Klatu Independently Licenses its Incoterm Calculator as a Separate Fully Hosted Utility

(PRWEB) July 8, 2004

Klatu's Incoterm Calculator, a component of its e-commerce engine, permits a company to pre-calculate landed cost pricing by properly calculating the transportation, duties, taxes, and other landed costs for each type of product offered for sale.

Klatu, a Miami Florida E-Commerce ASP (Application Service Provider) announced that it would offer its Incoterm Calculator independently from the e-commerce solutions it licenses to IT resellers throughout Latin American and the Caribbean.

The Incoterm Calculator is a component of Klatu's successful e-commerce solutions. As a separate hosted utility, it allows a company to generate pricing under several Incoterms by properly calculating transportation, duties, taxes, and other landed costs for each type of product in an order. The engine presently calculates FCA, CIF, DDU and DDP Incoterm pricing and can be expanded to cover other Incoterms as needed.

The Incoterm Calculator is hosted on Klatu's secure servers and would run transparently outside a company's existing ordering system. The calculator would determine correct landed cost based on Klatu's accurate product classifications and the merchant's transportation tables.

Simply stated, the merchant's ordering system can either pre-price all their products under all the possible combinations of Incoterms and Transportation Options, or returns the landed cost pricing for each product and transportation choice at checkout.

Klatu is targeting manufacturers, distributors and major wholesalers, as well as comparison engines and other companies that require different Incoterm prices either before an order is placed or at the time the order is placed. The calculator presently works for sales from the US to over 40 Latin American and Caribbean countries and is being expanded to include Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The calculator's underlying engine can also be expanded to permit Incoterm calculations between other countries.

Klatu's Incoterm Calculator enables a company to expand internationally at a low price and with a minimum amount of integration to their ordering system.

Incoterm Calculator features include:

Accurate Landed Cost Calculation

For the purpose of DDP (Landed Cost) the calculator provides all governmental taxes and fees levied at the point of import based on the local Customs basis of valuation (including import duties, value-added taxes (VAT), excise duty and other governmental charges). Insurance and transportation costs are based on the seller's freight tables. The calculations can be applied against 100 products or an entire supply chain catalog.

Accurate Product Classification

Klatu provides accurate product classification based on each country's harmonized system and duties structure.

Allowing Different Types of Transportation Partners

The calculator allows a company to use several types of transportation partners and segment their application by weight or order value to match the most suitable orders , including different types of transportation partners, including couriers such as FedEx, DHL and UPS, freight forwarders, and air cargo or ocean cargo carriers.

Calculating the Greater of Actual and Dimensional Weight

The calculator also bases its calculations on the greater of actual or dimensional weight to accurately represent true transportation costs and avoid underestimating transportation costs. The transportation component of this calculator also accommodates different types of transportation partners, including couriers such as FedEx, DHL and UPS, freight forwarders, and air cargo or ocean cargo carriers.

Benefit of Different Logistical Choices for Customers

The Incoterm Calculator makes it relatively easy for a company to simultaneously price products under the combination of several Incoterms and transportation choices and service levels.

About Incoterms

Incoterms are standard trade definitions most commonly used in international sales contracts and have been devised and published by the International Chamber of Commerce. They are at the heart of world trade. Among the best known Incoterms are EXW (Ex works), FOB (Free on Board), CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight), DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid), DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), and CPT (Carriage Paid To). For more information, please visit http://www.iccwbo.org .

About Dimensional weight

Dimensional weight is a standard formula used throughout the air freight industry that considers density when determining your charges. It is determined by using an industry-accepted volumetric standard: [ L x W x H in cubic inches / 166 = Dimensional Weight in pounds . The greater of the actual or Volume weight is then used to calculate your shipping charge. For more information, please consult the websites of any major carrier such as DHL, FedEx or UPS.

About Klatu

Klatu delivers complete international e-commerce business solutions throughout Latin America. Since 1999, Klatu Inc. has focused on IT and Consumer Electronics resellers and is the only international ASP solution provider. eCom, the underlying engine integrates CNET's highly structured content and images with pricing and availability information from major supply chain partners. The functionality includes product pricing and availability, multiple payment methods, a pricing engine, product filtering, multiple INCOTERM pricing, landed-cost pricing, multiple languages, and currencies. The resulting solution is powerful, affordable, and easily customized to a customer's requirements. For more information, please visit http://www.klatu.net or e-mail us at info@klatu.net