License Management
Central management of export licenses and authorizations, including determination, usage booking, expiry monitoring and authority reporting.
At a glance
| Area | Description |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Represents government authorizations and license conditions with parameters such as parties, countries, products, quantities, values, validity dates, end-use statements and required license phrases or documents. |
| Typical inputs | License documents, authority conditions, product and party data, transaction quantities/values, dates, destination and end-use information. |
| Typical outputs | Matched license, usage booking, remaining balance, license statements, required documents, blocked transactions and reporting extracts. |
| Business value | Reduces license misuse, supports timely renewals, avoids manual balance tracking and provides a clear audit trail of which transactions consumed which authorization. |
Core capabilities
- License master data with validity, quantity and value limits
- License condition modeling using parties, countries, codes and attributes
- Automatic matching of transactions to available licenses
- Booking of transaction quantities or values against license balances
- Expiry and limit monitoring with worklist alerts
- License document storage and phrase return to ERP/documents
- License request documentation support
- Recurring license usage reporting to authorities
Functional description
License Determination
For transactions, for which it is in principle possible to obtain a license the system carries out a determination of the types of licenses which could be obtained and checks if such a license is available. For the licenses determination the MyTower License Management System receives from the ERP system a logistics Document with details on the transaction. This Logistics document can be sent at different stages of a sales transaction (Order Entry, Planning, Order Preparation, Goods Issue, Shipment Preparation etc.).
The system then automatically matches the attributes of a Logistics Document and the product related attributes with the parameters as defined in the license setup.
The system determines whether a license or special documentation is required or if any other constraints need to be applied to the articles or customer listed in the transactions (e.g. subject to embargoes). If a corresponding license is found the material/transaction is booked against this license. If no valid license is found or the material/transaction is constrained in any other way, an action item is placed on a worklist for the user to take the appropriate action. Depending on the license determination result a signal is sent to the ERP that the transaction can be released or needs to be put on hold until the license constraint is fulfilled. In case a license was found, the system transmits all required information (e.g. License numbers, license documents, license phrases to be put in commercial or customs document) back, to the ERP TMS or Broker Management System, on a per article basis.
The license determination process is triggered automatically on any new sales transaction or any change to the data or status of an existing transaction. If new licenses are created or existing licenses are changed, all transactions in a blocked state are re-evaluated. This way the user can release a blocked transaction and ensure a proper log of the release action is generated in the system. Each license determination process and result are logged into the database for auditing purposes.
License Document Management
The license management functionality allows creating, updating and maintaining the licenses obtained from the authorities. The license management functionality keeps track of any license expirations or volume limits. If a license is used for a transaction, the transaction is booked against this license quantity or value limits. At any given time, the system can provide the information which transactions have used which licenses and how much time or volume is still available according to the license terms.
License Requests and License Reporting
For the request of some licenses the authorities require in some cases that request forms and templates are used and filled with information on material, and licensed parties. The system can incorporate these templates and support the creation of the license request documentation.
Many authorities require a recurring reporting on the use of the licenses, with details on consignee and end user, the exact material exported and its value. Based on the transactions booked against the licenses in the system, the MyTower License Management Module provide these reports in the format required by the authorities.