Highly customised for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), TradePalette enables them to complete critical trade processes, documentation and communications quickly and accurately with their business partners and customers.

TradePalette solutions are customised into suites of application services to meet the specific needs of the SMEs in the different businesses. To begin with, CrimsonLogic has customised two suites of application services, TradePalette Traders and TradePalette Forwarders. One caters to traders (including buyers, sellers, importers and exporters) and the other for freight forwarders. Commonly-used workflows have been built within each of the suites of applications to facilitate the exchanges of trade documents and information.

With TradePalette, traders and freight forwarders can improve their business workflow efficiently, thus saving time and cost significantly, and in turn, reap greater business margins.

Forwarders using TradePalette Forwarders can perform critical shipping-related applications, streamline trade regulatory documentation, and source and process cargo insurance (See enclosed Factsheet for full suite of applications).

Importers and exporters, including buyers and sellers, can use TradePalette Traders to engage in procurement, track and monitor inventory levels anytime, anywhere, apply for trade financing quickly and easily, as well as send shipping instructions to their freight forwarders (See Factsheet with details).

At the launch ceremony, Mr V Mathivanan, chief executive officer of CrimsonLogic said, "Launching this service at this current economic downturn is timely as TradePalette provides SMEs with a more affordable way to trade. Preliminary studies have shown that TradePalette will benefit SMEs with cost savings of at least 30 per cent."

TradePalette also opens up new business possibilities for those who sign up. "The immediate gain would be the instant connectivity and seamless transactions between a Singapore trader and his local or overseas partner and customer. Bringing it a step further, suppliers and freight forwarders can also be listed in an open database. This opens up new horizons as they broaden their customer base. Our SMEs will be able to transact globally and complete in the international market without having to make expensive trips abroad," added Mr Mathivanan.

TradePalette is built on an application service provider (ASP) model. It is a cost-effective solution whereby customers pay only for the transactions made in that month. Apart from the start-up fee which begins from as low as S$600, and a subscription cost starting from S$60 per month, the pay-as-you-use service eliminates the hefty IT investment cost incurred by companies to maintain their own sophisticated in-house systems.

TradePalette enables SMEs to enjoy significant cost savings from outsourcing to an ASP such as CrimsonLogic. With simply a PC and Internet access, traders and freight forwarders can enjoy the ease of using TradePalette conveniently from the comfort of their desktops. Each user will be issued with an ID and password to log into TradePalette. Users will also be trained on how to use the solution.

Also speaking at the launch ceremony is Guest-of-Honour, Mr Lee Suan Hiang, chief executive of the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB). "The launch of TradePalette is timely. PSB welcomes such initiatives by the industry. The outsourcing approach to adopt e-tools will allow SMEs to focus on their core business. This will enable SMEs to conduct business transactions over the Internet with their local and overseas trading partners," said Mr Lee.

Customers will also enjoy other benefits such as less manpower and resources needed, less paperwork, less human error, faster and clearer communications, more streamlined processes, and no data re-entry needed for their trading process.

The service provided by TradePalette is hosted on a secure network at CrimsonLogic's headquarters at Science Park 2. In addition, CrimsonLogic will provide 24-hours of technical support service, 7 days a week, for its customers. Customers can also be assured of the secure trading environment in TradePalette as it adopts a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the non-repudiation, authentication, integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information exchanges, such as in the applications of trade finance applications.

TradePalette has also partnered with service providers such as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Ltd, Singapore Confederation of Industries, Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Singapore International Chamber of Commerce and Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

TradePalette for Traders can be found at http://traders.tradepalette.com.sg and for Forwarders, it is at http://forwarders.tradepalette.com.sg.