Ports, authorities, banks, transporters and traders each hold part of the same transaction story. This session explores what happens when their identifiers and status records do not remain connected.

A shipment moving from a port toward an inland market can involve several organisations, each with a legitimate role and a different system. The trader often becomes the courier between them, carrying the same facts and documents from one office to another. Digitisation helps only when it removes this repetition. This session presents a record first way to examine trade workflows: where the authoritative data lives, which organisation may update it, how status is shared, and how an exception moves into a visible workflow.

Audience outcomes:
• Map a trade process as connected records rather than separate forms.
• Distinguish a useful shared status from an attempt to centralise every system.
• Test whether a digital step removes rekeying, a physical trip, or an invisible wait.

Preferred format: 25 minute talk with 10 minutes for questions.