HTS code-linked document management platform for international trade

The Need

Thomson Reuters, a global information services provider serving trade and customs professionals, needed a powerful document management tool to streamline the complex workflows of international import/export operations.

Trade organizations managing cross-border shipments deal with massive volumes of documents—commercial invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, certificates of origin, customs declarations, and compliance documents—each linked to specific products classified under HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) codes. The existing document management approaches using file shares, email attachments, and disparate systems created inefficiency, compliance risks, and errors.

Trade professionals struggled to organize documents by HTS codes for efficient retrieval, track document versions and approval statuses, ensure all required documents were submitted for shipments, find specific documents quickly among thousands of files, and maintain audit trails for compliance verification.

Thomson Reuters required a centralized, version-controlled platform for organizing, tagging, and retrieving HTS-linked documents, with workflow automation tracking submissions, approvals, and trade activity to reduce errors and improve process efficiency.

With the goal of saving $100,000+ through reduced errors and compliance issues, and 50,000+ hours of workflow automation, Thomson Reuters needed a sophisticated trade document hub that would transform how customs brokers, freight forwarders, and trade compliance teams manage the documentation essential for international commerce.

The Solution

We developed a comprehensive HTS and trade document management platform that transformed how Thomson Reuters' clients handle international trade documentation, delivering substantial efficiency gains and cost savings.

The Smart Trade Document Hub creates a centralized version-controlled platform for organizing, tagging, and retrieving HTS-linked documents.

The system maintains a comprehensive document repository where every trade document is stored with metadata including HTS code linking documents to specific product classifications, shipment information connecting documents to specific import/export transactions, document type categorization (invoice, packing list, certificate, etc.), version history tracking every document iteration with timestamps and user attribution, and approval status indicating which documents have been reviewed and approved.

The version control ensures teams always work with current documents while maintaining complete audit trails of changes—essential for compliance verification and dispute resolution.

The HTS-code tagging enables rapid retrieval of all documents related to specific products or classifications, dramatically improving efficiency when preparing shipments, responding to customs queries, or conducting compliance reviews.

The Workflow Automation + Compliance feature tracks submissions, approvals, and trade activity to reduce errors and improve process efficiency.

The platform automates document workflows including submission routing automatically sending documents to appropriate reviewers based on document type and transaction parameters, approval workflows tracking review status and escalating pending approvals that risk delaying shipments, compliance checks validating that required documents are present and properly completed before submission, notifications alerting stakeholders when actions are needed or deadlines approach, and activity logging creating complete audit trails of who accessed, modified, or approved documents and when.

This automation eliminates manual tracking using spreadsheets or email, reduces errors from missing or incorrect documents, accelerates approval cycles by removing bottlenecks, and ensures compliance by enforcing document requirements systematically rather than relying on individual diligence.

The WPF Interface + Search Engine built with WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework), and Lucene.net delivers seamless UI and high-speed document indexing and search.

The desktop application provides rich, responsive interfaces for document management, powerful search capabilities enabling users to find documents instantly using HTS codes, shipment numbers, document types, dates, or full-text search, advanced filtering narrowing results by multiple criteria simultaneously, and preview functionality allowing users to view documents without opening separate applications.

Lucene.net powers the search engine, providing Google-quality search performance across potentially millions of documents, with sub-second query response times even in large document repositories. The MEF architecture enables modular extensibility, allowing Thomson Reuters to add custom functionality or integrations for specific client needs without rebuilding core platform.

The measurable impact demonstrates the platform's value: saving $100,000+ through reduced errors, compliance issues, and efficiency gains, and automating 50,000+ hours of workflow that previously required manual document tracking, approval coordination, and compliance verification.

The Challenge

The primary challenge was designing a document management system that could accommodate the complexity of international trade—where documents are linked to HTS codes, shipments, parties, regulations, and approval workflows—while remaining intuitive for trade professionals who aren't necessarily technical power users.

The data model needed to capture intricate relationships between documents, products, shipments, and regulatory requirements while enabling simple, fast retrieval.

Building version control that would maintain complete document history while avoiding confusion about which version was current required careful UX design.

Users needed confidence they were always viewing or submitting the latest approved version, yet auditors and compliance teams needed access to complete version histories. Balancing these requirements without creating complex interfaces presented significant design challenges.

Implementing workflow automation that could reduce errors and improve efficiency required understanding diverse trade document workflows across customs brokerage, freight forwarding, and trade compliance functions.

Different document types have different approval requirements, various stakeholders need visibility or approval authority, and compliance rules vary by country, product, and trade agreement. Creating flexible workflow engines that could accommodate this diversity while remaining manageable to configure required sophisticated architecture.

Creating high-speed document indexing and search using Lucene.net that could handle diverse document formats (PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, scanned images) while maintaining sub-second search performance required technical expertise in full-text indexing, OCR integration for scanned documents, and query optimization.

The search needed to work not just on document metadata but also on content within documents, enabling users to find references to specific HTS codes, product descriptions, or regulatory citations buried in attachments.

Building a WPF desktop application using MEF for modularity while maintaining performance, usability, and the seamless integration required by trade professionals working under time pressure required careful UI/UX design, performance optimization, and extensive user testing with actual customs brokers and trade compliance specialists.

The Partnership

Our collaboration with Thomson Reuters was driven by understanding both the technical requirements of document management at scale and the operational realities of international trade where documentation errors can cause shipment delays, compliance violations, and financial penalties.

We worked closely with their product team and trade industry experts to design a platform genuinely serving trade professionals' needs.

The partnership involved comprehensive requirements analysis understanding trade document workflows, HTS code systems, regulatory compliance requirements, and the specific pain points Thomson Reuters' clients experienced with existing document management approaches.

We built the complete platform using WPF for the rich desktop application interface, MEF for modular, extensible architecture, WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) backend API connected to Microsoft SQL Server for robust data management, and Lucene.net for high-performance document indexing and search.

The technology stack delivered the enterprise-grade performance, security, and reliability required for trade document management while maintaining the usability essential for user adoption.

We implemented the version-controlled document repository with HTS-code linking, designed and built the workflow automation engines tracking submissions and approvals, and created the powerful search capabilities enabling instant document retrieval from potentially massive repositories.

The measurable success—saving $100,000+ and automating 50,000+ hours of workflow—demonstrates how this collaborative approach created a platform that genuinely improved operational efficiency, compliance, and accuracy for trade organizations managing the complex documentation requirements of international commerce.

The Tech Stack

We built the platform using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) for the frontend with MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework) for modularity, and a WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) backend API connected to Microsoft SQL Server, with Lucene.net powering document indexing and search.

WPF delivers the rich, responsive desktop application interface providing trade professionals with seamless UI for document management, upload, tagging, version control, and approval workflows. MEF enables modular architecture allowing Thomson Reuters to extend platform functionality or integrate with client-specific systems without core platform changes.

WCF provides the backend API handling business logic for document storage, version control, workflow automation, and compliance tracking. Microsoft SQL Server ensures reliable, secure data management for document metadata, HTS code linkages, shipment information, approval workflows, and audit trails.

Lucene.net powers high-speed document indexing and search, enabling sub-second full-text search across millions of documents including content within PDFs, Word files, and scanned images—with sophisticated query capabilities supporting HTS code search, shipment number lookup, document type filtering, and complex boolean queries.

The platform delivers the smart trade document hub with centralized, version-controlled organization of HTS-linked documents, workflow automation and compliance tracking reducing errors and improving process efficiency, and the WPF interface with Lucene-powered search enabling quick retrieval—all working together to save $100,000+ and automate 50,000+ hours of workflow for trade organizations managing international import/export documentation.