UPS believes it has an answer to many international shipping problems: electronic paperless invoices and a companion electronic returns service. The two products -- UPS Paperless Invoice and UPS Returns -- were unveiled Tuesday at a press conference. Designed to smooth the way for cross-boarder shipments across 98 countries and territories, the services are slated to go live in January.

"With these global solutions UPS makes shipping from Atlanta to Beijing as simple as shipping from Atlanta to Boston," said Kurt Kuehn, UPS senior VP of worldwide sales and marketing. "What's more, UPS makes getting a shipment returned from Beijing as simple as getting it returned from Boston."

UPS set the table for the enhancements earlier this year when it unveiled a brace of new technology offerings: WorldShip 9.0, Quantum View Manage, and US Billing Solutions. The UPS offerings have been developed in the shipping firm's annual $1 billion research and development budget.

According to Kuehn, the biggest unsolved problems in international shipping have been "customs clearance and international returns." In particular, they have plagued small and mid-sized businesses that don't have the personnel to fully staff global shipment services.

Faced with the daunting task of manually filling out multiple pages of forms and then worrying about what to do if a recipient wanted to return a shipment, many SMBs simply didn't bother. Kuehn pointed out that the use of the electronic data in paperless forms to clear customs reduces mistakes and accelerates shipments. "Customers will purchase more over the Web" using the UPS products, he predicted.

"This can be integrated into customers IT [operations]," he added. "We go to customer sites to do that work for them" to facilitate the use of the new UPS services at large retailers.

Many customers will find it relatively easy to install the services in existing systems, particularly after they have ensured their existing processes can communicate with electronic shipping systems, Kuehn indicated.

"Then, UPS will confirm that they are working off of the current shipping platform," the firm stated. "Once the prerequisites are met, there will be a registration process for customers that will enable the upload of their company's letterhead onto the platform, along with providing an electronic signature, which will be the basis for all electronic shipments. Once the letterhead and signature template is finalized, the customer can begin shipping electronically."

What about customers in the third world with primitive systems? "We may print out invoices in smaller countries, but that won't be a problem for customers," Kuehn said.

UPS believes the new services will have particular appeal in four vertical markets: retail, manufacturing, health care, and services segments. Retailers will like the idea that they can ship across borders with the knowledge that the returns process will be easy; equipment repair companies be will able to see returns easily facilitated; health-care providers will be able to pick up shipments at consumers' homes; and services industries (financial, insurance, and real estate) will like the features that ensure the quick turnaround of sensitive documents.

The automation of the services is important for control, said Kuehn, noting that UPS operates the world's eighth largest airline with more than 600 aircraft and that UPS processes more than 86 million pieces of paper each year.