EDMAGroup

Run global trade

Every party of the order working from the same record, in real time.

ImportersDistributorsTrading companiesCross-border ops teams
Shipping documents, certificates and a stamped bill of lading stacked on a dark desk under a work lamp
01 · The situation

What this looks like from your desk

You are the only party who can see the whole order — and you are seeing it several days late.

You are the only party who can see the whole order, and you are seeing it late. The supplier knows what they've actually produced. The forwarder knows what the freight really costs now. The client knows what they were promised. None of them are talking to each other, so every one of those facts reaches you second-hand and several days old.

The cost isn't the emails. It's what the delay does to decisions: you quote against a freight rate that has already moved, you promise a delivery week the factory silently reset, you discover a document mismatch when the container is already at port and demurrage is running.

And when a client asks in month six why a shipment rerouted, reconstructing the answer means reading twenty-eight emails across three inboxes — assuming the person who sent them still works for you.

    This is you if
  • Your week contains at least one call that exists only to ask somebody what they already know.
  • You have quoted against a freight rate that had already moved by the time you sent it.
  • A delivery week was reset at the factory and you found out from the client asking about it.
  • Landed cost is reconstructed after arrival, so margin is a number you learn rather than manage.
  • The same document exists in three versions across your inbox, a supplier’s drive and a broker’s folder.
02 · What the status quo costsdays of cycle time, gone

Sixty days from order to close, against twenty-two on a shared record — the group’s own operation, same goods, same factories. The thirty-eight days in between were spent waiting for facts other people already had.

4 hrsTypical wait on a PO acknowledgement chased by email
2 daysSpent chasing documents that should have arrived with the shipment
Month-endWhen landed cost is usually reconciled — long after the margin decision was made
03 · What changes

After the record is shared

01The order stops being your private spreadsheet and becomes a shared record. Suppliers confirm and update from their own view. Forwarders post ETAs and documents directly. Clients check status themselves instead of emailing you — which is the change most operators feel first, because the inbox goes quiet.
02Where a counterparty hasn't joined yet, nothing breaks: their emails and messages are parsed and written back into the order, so the record stays complete while you bring them across at your own pace.
03The number that moves is cycle time. Not because anyone works faster, but because the waiting between parties disappears.
04 · The path

How an engagement runs

What happens, in order, with the timeline stated rather than implied.

01Bring one live orderPick the messiest order currently open — the one with the spec change, the delay and the disputed document. That is the useful test, not a clean one.
02Map it in 30 minutesWe walk it through with your actual suppliers, forwarder and client on screen. No demo data.
03Run it in parallelYour first orders run in both systems while your team decides whether the record is better. It usually settles within a cycle.
04Invite the counterpartiesPortals are free for them. Adoption is gradual by design — Atlas covers whoever hasn't joined yet.
Week 1–2Map and mirrorOne live order runs in parallel with your existing process. Nothing is switched off.
Week 3–6Bring in the first counterpartiesUsually the supplier you chase most and the forwarder who holds the documents.
Week 7–12Migrate the order bookRemaining active orders move across. Historical orders stay where they are — we don't force a data migration.
BeyondFinance and reportingLanded cost and margin reconcile continuously; month-end stops being an event.
Your real order dataOne live order with its actual mess — the spec change, the delay, the disputed document.
One operations ownerSomebody whose week is currently spent chasing status. They'll know within a cycle whether it's better.
Willingness to invite counterpartiesNot all at once. But the record only compounds when the parties writing to it grow.
05 · What answers it

The parts of the group that do this work

TradeOSThe shared record every counterparty signs into.Venture ↗AtlasKeeps the record complete while counterparties are still on email.edma.trade ↗
06 · Proof

The figures behind the claim

Every number here is maintained on the Record with its source.

22 daysMedian order cycle, down from 60
$80MTrade run on it — our own
5Counterparty portals on one record
Every figure, sourced →
07 · Questions

What buyers ask

Do my suppliers have to pay for this?No. Counterparty portals are free — supplier, forwarder, client and financier. Charging the weakest party in a trade to participate would guarantee they never do.
What if half my suppliers refuse to use a portal?That is the normal starting position. Atlas parses their email and chat replies into the order, so the record is complete either way. Portal adoption improves the data; it isn't a precondition.
Is this built for our industry?The operating surface is the same across medical PPE, electronics, food ingredients, chemicals and industrial materials — what differs is the production stage flow, which is configured per product line.
Who is actually running it today?EDMA Group's own trade business, entirely. Every active order. That is the only reference we lead with, because it is the one we can open up.
How does this handle spec changes mid-production?Change management is a workflow, not an email. A proposed change is raised against the order, the affected parties see it, and the audit trail records who approved what and when — which is normally the thing nobody can reconstruct afterwards.
Can we keep using our ERP?Yes. TradeOS is the operating layer where counterparties meet; accounting syncs bidirectionally with Xero and QuickBooks, and ERP integration is handled case by case.
08 · Where this doesn't apply

When we are the wrong answer

Qualifying out early is cheaper for both sides than discovering it in month three.

You run a single supplier and a single buyer with no intermediary — a letter of credit works fine for that, and you don't need this.

You want a document repository rather than an operating record. TradeOS is where work happens, not where files are parked.

Your team is unwilling to let counterparties see order status. The value is the shared record; withhold it and you're back to email with extra steps.

You need a customs brokerage or a freight forwarder. We integrate with yours; we don't replace them.

NEXT STEP

Bring us your worst order.

Thirty minutes, your data, your counterparties on screen. If it doesn't obviously beat what you have, that is a useful answer too.

Book a demo on edma.trade →Talk to the group
09 · Other needs

Five other routes

02Finance trade & assetsUnderwrite from live operational performance instead of month-old paperwork.→03Source certified productsBuy from the manufacturer, with the certificates and the tracking attached.→04Grow your businessThe strategy layer first, then the work that comes out of it.→05Operate renewable assetsOne record for the asset, from development through to exit.→06Build engineering teamsNamed engineers on your roadmap in week one, with a pilot you can walk away from.→

All six needs →