Back to Basics for ACE

(American Shipper – Eric Kulisch)

Delays and costs associated with the development of the Automated Commercial Environment next-generation trade processing system have forced U.S. Customs to scale back programming to meet the most essential needs of government and the import-export community, according to industry representatives collaborating on the project.

Customs and Border Protection officials have concluded that they need to prioritize the most important missions for ACE in order to get the massive computer system operating sooner after many years of planning and development.

That means getting rid of the bells and whistles many stakeholders kept layering on the project.

ACE is a $3.5 billion advanced information system designed to monitor, control and analyze commercial import and export transactions.

The agency revealed in late July that it plans to delay by at least six months deployment of an ACE electronic manifest function for ocean and rail carriers because of software glitches and extra testing requirements. Programming has taken longer too because of ever increasing security requirements for additional data fields to handle the pending 10+2 rulemaking and inadvertent releases of containers by marine terminals before they have been cleared by Customs. As a result of the manifest schedule slip, an additional four to six month delay is projected for the early 2009 deployment of initial ACE entry summary capabilities.

Kenneth Ritchhart, deputy assistant commissioner for information technology, delivered the news about the new ACE expectations at the mid-September meeting of the Trade Support Network (TSN) in Tysons Corner, Va., Cindy Allen, vice president customs for Argents Air Express in Detroit, told reporters on a conference call last week. Read the complete article. Read the complete article.