What is CTPAT Management Software and How Does it Benefit Shippers?

As a shipper, you know earning a CTPAT certification will help you improve your supply chain’s security, acquire more business, and ensure a faster customs entry process — among other operational benefits. But you’ve likely also realized that obtaining and maintaining this certification is a lot of work.

Every year, CTPAT requires you to evaluate business partners involved in any part of your international freight transactions to ensure they’re meeting all minimum security criteria. And even if you opt to electronically send security questionnaires (as opposed to traveling for on-site audits), you still have to gather those completed questionnaires, develop action plans, ensure your business partners follow those plans, and handle all filing and reporting.

Fortunately, there’s a way to streamline and simplify this process — and that’s where CTPAT management software comes in. In this blog, we’re walking through this technology, how it works, and a few benefits you can expect.

What Is CTPAT Management Software?

CTPAT management software is a solution that allows you to automate the entire CTPAT compliance process and store all CTPAT-relevant data in one centralized location. Instead of painstakingly building and sending out individual questionnaires, manually tracking your management reviews, and developing individual action plans from scratch (all of which can translate into hundreds of hours of labor a year), the software will do all the legwork for you.

For example, Veroot’s CTPAT management software will send annual questionnaires to your business partners, auto-grade their responses, and provide you with a comprehensive summary. Then, the software will generate a remediation plan to send to your business partners. You can set auto-reminders to ensure your contacts review those recommendations, and easily return to review any action plans you’ve initiated in the past. The management review component ensures you can track everything you need to report, including who attended review meetings, the action items viewed, and whether partners are meeting their objectives. 

We estimate that CTPAT management software can save you up to 90% of the time you’d spend handling these processes manually, which allows you to reallocate your resources to other pertinent tasks. 

And when everything is saved in one central location, it’s easy to access all the data you need whenever you need it most. This allows you to focus on continuous improvement and ensure better partner security adherence and risk mitigation across your supply chain.

How Does CTPAT Management Software Benefit Shippers?

As any compliance leader can attest, managing a CTPAT certification without software is tedious, time-consuming, and exhausting. However, when you automate this process, it requires little to no effort from you or your team.

Here are a few benefits you’ll enjoy by implementing CTPAT certification software:

• Streamline annually recurring tasks
  You can bulk send security questionnaires, distribute CTPAT security awareness requirements and SOPS, and manage audit documentation with just a few clicks.
• Send, track, manage, and store everything from a single dashboard
  You and your team can access and manage everything you need to retain your CTPAT certification from one easy-to-access central location.
• Collect data in real-time
  Instead of assessing questionnaire responses manually, you can collect partner data in real-time, quickly generate action plans, and speed up the risk mitigation process.
• Save time with ready-made templates
  CTPAT certification software offers user-friendly templates to save you from spending countless hours developing questionnaires, SOPs, and annual management review forms.
• Simplify the CTPAT compliance process for business partners
  Vendor portals make it easy for your partners to keep up with CTPAT compliance criteria and follow their action plans.
• Expedite your CTPAT audits
  Having a high-quality, dependable, and streamlined system for managing your CTPAT certification will put your CBP SCSS inspector at ease and shorten audit timelines.

Also, when you work with Veroot, you can rest assured you’re leveraging software developed by leaders in CTPAT consulting. We’ve evolved our solution based on our real-world experience supporting top shippers and importers like Dachser, DSV, Seko, K-Swiss, Asia Shipping, BR International, and many more.

For example, because we know international communication can be challenging, our browser-based tool allows your business partners to translate documents into their native language. You can also distribute security training and resources directly through the platform using your brand logo and colors. And because we understand the complexities of the CTPAT certification and auditing process, our experts are always available to answer your questions and ensure you’re doing everything necessary to retain your certification status.

Managing your CTPAT certification is a lot of work, and as the global threat landscape continues to change, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will likely evolve its requirements. By investing in CTPAT management software, you can boost your efficiency, save your team hundreds of hours of labor, improve the experience for your business partners, and continue enjoying the many benefits associated with an active certification.

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