To Learn About the Current Situation and Overall Issues, Please Read S. 3 - 18

This document together with the attached presentationis intended as preliminary information to all parties interested in the future modernization program for the customs area in Denmark.

Several analyses have been conducted and currently the overall strategy is being defined. Soon, a formal market dialog process will be initiated leading to the formalisation of a tender strategy and subsequent tender(s).

To learn about the current situation and overall issues, please read s. 3 - 18

To learn about the overall objectives for the future state, please read s. 19 - 28

To learn about the Implementation Centre organization, please read s. 29 - 39

To learn about the overall project plan, please read s. 40 - 41

All of the above materials should be regarded as preliminary, thus adjustment to the content will take place.

Do you know what tender-process (normal tender, competitive dialog, beauty contest etc.) you will use?

-It is the assumption, that the new systems landscape will be a combination of standard-components and custom code, and the most likely scenario is a tender process under the “competitive dialog” paradigm.

Will ICT build or buy the systems?

-The development of the new customs systems is expected to be outsourced.

How will ICT source the development of new systems?

-Due to the total size of the task, the program will be split into a small number of contracts, each covering one or more main processes.

-The division into contract areas has not yet been defined – the market dialog should give input to this.

-ICT expect to enter agreements with larger vendors or consortia of companies, each with one major vendor as the main responsible.

What are the most important characteristics of the vendors ICT is looking for?

-The final selection criteria have not yet been decided, but at this point we expect all the following characteristics to be of major importance (in non-prioritized order):

• Demonstrated innovation capabilities
• Customs knowledge
• Experience from similar projects (public sector, heavily regulated areas)
• Financial capacity
• Significant development capacity (probably a global delivery model)
• Demonstrated agile development experience

What characteristics are you looking for in the solution(s)?

-At this point we do not have the requirements defined but at this point we expect all the following characteristics to be of major importance (in non-prioritized order):

• Compliance and implementation of EU legislation is a hygiene factor
• The level of support of the strategic objectives will be a key selection criteria
• Maintainability of the solution is important
• High availability and stable performance (mission critical solutions)
• Use of standard-functionality is expected in relevant areas

Do you expect to reuse any of the existing systems components?

-It is possible that the Tarif system can be reused.

-The rest of the systems are expected to be phased out

Do you have any architectural requirements?

-At this point we do not have any architectural requirements defined, but on a more overall level the following objectives should be reflected in the solution architecture:

• We are not locked on the existing division into seven systems areas
• Data is at the centre of the new Customs, and data should be viewed as a shared resource across the entire Department of Taxation.
• Integration to a wide number of external applications – including applications at our customers – should be expected.

Are there any requirements to language in the project?

-Proposals and dialog can be in English. Parts of the systems UI and documentation will be in Danish.

How will ICT organize the project?

-Dedicated steering committee with top-management participation to ensure decision power

-The ICT is organized as a program

For further details see the presentation material on ICT Organization

In what areas will ICT have in-house competencies?

ICT is an organization established to implement the new customs systems.

ICT will have 150+ employees

Customs experts from the existing customs organisation are full-time allocated to the project

Cross-disciplinary teams will be allocated for the full duration (end-to-end) of each sub-project with it-, customs-, and legal competencies.

ICT will have competencies in a number of areas including:

-Customs expertise – a large team of internal experts allocated 100% to the program

-Enterprise and solution architecture

-Process design

-Data scientists (Analytics)

-IT business analysts

-Project and program management

-Vendor- and contract management

-Organizational implementation

-Legal expertise

For further details see the presentation material on the ICT-organization

What are the requirements to the overall development paradigm?

-A substantial part of the project will be of an explorative and agile nature to arrive at the right solution to areas, where innovation is needed. The overall structure however will be based on a number of waterfalls and a well-defined project plan.

Do you expect to change the legislation as part of the project?

-EU Legislation is the overall framework and is not expected to change due to project activities

-National legislation consist only of national guidelines and regulations as supplement to the EU-legislation. The national legislation thus has only marginal impact to the customs operation compared to the EU-legislation. The project is expected to deliver some alterations limited to the national legislation.

What does ICT consider to be the major project and program risks?

-One or more of the selected vendors appear unable to meet delivery timeline.

-The parallel run/migration of projects contains risks of uncoordinated behaviour and decisions.

-Delayed deliverables from EU.

-Not having ICT people in place.

-Go-live will have to be applied in 24/7-running operations. Breakdowns have potential high (financial) impact on Danish import and export.

How many vendors will be shortlisted?

-Five vendors are expected to be shortlisted for the market dialog based on a formal selection process.

-It has not yet been decided how many vendors will be shortlisted for the tender process.

Can offshoring be a part of the delivery model?

-Yes, but major project activities that requires participation of ICT will take place on premise in Copenhagen.

-It Operation should be in datacentres in EU

-At this point, the only limitations put on the vendor selection for application development and application maintenance are the general legal requirements, including EU Data Protection Act.

New Answers 31.05.2017:

Can we potentially disqualify ourselves for future work by participating in the dialog?

No – the dialog process will not exclude vendors from bidding on future work for ICT or the ministry of taxation.

Will participation in the dialog process be a prerequisite for participation in the tenderprocess?

No – but all parties are encouraged to participate to potentially impact the process.

Should we form the partnerships now or wait for the tender process?

Vendors are encouraged to form consortia or other partnership constructs at this point to ensure a broad coverage of competencies and capabilities that will allow for a dialog potentially covering all relevant aspects of the upcoming tender and implementation project. These aspects include (this is not an exhaustive list):

• End-to-end project model (waterfall vs agile)
• Delivery models and organization
• Enterprise Architecture and solution architecture
• The use of Standard Systems and –components
• Integration
• Customs expertise
• Innovation and Trade Facilitation
• Legal framework, Terms and Conditions