The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched RBS TradeFlow, its internet-enabled, international trade and supply chain management service.

Accessible using a standard web browser on any PC desktop worldwide, TradeFlow has been specifically designed to deliver fast and efficient management of trade transactions.  Companies using the system will, claims RBS, benefit from enhanced business processes, reduced administration costs and an improvement in their trading relationships. As either a buyer or seller, TradeFlow should streamline communications and document exchanges with trading partners and also provide access to value added services, including links to third party service providers.

Whether importing or exporting, TradeFlow offers customers a wide range of online trade-related services.

A key benefit of TradeFlow is a facility that allows buyers and suppliers to create, exchange and manage purchase-to-pay trade documents electronically over the internet.

In addition, TradeFlow enables the automatic grouping of purchase order data to seamlessly create letter of credit instructions, thereby speeding up the process and reducing discrepancies often experienced with paper-based systems.

Lionel Taylor, head of international trade solutions, at RBS, comments: “Trading internationally can be a time consuming and complicated business. In increasingly competitive markets any business that can speed up and simplify the trade process gains a distinct advantage. RBS TradeFlow has been designed to offer an end to end solution that delivers a “win-win “proposition to help enhance customers “business relationships.

Companies are constantly looking to maximise value from their supply chain and to optimise their working capital positions by achieving efficiencies in their procurement and selling process. By taking these issues on board, we have focused in the development of a quick and easy Internet enabled system to save our customers time and money.

We look forward to building further on our TradeFlow service capabilities to meet our clients increasing requirements.”