Sterling Fluid Systems Group, a subsidiary of Thyssen Bornermisza Group, manufactures pumps. If it's a liquid or gas, Sterling can move it-any where, any way, any time-everything from water distribution and water treatment and filtration to irrigation, oil and gas, chemicals and chemical processing, as well as automotive needs.

"When you are a successful, specialized manufacturer with 65 facilities worldwide, knowing where your shipments are at all times is critical," says Jo Grimes, Corporate Traffic Manager of Sterling Fluid Systems, located in the company's U.S. Indianapolis headquarters. "My responsibility is to ensure that the companies with whom we are doing business are effective, regardless of the origin of shipments in our supply chain."

Sterling established a relationship with BDP for the company's North American business. "BDP is handling the majority of our ocean and air exports, imports, and brokerage activity, between Sterling's U. S. - U. K. and U.S.-Asia operations," explains Grimes. "They are either directly processing our customers' orders, or we are relying on BDP to handle transportation arrangements through their resources."

"Working with BDP, we are confident in the quality of freight/shipment information and updates. It is refreshing to work with a company that puts the customer's needs ahead of everything else. You can't put a price on that," says Grimes.

BDP COPS system works with Sterling's order processing systems, enabling the company to perform real-time online tracking, which delivers needed visibility of freight movements. Its safety features also protect the company through compliance programs, simplification and standardization of documents worldwide.

BDP's system flexes to match the customer's system. The system also provides consistency across all locations. Walk into a BDP office in Singapore, for example, and it looks very similar to the company's offices in Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, or any other BDP office location in the U.S.

"It is also very important for us to be able to work with a local presence overseas. The advantage of a company like BDP, is that if you have an overseas agent that does not perform to your standards, BDP helps you find another solution," adds Grimes.

BDP's services for Sterling are centralized through the Indianapolis office, providing better management of the Remote Location Filing (RLF) requirements, and maintaining a data hub for all of Sterling's import/export transaction files which are important for NAFTA compliance, for instance.

"A seamless move through one office and one brokerage facility is vital," states Grimes. "And the more we import, the more important it becomes to make sure we have a central location for clearance and an effective way to maintain complete import transaction files."