offers an opportunity to learn how other companies are saving money and improving their business performance using the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN). The second day session is a great opportunity to understand future product plans and provide feedback to help shape our network’s direction. It’s also a great chance to network with peers and share best practices.

While we’re always getting great feedback, User Group provides a special opportunity for customers to sit directly with the people that build the products to help shape the future of the Descartes GLN. Our GLN customers attending this year's User Group Conference will be able to see the numerous technology advances we have developed over the last year. Some of the advancements scheduled to be discussed and presented at the 2006 Descartes Global User Group Conference include:

Descartes Ocean Freight Audit™, created at the request of a leading third-party logistics provider (3PL), is a new GLN service offering based upon Descartes' Rate Management™ solution, designed to allow third party logistics providers (3PLs), freight forwarders, non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs), manufacturers and retailers to automatically rate their ocean freight bills;

"Buy/Sell" Ocean Rate Management, developed to address challenges faced by a leading ocean carrier, is an extension of Descartes' Rate

Management solution, designed to allow NVOCCs, freight forwarders and 3PLs to easily maintain their ocean carrier purchase prices and the rates they charge their customers; and

Descartes eForms™, developed at the request of a leading freight forwarder, is a new email-based forms service for the GLN, designed to allow less technologically sophisticated transportation carriers and manufacturers to easily transmit or receive messages through the GLN.

For more information or to register for the Conference, please visit http://www.descartes.com/events/
user_group_2006/.

You may have also noticed a major change at Descartes since our last newsletter. In February we launched our new corporate web site, www.descartes.com, and we hope you’ll find our new site informative, straightforward and easy to use. Please take note of the new product information that is available throughout the GLN section of the web site.

On behalf of everyone at Descartes, we hope to see you in Atlanta during the Global User Group Conference. As a GLN customer, you are critical to Descartes’ continued success. We look forward to an active user group that will facilitate communication with our customers so that together our businesses may grow and prosper.

Questions, thoughts, comments? Send me an e-mail at eryan@descartes.com.

Ed Ryan, GM, Descartes' Global Logistics Network

Topics in this issue: Descartes offers Compliance Tools for US Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) ...more   Descartes Hosts Event at LAX for Airlines and Forwarders to Discuss Electronic Messaging and Regulatory Compliance. ...more   Descartes eForms™ Simplify Data Integration ...more   Descartes Offers New On-Demand Freight Audit Solution for Ocean Transportation  ...more   Descartes Offers Cargo 2000 Systems for Air Carriers and Forwarders ...more

Descartes offers Compliance Tools for US Customs and Border Protection (US CBP)

In advance of soon-to-be-mandated requirements, The Descartes Global Logistics Network(GLN) offers Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) connectivity for its trucking company members that currently move freight across the Canadian or Mexican Borders.

The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) is the new US trade processing system designed to consolidate and automate border processing to significantly enhance border security and foster economic security through lawful international trade and travel. Automating time-consuming and labor-intensive transactions and moving goods through the ports and onto markets faster and at lower cost will simplify dealings between US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the trade community and other government agencies.

The US CBP has recently begun accepting e-Manifests electronically from trucking companies prior to a truck’s arrival at a United States land border crossing. The automated manifest provides CBP officers with cargo information, such as crew details (driver and passenger); description of conveyance (vehicle/truck/cab); description of equipment as applicable (trailer); and shipment details (cargo), so they can begin processing the truck even before it arrives at the gate. By allowing the truck carrier to begin the import process early, drivers endure minimal time at the border itself, so delivery time is lessened and overall profits increased.

Descartes now offers an ACE 4 Trucks Service which is available for all GLN subscribers that move goods across the Canadian or Mexican border. Our service is fully approved by US Customs and Border Protection.

The Descartes ACE 4 Trucks electronic manifest system: 

• Helps you to comply with current US CBP initiatives and upcoming mandates;

• Lets you create, submit and manage electronic manifests with US CBP;

• Expedites clearance of cargo, facilitating efficient utilization of driver and equipment; and

• Offers web-based tools, data translation services and direct US Customs connectivity.

Contact your GLN Services rep now for more information on this service before it becomes a mandated US Customs service requirement, or e-mail ACE-4-Trucks@descartes.com today for more information on our Customs Compliance Solutions and how they may fit in your organization going forward.

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Today 5,000 freight forwarding offices worldwide use The Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN) to communicate with their airline trading partners. Among the 10 million electronic air freight messages handled monthly are:

• Electronic air waybills

• Status requests and status answers

• Booking requests and answers

• Automatic status updates

• Electronic customs messages

On January 31st in Los Angeles, Ca., three major international airlines met with representatives of 26 freight forwarders from Southern California to discuss electronic communications and how the airlines and forwarders can work together to meet the requirements of international security initiatives.

British Airways, Swiss WorldCargo and SAS representatives made presentations on their current and future messaging capabilities as well as industry initiatives such as Cargo2000. Here’s what they had to say about the event:

“British Airways was pleased to participate in the forwarder messaging seminar that Descartes hosted in Los Angeles,” said Philip Jones from British Airways. “The forum was beneficial to sharing information between our organization and our customers. Automating the information exchange between British Airways and our customers will

provide more seamless communications and improve customer service and the movement of cargo.”

“Descartes is SAS Cargo’s preferred provider for exchanging information between agents and SAS, and SAS is happy to work with Descartes and our customers to improve the exchange of information about current and upcoming customs compliance requirements around the world,” said John Larsen from SAS. “The Descartes GLN provides a single interface for our forwarder customers to communicate with airlines and regulatory agencies around the world. Its combination of software-as-a-service and logistics data network model sets the Descartes GLN apart.”

Michael Pröbsting from Swiss WorldCargo commented that “Swiss WorldCargo was very pleased with the turnout at the recent forwarder session and the exchange of industry information. We look forward to participating in upcoming seminars across the US with Descartes.”

Descartes is planning additional seminars across the United States to continue the exchange of information between airlines and forwarders. The next seminars are planned for New York and Chicago at the end of April, so please watch for our next communication on these events. If you would like any further information on these seminars or the GLN and its products and solutions, please send an e-mail to info@descartes.com.

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Descartes eForms™ Simplify Data Integration

The Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN) now offers the next generation of connectivity for smaller carriers and retail suppliers/vendors. Our new eForms Service provides full electronic data interchange (EDI) functionality in a simple, easy-to-use e-mail.

Over the past five years, webforms in one flavor or another have served as a low- cost data entry tool for small- to medium-sized businesses that are part of larger scale EDI rollout programs. With the advent of turnaround documents (where parts of the webforms are pre-populated with information received via EDI or input in a previous document), these forms gained some intelligence but still served as a very basic data entry tool for the less sophisticated EDI user.

Prepare for the “Next Generation” in trading partner enablement and connectivity — Descartes eForms Service.

Using an entirely different way of delivering a forms-based document, the Descartes E-Forms service includes an HTML-based form imbedded in a SMTP e-mail and does not require you to launch a separate browser session to respond to the document. You can simply reply to the e-mail and the returned document serves as your reply to the message (it is mapped into a properly “syntaxed” EDI document and sent back to your trading partner).

Descartes’ eForms Service can provide a marked improvement in usability and acceptance, simply because it:

• Becomes a proactive rather than reactive event and is designed for direct delivery to the desired EDI/business contact (or their pre-set broadcast; address)  

• Requires no alternate web-site log-in (e-mailed form can be filled out and returned in one action); 

• Can be triggered by pre-determined business events (e.g., multiple status forms can be delivered until a final proof of delivery [POD] form is returned);

• Can include a history of events so that you have complete view of the document lifecycle; and

• Can be pre-populated with supplied EDI information, thereby reducing subsequent data entry and diminishing the chance of errors.

Our eForms service is available today to improve connectivity for various business processes across transportation and purchasing. Please contact your GLN Services rep for more info on this new service.

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With the increase in global sourcing and logistical costs as a percentage of sales, ocean freight costs are now a strategic focus for business. Ensuring that ocean bills of lading are correct can be costly, but not auditing the bills can mean even greater financial loss. Descartes helps eliminate the manual audit processes, bringing visibility to errors and in some instances, immediate operational savings.

Total ocean freight rates are made up of a complex combination of base rate, surcharges and inland rates. Together they combine to produce a bottom-line amount on a bill of lading. Because the rates can be so complex and are not captured in a database, there are many chances for inaccuracies in the bottom-line figure. Over time, this can lead to many thousands of dollars in overcharges being added to the rate originally agreed to between a shipper and its carrier. Multiply this across 10-20 carriers, and the amount can have a significant impact to total transportation spend.

Descartes has combined the power of Descartes Rate Builder™ and the reach of the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN) to deliver an on-demand ocean audit Service. Descartes moves thousands of electronic messages, ranging from a simple status message to the more complex booking or Bill of Lading, between ocean carriers and their customers each day. At the same time, we offer an industry-leading rate management tool that provides access to ocean contracts in a digitized format. We’ve brought these two solutions together to form the Descartes Ocean Freight Audit™ service.

For our customers that move ocean cargo, our new service can help eliminate the challenges from traditional methods of freight audit such as:

• Manual Audit, which leaves room for unidentified errors as workloads increase due to increased international shipping; and

• Outsourced Audit, which can incur significant fees for services.

By leveraging the power of the GLN, we take Bill of Lading messages and automatically audit them against Descartes Rate Builder. The result is a consistent, efficient and accurate audit of all Bills of Lading across your carrier pool. Because the new Ocean Audit Service is part of the Global Logistics Network, you also receive its standard benefits, including: 

• Availability as an on-demand service to reduce upfront investment

• Ability to leverage existing GLN connections with ocean carriers and other logistics providers, which can lead to rapid deployments and implementations; and

• Knowledgeable, industry-leading personnel to support you during and after rollout.

Contact your GLN Services representative today and find out how you can increase control and gain visibility into your global transportation spend.

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Descartes Offers Cargo 2000 Systems for Air Carriers and Forwarders

parties involved in air transport — but it took longer than expected. Originally planned for the year 2000 (which gave name to the project), the operation is now live and implementations are in process worldwide.

From the beginning, the Cargo 2000 project had the support of the world’s largest air cargo carriers, freight forwarders, IT providers and networks. The Descartes Systems Group has participated as an active and associated service provider since 1998.

The basic idea behind Cargo 2000 is to measure and publish the quality of participating air carriers on separate trade lanes — the destinations where the carriers operate. The measured quality is published to the industry each month by the IATA Cargo 2000 Board. This enables the shippers, consignees and freight forwarders to select quality carriers for transportation based on statistics for such important events such as “flown as booked,” “notified or delivered on time,” etc.

Phase two of the Cargo 2000 project involves the quality measured on freight forwarders and is nearing completion. This new data will show the ability of a participating forwarder to deliver quality when processing the cargo. The quality is measured on freight forwarding events such as “picked up on time,” “delivered to consignee’s door on time,” etc.

Besides the published measurements, the recorded Cargo 2000 milestones will also give participating members full control over their own in-house quality and immediately reveal problematic spots in their production chains.

Descartes offers Cargo 2000 systems for air carriers and freight forwarders. Our Cargo 2000 customers include British Airways World Cargo and the global freight forwarder TNT Freight Management. For more information about the IATA-approved Descartes Cargo 2000 system, please send an e-mail to info@descartes.com.

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Copyright ©2006. The Descartes Systems Group Inc. All rights reserved.