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Information and communications technology and modern border management Tom Doyle
Effective information and communications technology (ICT) can help achieve business objectives and drive world class border agency performance. However, ICT alone offers no magic modernization solutions. Successful ICT merely enables modernization and improved performance. The most effective modernization programs address policy, process, and people issues—and then use ICT as an enabler to achieve the agency’s mission and vision. Th is chapter, focusing on the importance of ICT to modern border management, is not a technical manual for ICT professionals. Rather, it presents: • An overview of the role of ICT in border management reform and modernization. • A discussion of lessons learned and critical success factors. • An outline of five steps to successful implementation. Background
Border management agencies have long been seen as the collective stewards of the nations’ trade and borders. Today, however, these agencies are experiencing unprecedented pressure, with a simultaneous impact on many fronts. Border management agencies are required to perform at the highest levels of efficiency and effectiveness—to collect revenues due to the state, to protect the safety of the community, to facilitate legitimate trade, and to encourage economic development. Today the trading community uses just-in-time supply chains to maximize competitive advantage, and it demands
that border management agencies do not disrupt those chains. Likewise, governments look to border management agencies to lower the cost of doing business and to enable firms to compete globally. In an environment where lowering trader costs can make the difference between success and failure, even the smallest process driven ICT improvement can give traders a competitive edge over firms in other countries. The focus of border management reform is almost always on enabling border management agencies to fulfi ll their regulatory roles and responsibilities in ways that are more transparent and friendly to business. Agencies look to ICT for tools to maximize performance and to provide the high assurance demanded by private and public stakeholders. To put new ICT in place successfully, a border management agency must: • Secure the political and fi nancial commitment to develop its vision and transformation program. • Realistically assess its administrative capacity for delivering the vision. B O R D E R M A N A G E M E N T M O D E R N I Z AT I O N
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