Role of SAP GTS in Import and Export Compliance Management

Abstract

Import and export compliance requires organizations to evaluate trading partners, product classifications, licensing requirements, and transaction restrictions while maintaining evidence of their decisions. SAP Global Trade Services (SAP GTS) supports these activities through sanctioned-party screening, embargo checks, legal control, and license management. This study develops an evaluation framework that distinguishes efficient compliance processing from effective control execution. A simulated before-and-after dataset comprises 2,400 trade transactions across 30 matched operational groups, with 1,200 transactions in each period. Outcomes include documented pre-execution checks, compliance review time, exception resolution time, license-record completeness, and audit-file retrieval. An independently selected review sample contains 300 transactions per period. Documented completion of required checks increases from 93.0% to 99.0%, while audit-file deficiencies decrease from 18.0% to 8.0%. Mean active compliance review time decreases from 18.0 to 12.0 minutes, with a paired reduction of 6.0 minutes and a 95% confidence interval of 4.13–7.87 minutes. Meanwhile, flagged transactions increase from 15.0% to 17.5%, demonstrating that fewer alerts should not automatically be interpreted as better compliance. The framework emphasizes accurate master data, appropriate configuration, authorized exception decisions, and independent testing. Actual effectiveness requires verified operational evidence and cannot be established from software implementation alone.