Interfront 2023 Annual Report

25 PERFORMANCE REPORT PART Operational Challenges • Interfront is required to manage its resources across production support and multiple development and delivery streams. • The technical support required for the various SARS environments due to the overlapping of different application versions and systems in these environments, as well as the dependency and complexity of these systems, continues to place additional pressure on operational resources. • Budget limitations continue to pose challenges as resources compete for funds. • Change management for the integration of the eFiling and e@syFile teams into Interfront delivery processes is ongoing. • The eFiling team’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) on the reporting and management of support tickets is a priority, and discussions with SARS are ongoing. Operational Outlook Below is a comprehensive outline of the key components anticipated for the immediate future within the operational landscape: • The planned technology upgrades for the Declaration Processing System (DPS), the Tariff Management System (TMS) and the e@syFile application will continue. • Various customs and tax application deliverables are planned for implementation in the course of the year. • Interfront is pursuing the opportunity to participate in and further partner with SARS in supporting SARS Vision 2024, by supporting its operations and using new and emerging technological developments to improve services and trader experience through the enablement of digital platforms. • ADA (Luxembourg’s Customs and Excise Agency) has confirmed that it will be replacing the Interfront modules in production. The Import section of the Import, Export and Transit modules (IETA) has already been replaced and other modules will follow soon. Interfront anticipates ADA switching off most sections of the IETA system in the coming financial year, but support will continue on the remaining modules as required. • A modernisation assessment, utilising OpenShift technology, will be conducted for the Interfront Customs and Border Management Solution (iCBS) suite of systems to assess cloud capability and readiness, and to create a potential modernisation roadmap. • Interfront will assist SARS in obtaining an end-to- end view of the customs value chain in its NOCC, combining multiple and even loosely structured data to provide near-real-time insights. • Over the next financial year, a significant focus will be on implementing the SARS Single Window environment, which aims to provide a unified view of activities, starting with customs.