The European Network of Customs Software was founded in 2010 under the coordination of FORMAT Software, a German customs software provider.

The first introductory meeting with all European partners was organised in Frankfurt in March 2011. Regens, as a leading customs software provider in Hungary, was selected by Format as the Hungarian node for the network.

Thomas Steinke, Leader of the European Network of Customs Software has answered a few questions related to the goals and implementation of this cooperation.

What kind of customer request is behind this initiative?
FORMAT has more than 1.200 clients in Germany. These companies usually have subsidiaries and plants across Europe and require a software solution that can be used in other European countries to manage customs declarations. In 2010, when AES was implemented, many of our clients were looking for a solution to enable sending the export declarations electronically to local customs authorities.

FORMAT is not interested in developing an EU wide customs solution, and maintaining all the interfaces and solutions in each country. Therefore, we decided to establish a partner network of customs solutions providers, each selected as the best-in-class company from EU Member States. We would like to offer one stop shopping customs service for clients who are interested in export or later import declarations in the EU. ERP vendors who would like to integrate their solutions to a single customs application should  also benefit significantly from this.

How the whole network will operate?

We have set up integration support for EU customs. Our system is already integrated with a Dutch application in order to test the interfaces in real circumstances, but we intend to develop a customized integration – data exchange platform with the partners in the network.

Which countries does the network cover now?

We have partners in Belgium, Bulgaria, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic and Hungary.
If we need a new partner in a new country, first we ask one of our members if they are interested in service provision for the new country. If not, we look for a new partner to integrate.

What were the selection criteria for the partners in the network?

We were looking for  professional solution providers who have a good reputation in the customs field in their country, have good relations with the local authorities, and have certified systems. Therefore, we selected Regens in Hungary, the leading customs application provider in the country, who have the skills and experience to work as a member of a European level collaboration.

Do you think the network is the first step to establish an integrated solution of customs in Europe?

Yes. I believe customs is a special area where using software is a must. All central EU requirements are leading to fully electronic data exchange, which cannot be managed without software tools. Besides the maintenance of customs applications, and due to the regularly changing legal background, a high level of support service is also essential. This business is not a one size fits all business. It requires professional consulting, help-desk and support services, not just technical solutions. Therefore, I believe that the clients always select providers very carefully. We in Germany invested years in developing trust among our partners, therefore, if we can ensure a smooth connection via a provider to Hungary, for example, our clients will believe in our proposal. This is a win-win situation for our clients and for everybody in the network. Many great solutions  already exist in European countries to manage customs clearance. The next step is the integration of the best applications, in order to provide a single interface to the clients for managing cross border transactions.

Regens explained how companies can benefit from this cooperation in the future.

What is the main expertise delivered by Regens in this cooperation?

Regens has a long track record of solving interoperability issues in the enterprise environment. International trade is definitely an area where electronic data exchange and collaboration is a must. We are also strong in expert systems, and customs is a domain area where expertise and in depth understanding of processes and regulations are crucial for professional service delivery. We have also been approached by clients to manage integration issues with their ERP applications when we implement our customs solution. We understand that the client has to spend significant effort and money to establish a seamless management process for import and export management. In our opinion, the electronic customs procedures  also affect enterprises. It requires integration not only among internal parts of their systems, but interfaces with authority applications in customs. AES implementation in 2010 generated new issues for economic operators everywhere in Europe.

We completely agree with the approach of FORMAT. We don’t believe that one solution provider can ensure to manage electronic customs declaration to all countries in Europe. Therefore the collaboration among different customs solutions seems to be more realistic.

What benefits you could highlight? why it will be important to companies?

Companies cannot manage electronic customs procedures in every country with only one application. Therefore customs is usually managed by  a local vendor or by an agent.  In the future, with the implementation of this network, companies don’t have to spend time, effort and money to find the solution providers for a new country, and to establish interfaces to it solution. They can  be integrated to one customs software which has the „electronic path” to access local customs authorities, via local vendors. This initiative can significantly reduce costs and risk for companies to develop their own interfaces to various systems. Of course the solution won’t be  a hundred percent for evry single case; customization will needed.

The target group of our pilots is also easy to understand. It’s about companies with extended commercial, production activities in different countries across Europe, mainly in export relations.

What is the status of this ongoing initiative at Regens?

With our partners we are defining the pilots. We also welcome companies who are interested in being involved as pilot companies. The main next step will come in September with a series of technical meetings.