Smarter Trade, Stronger Compliance: Rethinking SAP GTS in a Shifting Global Landscape
Trade compliance has become one of the most complex and strategically important areas of the modern supply chain. With global regulations tightening, trade agreements evolving, and technology rapidly advancing, companies are under growing pressure to ensure compliance is not only maintained but seamlessly integrated into core operations.
At the same time, the SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP S/4HANA (GTS E4H) is entering a new chapter. As SAP GTS 11 approaches end of maintenance, businesses are preparing for a transition, both technically and operationally, to GTS E4H. This isn’t just a matter of updating software. It’s an opportunity to modernize the way trade compliance is approached across the enterprise.
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A New Role for Trade Compliance
Once viewed as a backend, regulatory necessity, trade compliance is increasingly expected to contribute to supply chain agility, risk management, and cost efficiency. Today, compliance leaders are working alongside logistics, procurement, and finance to proactively shape how goods move across borders.
The shift to GTS E4H supports this evolution. Built on an in-memory architecture, it brings speed, scalability, and improved visibility, allowing organizations to react faster to regulatory changes, automate screening processes, and reduce manual intervention.
But more than the technical benefits, the transition reflects a broader trend: companies are moving away from siloed, reactive compliance functions toward integrated, value-generating trade operations.
Key Capabilities Emerging in the GTS Landscape
As organizations consider their roadmap forward, several features and enhancements in GTS E4H stand out, not only because they’re new, but because they directly respond to today’s trade compliance challenges:
- Modern user interfaces – Fiori-based apps make it easier for non-technical users to engage with compliance workflows and data, reducing reliance on expert-only transactions.
- Real-time processing – Whether screening business partners or managing customs documents, faster processing enables more agile decision-making.
- Improved automation – Rule-based controls and exception handling allow compliance teams to focus on critical issues while reducing repetitive tasks.
- Support for regional diversity – Localized compliance functionality supports customs integration, export controls, and reporting as companies expand into new markets.
- Advanced preference determination – The new document-of-origin framework simplifies handling of long-term supplier and customer declarations (LTSD), supported by a Fiori-based post-processing framework for generating and managing forms.
- Embedded solutions now handle identity-based preference processing – with high integration to feeder systems, migration tools for production orders, and invoice-level preference determination.
- Intercompany LTSD exchange is now fully automated within standard functionality.
- An upcoming framework for non-preferential country-of-origin determination is planned for release, further strengthening compliance coverage.
These capabilities do more than streamline compliance tasks — they position the compliance function as a proactive contributor to operational speed, cost optimization, and global risk management.
Trends Reshaping the Compliance Function
Looking across industries, several macro trends are reshaping how trade compliance is managed and prioritized:
- Frequent changes in trade regulations are increasing the cost of non-compliance, making proactive screening and monitoring essential.
- Trade agreements are more dynamic, requiring smarter, faster ways to manage preference and origin rules.
- Audits and enforcement are becoming more frequent and more data driven.
- Digital supply chains demand real-time integration between trade, logistics, and finance systems.
- Talent and resource constraints are pushing teams to automate wherever possible, and to make compliance more accessible across the organization.
These pressures make the business case for modernizing GTS E4H not only practical, but urgent.
Planning the Transition Thoughtfully
For many companies, the shift to GTS E4H will be one of the more significant compliance transformations in recent years. It’s not just about data migration or new screens; it’s about aligning the technology with new ways of working.
Successful transitions are typically based on four foundational steps:
- Assess and map current processes
Before any technical work begins, it’s critical to understand how compliance is handled today, where inefficiencies exist, and what value future-state processes should deliver.
- Define business requirements beyond IT
This includes compliance needs, integration points with logistics and ERP systems, and goals related to automation, usability, and scalability.
- Prioritize use cases and regions
Rather than attempting a full transformation all at once, many companies phase their transition by business unit, region, or process priority.
- Involve the right people early
Compliance, supply chain, and IT leaders all need to be part of the planning process to ensure long-term adoption and alignment.
Moving From Obligation to Opportunity
Modern trade compliance is no longer just about avoiding fines or clearing customs, it’s about enabling faster delivery, optimizing costs, protecting brand reputation, and building resilience.
The shift to GTS E4H gives companies the platform to support this vision, but it’s how the platform is implemented, and how the organization adapts, that will define success.
In our experience at VESLOG, companies that view this transition as a strategic opportunity, rather than a technical upgrade, are the ones that emerge with smarter, more scalable trade operations
Final Thoughts
As trade regulations grow more complex and supply chains stretch across more borders, compliance will remain a constant challenge and a potential advantage.
Whether you’re actively planning your migration from SAP GTS 11, or just beginning to explore your options, the key is to start with the bigger picture: how can compliance drive better performance across your global operations?
The answers will vary, but the opportunity is clear.
With the right tools and approach, compliance becomes a catalyst for smarter trade.