a Customs and Excise software solution

Challenge

The States of Jersey Customs and Excise Department wished to replace a legacy system that was no longer supported by the supplier. Following a comprehensive and rigorous supplier selection process, teleologica, ltd. and its strategic alliance partner ELEKS were appointed to develop the new system. ELEKS’ professionalism, technical skills and creativity were key factors in this appointment.

The problems faced by the customer included:

• a large number of new functional requirements that needed to be implemented
• the need for a new and innovative architecture
• lack of resources for maintaining the old system, and
• outdated UI.

Solution

The dedicated teams from both sides governed the development process. We worked in partnership with a small team of Customs officers to develop a new system on the basis of the existing one in order to streamline and simplify business processes, eliminate duplication and manual processing, and provide more focused and useful management information. Most of the work was completed offsite. ELEKS project manager established working relationships with key users and managers on site at the beginning of the project and returned to oversee the implementation and initial live operation of the new system at the end of the project. ELEKS Software has developed an appropriate data model, database tables and business logic, all this based on client requirements and our own experience. Three-Tier Architecture was used to create the system. Application server has implemented ISAPI extension. We also applied XSLT Transformation to generate a presentation layer (HTML pages). A set of JavaScripts were developed to make the browser interface more user-friendly.

Customer benefits

ELEKS, in strategic alliance with teleologica, ltd., has created Customs and Excise software solutions specifically for the needs of small independent territories like the States of Jersey. The new software:

• allows authorized parties to securely and easily enter declarations using browser-based remote access (optionally, trusted parties can also be allowed to enter consignments)
• is an exceptionally intuitive (browser- based user interface supports the needs of an occasional user whilst providing comprehensive keystroke shortcuts for an expert user)
• includes user customizable help screens that can be augmented to provide procedural guidance and practice notes in addition to application help
• has a facility for Customs Officers to discreetly monitor declarations in order to verify their completeness and accuracy
• is extensively functional and covers common requirements such as split consignments, drawbacks, allowing open documents with deferred liability
• presents full history and comprehensive reporting functions on demand
• maintains handling of passenger and postal duty collection, and
• shows interface with general ledger systems.

The newly designed system is easy to use and meets all customer requirements.