COAC recommends ACE system downtime protocols

The Outages Working Group within CBP’s Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) says uniform guidelines must be established for handling disruptions within the agency’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).    A working group within the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) on Tuesday recommended that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) establish a set of protocols to help agency officials and the trade navigate periods when critical systems are down.
   The idea of a systems downtime protocol was first discussed at the previous COAC meeting Aug. 23 on the heels of a near full-day outage of CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system Aug. 2. The subcommittee in charge of providing the recommendations to CBP, the One U.S. Government (1USG) committee, said the outage presented many challenges for shippers, customs brokers, and CBP operations.
   “We have to acknowledge that systems go down, no matter how good the systems are,” said Amy Magnus, director of customs affairs and compliance at the broker A.N. Deringer, and a member of the 1USG subcommittee, said during the COAC’s quarterly meeting in Washington, D.C. Tuesday. “As we get more automated and paperless, memories fade. People forget to manage workflows when systems are not working. These recommendations are about minimizing disruptions when systems are done.”
   The Outages Working Group put forth six recommendations to CBP Tuesday, including:
     • That CBP establish uniform procedures for systems disruptions, provided widely to the trade;
     • That CBP give software providers or self-programmers a channel for when they experience VPN issues;
     • Development of an early warning notification for software companies for an unplanned system disruption;
     • And enhanced dashboard alerts within ACE.
   CBP is planning to finalize the rollout of ACE in early 2018, with the next release due Dec. 9 governing statements on electronic foreign trade zone admission and manufacturer ID creation.
   The final release, scheduled, Feb. 24, includes reconciliation, liquidation, and drawback.