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CrimsonB Y T E S
March 2014
Crimson
MARCH 2014
Y B T E STHE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION BROUGHT TO YOU BY CRIMSONLOGIC PTE LTD.
Editorial material may originate from third parties and does not necessary reflect the views of CrimsonLogic Pte Ltd. Please note that the copyright and trade marks in the materials are the property of CrimsonLogic Pte Ltd and/or the respective third party proprietors. All rights reserved. No portion of the Crimson Bytes Newsletter may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of CrimsonLogic Pte Ltd.
WHATS NEW?
The TGIF Factor in e-Government
By Elixir Technology
PARTNER IN THE LIMELIGHT
ICT’s Role in International Trade Facilitation for the Emerging MarketsOUR
PERSPECTIVE
Comex 2014WATCH OUR FOR THESE EVENTS!
CrimsonLogic Appoints Industry Veteran – Chua Ah Leng as Senior Vice President, Delivery Excellence
Automating Colon Free Zone Infographics
2014 WCO IT Conference & Exhibition
CrimsonLogic Launches Office Operations in Oman
WHAT’S NEW?
2
Office location inKnowledge Oasis
Muscat aims to supportthe company’s
agreement to helpachieve Oman’s
e-governanceservices vision
CRIMSONLOGIC LAUNCHES OFFICE
OPERATIONSIN OMAN
The new office opening comes following the company’s agreement to plan, develop and launch Oman’s first National Single Electronic Window (SEW) for the Royal Oman Police, Directorate General of Customs, in addition to rolling out an enhanced Integrated Customs Management System (ICMS) to replace the existing one.
Having received support from the Information Technology Authority (ITA) in setting up CrimsonLogic’s fourth office in the region, guest-of-honor at the launch of the newest office in Oman, Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, said: “The ITA has been working steadily to transform the Sultanate of Oman into a sustainable knowledge economy through enhancing government services, enriching businesses and empowering individuals.
“With ITA and CrimsonLogic working together, the knowledge and experience sharing will help to build local capabilities and boost our competitiveness in the global business community. We are glad that global pioneers like CrimsonLogic find Oman an attractive location in which to open their newest office.”
CrimsonLogic announced the official opening of a new office at the Knowledge Oasis Muscat, to be operational by 2nd quarter this year. The new setup will be CrimsonLogic’s fourth branch in the Middle East region, with the other offices located in Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
From left to right: Eugene Wong – CrimsonLogic Chairman, Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi – Chief Executive Officer, Information Technology Authority (ITA), Ambassador Teng Theng Dar - Singapore Ambassador to Oman, Saw Ken Wye – CrimsonLogic CEO
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The Single Electronic Window is a platform that allows trading communities to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfill import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements. The Integrated Customs Management System (ICMS) will allow Directorate General of Customs to enhance customs administration in meeting current economic and globalisation trends and standards.
“As part of our business commitment to the Sultanate and our steadfast dedication as a strategic partner in achieving Oman’s e-governance services vision, in line with His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s ‘Oman 2020’ vision, CrimsonLogic’s new office at Knowledge Oasis Muscat will ensure that the right people are assigned to deliver a successful project,” said Saw Ken Wye, CEO of CrimsonLogic.
CrimsonLogic has signed a MOU with local IT SMEs to form strategic partnerships that will enable the company to better deliver projects more efficiently and cost-effectively in Oman and across the region.
CrimsonLogic CEO Saw Ken Wye signing Memorandum Of Understanding with the Oman SME partners, with the Guests-of-Honour as witness.
Mr Saw added: “We are investing to create a sustainable ecosystem for implementation and support, as well as talent grooming and education initiatives to help the company grow across the country and the region. Oman is a strategic market for us, more so in terms of this project’s size and scale, and we’re putting our global expertise to good use as we work towards implementing the SEW and ICMS project on time.
“We are also keen to bring in our expertise in other eGovernment systems such as eJudiciary, Business Licensing and National Authentication as this region is highly receptive towards technology both in the government space and the local populace.”
When launched, the SEW and ICMS are expected to provide an electronic platform for the Sultanate of Oman and trade communities to manage administrative and logistical operations more efficiently, such as elimination of duplicated processes, standardisation of operations and reducing paper work.
The solution will also provide a single online channel by electronically linking different agencies involved in the import/export process to facilitate data exchange for the application of licenses and permits, enabling comprehensive self-service online customs services to be provided conveniently to local business communities. In this way, the Sultanate of Oman can consolidate access channels and all Customs’ core support applications through the same solution, where trade data can be accurately analysed to better facilitate growth measurement and forecast.
CrimsonLogic has been implementing various projects in the Middle-East region for more than 10 years, including Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Besides implementing Trade Facilitation solutions, CrimsonLogic has also been providing eGovernment and eJudiciary solutions globally for more than 25 years.
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Officer of Stratech Systems Ltd, Chief Operating Officer of Singapore Computer Systems (SCS), Chief Executive Officer of PrivyLink Pte Ltd, and Chief Executive Officer of Frontline Services and Chief Operating Officer of FrontLine Technology.
Between 1996 and 2000, Ah Leng was Chief Technology Officer and Assistant CEO of National Computer System (NCS), responsible for charting the technology direction, regional and new business strategies respectively.
Ah Leng spent more than 15 years with NCB-NCS, holding various positions ranging from Project Director for the Command and Control System to Chief Information Officer of MHA, Assistant CEO of NCS, as well as Director of Government System Division of NCB. He was responsible for the overall system requirement, architecture and project implementation of an integrated Automatic Call Distribution System, Computer Aided Dispatch System, Incident Management System, Geographic Information System, as well as the interfaces to different management system within the Singapore Police Force, Singapore Civil Defence Force and Ministry of Home Affairs Headquarters. He was also at the helm of nation-wide projects like the National Registration and Identification Card (NRIC) system, Automated Finger Print Identification and Criminal Case Management System.
“I am excited to be a part of a dynamic Singapore company with a global presence. It will be a new leaf in my career as I take on the role to enhance our delivery capabilities, and I’m confident that I can make a positive difference to CrimsonLogic,” said Ah Leng.
CrimsonLogic has appointed Chua Ah Leng as the Group’s Senior Vice President (SVP), Delivery Excellence. In his new role, Ah Leng will be responsible for the overall competency development, project delivery resources enhancement and provision of effective and timely technical resources.
As SVP, Delivery Excellence, Ah Leng will also be part of the Group’s Senior Management Committee to actively contribute to the overall strategy management and operation of the Group’s business.
“With more than 35 years of experience in the IT industry, coupled with the many key positions that he held, Ah Leng is a natural choice for CrimsonLogic as we embarked on an expansive business growth strategy,” said Saw Ken Wye, CrimsonLogic Chief Executive Officer. “I’m delighted that Ah Leng has joined us taking on this strategic role and I strongly believed that he will bring much value to the Group.
“As we continue to grow in Singapore and globally, Ah Leng’s experience and industry knowledge will keep us on track to better deliver quality in our project implementations as well as enhancing the capabilities of our development team.”
Prior to joining CrimsonLogic, Ah Leng was the Senior Vice President of Singbridge Corporate Pte Ltd and was based in China for his involvement in the Sino Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (SSGKC) project, including overseeing the entire Information Communication Technology (ICT) road map, implementation and management in SSGKC.
Ah Leng also held several key positions besides Singbridge, such as President and Chief Operating
CRIMSONLOGIC APPOINTSINDUSTRY VETERAN –
CHUA AH LENG AS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT,
DELIVERY EXCELLENCE
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THE TGIF FACTOR IN E-GOVERNMENTTGIF: TWITTER GOOGLE INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK
Lau Shih HorChief Executive Officer
Elixir Technology Pte Ltd
organisation to put social media analysis into good use, public or private. Social media analysis must be a crucial component in one’s corporate communication strategies.
Twitter and Its Influence Power
Twitter helps to disseminate huge stream of information and the best thing is, followers aren’t even the only ones listening to your posting. One doesn’t actually have to use Twitter to know what is happening on Twitter - tweets can be read by anyone, including those without an account.
Twitter is more than a social network, although Facebook is also a social networking tool - majority of Facebook users are not quite the same as Twitter users when it comes to influencing the general public. In a recent report from Exact Target (a global Software-as-a-Service leader that connects customers with organisations through marketing), it is found that daily active Twitter users are three times more likely to amplify the influence than Facebook users.
Unlike traditional search engines, more information is likely to be found on Twitter as it eliminates the hassle to collate and index pages. Bottom line - what happens on Twitter, doesn’t stay on Twitter. Discussions on Twitter are more likely to appear elsewhere on the web as compared to other online networks.
The New Information Gatekeeper
It is no hidden secret that governments throughout history place high importance on controlling the media, which acts as the information gatekeeper. Kingdoms and empires can be built or toppled depending on what information gets circulated. Today, with the media in the hands of social networks, it has become seemingly uncontrollable, unless one can exert indirect “control” through active monitoring and influencing the very social media circles one is targeting. Only when one fully understands the internal workings of TGIF will one be ready to strategise how to influence.
To begin, search engines these days take cues from social media activities when deciding the relevancy of the search results. For instance, when online users share comments about a website or an organisation on TGIF, the more relevant this site becomes and so does the search engine visibility, which translates to one’s influencing factor. Besides increasing search engine visibility that affects ranking, having an active social media presence allows an organisation to leverage the power of big social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on.
If having a website is just not enough anymore and organisations need a new platform to draw more target users to their site, how do they do that?
With the ever increasing active social media users (numbers exceed the total population of most countries), it has become imperative for any
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Search engines don’t take all links as equal. This is the same for social accounts. Since anyone can create a social media account, one can create 100 different accounts to generate fake buzz. Twitter can therefore be highly important to organisations as it helps them to monitor online discussions or rather the ‘buzz’ about their latest policies and/or services.
Twitter’s power is not to be taken as a form of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It is the timeliness of real-time feedback and how its 140 characters tweets can transform into a stream of information exchanges which shapes people’s perception as events are unfolding.
In particular, Sentiment Analysis on Twitter if employed correctly can be very useful for government agencies. While volume of tweets and re-tweets are essential, indicating the level of interest and buzz, it’s the sentiment value that enables one to make better decisions, factoring in opinions from key influencers are expressed in various web channels, from forums to social networks. Monitoring tweets is one way to gather intelligence on public satisfaction, the impact of an influential user on others and the sentiment about the agencies’ policies, programs or services. With such insights, one can plan strategically to align internal programs with public interests.
To get a feel of the sentiments, one can simply read the articles about one’s organisations. But what if there are hundreds and thousands of them? That’s where an automated tool can bridge the gap between the raw information and actionable insights. There are plenty of social media analysis tools out there in the market. One just needs to check that the analytics mechanism are properly set up to suit the language and social media channels of the target groups.
Google Plus, the Best Social Media Platform?
Big or small, the presence in the cyberspace ultimately defines the mindshare and hence the influence of one’s organisation, thanks to the help of Internet. Google Plus is yet another key social media platform to be reckoned with.
Backed by its solid mother corporation, Google, being a member of the Google Plus social media network seems like a win-win proposition because Google provides Google Plus users interactions with some of the most highly ranked websites on the Internet and ensures that Google Plus users are ranked higher than users of other social media platforms. This provides greater visibility on the search engine which eventually leads to higher ranking. Meaning, one’s messages or services are continuously reaching out to the potential target
audience as Google takes care of all the work without any action on one’s part.
Google Plus users have the upper edge over the other social media network users as they not only gain greater visibility on the web, but also provide broader experience of sharing ideas with other users in different circles, where multitudes are just a few degrees of connections away.
With Analytics hot on the wheels now, visualisation of one’s presence and influence in the social world is just a click away. Google Plus Ripples can help you visualise the dispersion of one’s content throughout the network to discover new potential sources of information with mutually beneficial interest to follow. Again, participation in social media platforms is essential. Without a Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus account, one has drastically limited the potential of public information sharing and influence.
Instagram: Social Has Never Become More Visual
It is paramount to know that people like to share. Period. Pictures, stories, bad experiences, good deals, you name it. Users share content to portrait themselves, to connect with one another, to bring entertaining information to others, to support the causes they care about. Living in an informative age, we share MORE content from MORE sources with MORE people MORE often and able to do it MORE quickly.
Value & entertainmentPromote causes
Nourish relationshipsSelf-fullfilment
Define identity
94% 84% 78% 69% 68%
We all Share for different
REASONS
25% of Facebook users don't bother with privacy settings
Two new members join LinkedIn every second
YouTube reaches more U.S.adults aged 18-34 than any cable network
Over 150 million Instagram users
50% of Pinterest users have children and 80% of
users are women
90% of content is generated by 2% of
Twitter users
Source - http://topdogsocialmedia.com/psychology-of-sharing/
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Every day, 55 million photos are uploaded, 86.4 million comments are posted and 691.2 million users like various photos in their feeds on Instagram. The propagation power of Instagram is that it gives any organisation an opportunity to tell its story through visuals. Other than showcasing what one have to offer, organisations that use Instagram must first understand the art of storytelling. After all, it’s the stories that are shared, remembered and passed down from one generation to the next. Especially if one’s strategy is targeted at the Generation Y and beyond, Instagram has become the de facto channel, as compared to Facebook for the older generation.
The secret of Instagram’s success is its encouraging interface which helps to drive user interactions as one can either have a call to action in the caption or in the image and users are given the option to “Like” or “Comment”. When one has developed a strong rapport with the targeted audience by doing all the things right on Instagram, one can further broaden the reach of one’s influence and engage the audience on the next level by introducing Hashtags. The strategy is to come up with relevant hashtags for different images and learn how to leverage on existing hashtag trends.
To achieve mass influence, one must know how to blend social media versus corporate-like communications in just the right amount using trending technologies. Moderation and leverage in digital influence are the keys to successful social media campaigns.
Facebook Connecting People
Facebook, a network that connects friends, family, colleagues and a community that shares information. It has more than 800 million users across the globe and more than 30 billion pieces of content are being shared monthly. Facebook remains the world’s largest and most popular social media site in 2013. It is a no-brainer that one needs to be on Facebook.
Many often emphasize on the size in social media because audience reach is one of social media’s biggest advantages. Fundamentally, social media is only a channel to communicate but what remains the most important is still the content. In a Business Intelligence report on social media (which calculates the Engagement Index based on social network activity like photo sharing, status updates, how much time users spend, and how engaged and interactive they are with content), it was found that Facebook is the leader in engagement, i.e., engaging 114 billion minutes a month of audiences’ time in United States alone. Next up Instagram with 8 billion minutes a month and Twitter is just 5.3 billion.
Facebook connects people and opportunities in a way that wasn’t possible before. Most recently, the touching story of two Korean twins reunited after chance internet encounter spread through the news media. They were separated at birth and reunited after a surprise encounter via YouTube and Facebook. But well, that did not come as a total shock to all because through Facebook, the idea of ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ was better made aware of.
In the 1960s, social psychologist Stanley Milgram tested the idea, a “small world experiment”, by sending a unique package to 160 random people after which they are tasked to pass the package to a friend or acquaintance who had the best chance of getting it to the target person. In his conclusion, Stanley found that people were in a way connected by an average of 5.5 others. Therefore rounding up to the number six, that any two people in the world are separated by no more than six intermediate connections on average. Over the years, the Facebook era and rise of other social media platforms, the degrees of separation has said to decrease to four between any two Facebook users.
When Facebook first open its doors to online selling, features like Pages were introduced to the corporates. Initially, getting “Likes” was one of the main goals.
Desktop And Smartphone Social Engagement Per User
(Time-Spend On Desktop And Smartphone, Divided By Total Unique Users - Formula Below)
Source : comScore, various BN calculations, February 2013
Index : %of Desktop & Smartphone Time-Spend On 5 Selected Networks*100/Multiplatform Uniques
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Face
book
Enga
gem
ent I
ndex
50.7
13.57.4 6.6 4.6
Inst
agra
m
Twitt
er
Snap
chat
Wha
tsA
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BI INTELLIGENCE
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However, they don’t necessary translate to engagement and reach. At the most basic level, if one gets the right target audience to click “Like” on the corporate Page, as long as they don’t hide the corporate Page from their News Feed, all the Page posts will appear exactly where one needs them to be. Fortunately, 80% of users prefer to connect with such corporate Pages on Facebook and 25% of users do not bother about privacy settings.
Getting “likes” also contribute to the statistics on one’s Facebook Insights page. In there, one can see metrics about the performance of one’s Page, learn about which posts resonate with the audience and optimise how one can publish to reach more people by studying the people who are engaged with the Page, demographic data, Likes, Comments and Shares graphs. One can learn about a spike or a dip in Page Insights, find out the engagement rate, how other Pages are performing, and so on.
TGIF and many other social media platforms present a whole new paradigm for public influence. 93% of marketers use social media for business, so why not
Shih Hor is the co-founder of Elixir Technology, a Singapore-based company providing Business Intelligence and Analytics Tools, Platform, and Services, where many government agencies both in Singapore and internationally are using their solutions. In his free time, Shih Hor would dream about coming up with the next big thing one can’t live without.
the government agencies? A social media strategy really boils down to what the organisation’s goals are and who your target audiences are. At the minimum, it could be telling to just pay attention to the online buzz to sense what might be happening beneath the surface. Other than the TGIF channels highlighted here, the recent news of WhatsApp’s acquisition by Facebook can mean an expansion of other channels of communications and hence influence one would have to factor in. There are of course many other prominent ones like YouTube, Pinterest, or even the equivalents from China for the Chinese speaking communities. All these could also be useful depending on your strategy and target audience.
So start today to monitor, listen and learn from the social media about your target audience; shape your engagement model and strategy to bring about the public influence for the greater good!
Lau Shih HorChief Executive OfficerElixir Technology Pte Ltd
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Our Perspective
OUR PERSPECTIVE
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ICT’S ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE FACILITATION FOR THE EMERGING MARKETS
A crucial success factor to build paperless supply chains
Jonathan KohDirector
Trade Facilitation Centre of Excellence,Trade Sector Group, CrimsonLogic
Global trade expanded rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s. The resulting complexity, speed of the modern supply chain and the number of parties involved greatly increased the requirements for information controlling the flow of goods. Despite the breakneck developments in information and communications technologies (ICT) and trade data-exchange standards during the same time, trade documentation exchanges remained mostly paper-based. However in the modern trade environment, such paper-based exchanges cannot satisfy the need for efficiency and security.
Paperless trade facilitation is called upon as the next step to be taken by nations to enhance efficiency, security and transparency of international trade. One “omnibus” means to address this that has
gained considerable momentum in the last decade is the so-called “Single Window”. In Recommendation No. 33, UNECE defines the Single Window as a “facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised trade-related information and/or documents to be submitted once at a single entry point to fulfil all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements.
Hence, countries and regions will have to work together to ensure that domestic and cross-border paperless trade systems are interconnected via a Single Window environment, which would ultimately enable the development of paperless supply chains. Undoubtedly, ICT plays a central role during this transition.
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3. Developing and Emerging Economies – Paperless trade will result in simplified and cheaper trade procedures, greater transparency, higher compliance and higher governmental revenues. For instance, automation will significantly reduce the scope for discretionary subjective decisions and hence, for corruption. Some landlocked countries and other developing countries will profit from the development of electronic corridors, where traders can send information required in a chain of border crossings well in advance for better and timely analysis by the authorities.
For this transition to be successful and sustainable, governments, international and regional organisations must provide a supportive political, regulatory and business-accommodating environment. In fact, Single Window development on a national scale and paperless trade projects are already under way in the Asia-Pacific region. They are being led by the Governments, regional and cross-regional initiatives, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Pan Asia e-Commerce Alliance (PAA) and Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT).
A New Age in Trade Faciltation for Emerging Markets
ICT is transforming the world on a daily basis. Switching from paper documents to electronic ones would substantially save cost, increase security and transparency in supply chains, improve financial performance of Governments and the private sectors.
All parties involved in the supply chains stand to gain considerably from converting to paperless trade:
1. Governments – Paperless trade increases the security of trade operations by utilising electronic data, which are more structured, reliable and easier to use. Administrative costs are lower and less revenue is lost through corruption and non-compliance.
2. Private Sector / Supply Chain Operators – Paperless eliminates the operational costs related to processing, increases the transparency of the supply chain, encourages the information exchange between the trading partners, improves trade and finance processes and lastly, helps build new collaborative modes among companies
Producers SuppliersTransport Operators (hauliers, agents, etc.)
BUSINESS STAKEHOLDERS
International Stakeholders - WCO, WTO, etc.
Regional Economic Communities
Transaction Businesses (banks, insurance, etc.)Purchasers Distributors
Customs CustomsFinance
Ports &airports
Finance
Trade
Sea & airoperators
Trade
Transport Transport
Foreign affairs Foreign affairs
Security Security
Immigration Immigration
Quarantine & inspections
Quarantine & inspections
Securityagencies
Securityagencies
BORDER AGENCIES
National Single W
indow
National Single W
indow
BORDER AGENCIES
GOVERNMENT STAKEHOLDERSCOUNTRY A
GOVERNMENT STAKEHOLDERSCOUNTRY B
International Single Windows
Interfacesuppliers
interfaces
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“We implemented TradeNet® in 1989 when boosting external trade was identified as a major economic goal for Singapore. The innovative use of IT was recognised as a tool to enable Singapore to implement the concept of the single trade window, to position Singapore’s economy for long-term competitiveness. TradeNet® was the world’s first nationwide electronic single window,” said Director-General of Singapore Customs, Mr Fong Yong Kian.
Challenges with Paperless Trade Facilitation in Emerging Markets
The concept of paperless trade requires the national-wide Single Window environment to be provided so that the trading community can submit information and documents electronically to government authorities in compliance with regulatory requirements. However, such undertaking on a countrywide scale is an extremely complex and costly undertaking. Creating a national “Single Window” requires tremendous efforts, cost, change of mindsets and more importantly, strong political will.
Despite the benefits and the support from Governments, the adoption process of paperless trade has been gradual as it requires change of mind-sets, political will and close collaboration between the public and the private sector.
Especially in developing and emerging countries, adopting electronic trade Single Window has its difficulties. Not only are these countries separated from the developed economies by the “digital divide”, they also have fewer resources, such as educated talents and lagged infrastructure. They can benefit, nonetheless, through the greater efficiency that can be achieved in the private sector and government agencies, resulting in lower logistic
Case Study
Singapore – The Global #1 in Ease of Cross-Border Trading
Countries in Asia are at different stages of trade facilitation. Globally, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Republic of Korea and Japan have often been rated as front-runners in trade facilitation. Singapore was ranked #1 in terms of ease of trading across borders, based on the World Bank “Doing Business Database” 2012 . Let’s take a closer look at one of Singapore’s core electronic trade facilitation systems as a best practice example.
TradeNet®
TradeNet® is the world’s first nationwide trade documentation system that was launched in January 1989. It started as a national electronic data interchange (EDI) system, but has evolved into an open internet platform to provide a cost-effective, flexible, scalable and secure infrastructure framework for the exchange of trade data and information electronically. TradeNet® connects the trading community involved in the import and export process with 35 government trade regulatory agencies, together in a single online platform and enables them to share data and transmit their approvals electronically.
Figure 1: World’s first nationwide trade clearance system integrates 35 controlling units’ requirements
Benefits of TradeNet®
After-TradeNet®
Before TradeNet®
Processing time / permit Fee charged
Number of documents Documents processed per day
2-7 days
S$10-20
3-35 docs
Approximately 10,000
1 min or less
Less than S$5
1 eForm/eDoc
More than 30,000
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costs. There is a list of critical factors that have led the slow paperless process in emerging markets:
- Inadequate transport and other infrastructure - ports and airports, roads, railways and river routes;
- Complex, unnecessary and inconsistent non-tariff requirements at ports of continental entry/exit and border crossing posts;
- Inefficient and uncoordinated management of trade, both within countries and along trade routes; and
- Inadequate information about trade requirements and import/export opportunities.
These challenges result in three main problems for the trade industry:
- Increased costs (including fees, bribes and management expenses);
- Delays in the transit and delivery of goods, which add further transport and warehousing costs; and
- Unreliability, resulting from inaccurate data management.
Trade barriers are strongest at critical points alongthe supply chain between producers and consumersof goods and services, particularly points of entryexit between countries.
Effective use of ICT is therefore an important element to enable a Single Window environment for cross-border and regional trade. The Single Window environment can reduce the administrative barriers that contribute to costs, delays and unreliability. Their effectiveness will be greatest when they are integrated with other measures to address the structural, infrastructural and non-tariff barriers that also inhibit trade in the respective emerging economy.
The main trends in the development of Single Window involve the use of ICT to improve efficiency, coordination and availing accurate and timely information to trade stakeholders, thereby reducing costs and delays while improving efficiency. Let’s refer to a case study of a project done in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean to better understand its importance.
Case Study – TTBizLink
Client:The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Food Production, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Legal Affairs, Ministry of National Security; trade and business communities connected to trade and business facilitation in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Challenge:Almost all trade and business related activities were performed in a manual, paper-based manner across government divisions. It is a challenge to design an IT system that automates core processes, promotes collaboration between agencies and ensures that the appropriate support structures, such as legislation, support centre, training, marketing and communications, are in place.
Solution:The state-of-the-art Single Window system - TTBizLink connects 8 government departments across 5 government ministries with the business community seamlessly. It is a one-stop online portal for the business community to access services related to trade and business facilitation, such as registering a company, applying for work permits, import/export licenses or permits, cargo declaration and manifest submission, etc. Government departments can use TTBizLink’s intelligent Electronic Data Interchange and messaging systems to securely integrate and share information.
Benefits:Achieved 57% – 96% reduction in application processing time and improved the service levels and efficiencies across government agencies. Transformed key trade and business related services and positioned Trinidad and Tobago as a world class business hub.
Future Trends in Trade and Role of ICT
The new WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, which was struck at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Dec 2013, creates binding commitments across 159 plus WTO Members to expedite movement, release and clearance of goods, improve cooperation among Members on customs matters and help developing countries fully implement the obligations. The agreement will increase customs efficiency and effective collection of revenue, help small businesses access new export opportunities through measures like transparency in customs practices, reduction of documentary requirements, and processing of documents before goods arrive.
This means that the trade community will be expected to face an exponential growth in the facilitation of trade, and yet faced a huge demand for data, increasing the need to ensure effective and efficient use of ICT. ICT providers have to address these challenges and provide sufficient support to the trade community, by offering cutting-edge product features to enhance security safeguard, increase operational efficiency and optimise cost management in order to enable users to realise their maximum potential.
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A recent ICT innovation that significantly impacts the Single Window is the Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA). An SOA utilises methodologies for designing and developing software to enable interoperability. Designing the Single Window using SOA principles will enable a web-based Single Window environment to integrate widely disparate systems and applications to use multiple implementation platforms. Hence, a Single Window using the SOA integration approach provides a flexible integration model for online and transactional processing through a messaging architecture.
Two significant advances in ICT development are expected to dominate the Single Window development landscape in the coming years: cloud computing and mobile computing. The advent of cloud computing where applications are served with data that is stored on the internet and can be accessed and shared by the parties involved in the supply chain operation has evoked various degree of interest.
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Date 7 - 11 Apr 2014
Event Comex 2014
Location Oman International Exhibition Centre, Muscat, Oman
Activity CrimsonLogic is participating in the eGovernment Pavilion that supports the vision of the Information Technology Authority to transform the Sultanate of Oman into a knowledge-based society. We will be showcasing our eGovernment solutions.
Date 5 - 7 May 2014
Event 2014 WCO IT Conference & Exhibition
Location Sofitel Brisbane Central, Brisbane, Australia
Activity We will be featuring our Trade Facilitation Solutions at the 2014 WCO IT Conference & Exhibition. The event provides an opportunity to discuss the ways which Customs, in partnership with other border agencies and businesses, can impact the economic competitiveness of countries by exploiting effective IT solutions.
WATCH OUT FOR THESE EVENTS!
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