The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle - BAFA) has the task to protect various branches of the European and, thus, domestic industry from uncontrolled market access by third countries. For this purpose, it grants import licences and surveillance documents for certain items of trade and industry which are subject to quantitative restriction or supervision by the European regulations. After having applied in writing to the BAFA for access authorisation, a company can apply for import licences via the internet, based on its valid customs number. Aims: A special customs application and the online application procedure can work together throught defined interfaces. This makes paperless processing and filing possible throughout the whole process.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The total costs of the project were 35,000 Euro:

- approx. 5.000 Euro for hardware / software licencse

- approx. 20.000 Euro for external consulting and programming

- approx. 10.000 Euro internal efforts and work

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

- Master data (e.g. company addresses) makes entering the data easier for the applicant. - More transparency is achieved. - Do not only change the medium (screen instead of paper), but also the way of working - Changing from paper to screen work does justify a change of payment

Scope: National