MicroClear Price Research System 

The Price Research System is a web-based online workflow engine that intelligently coordinates the activities of ICS’s global price research and intelligence gathering capabilities. The system links our global network of offices and supports our worldwide price research activities that are carried out in accordance with the criteria stipulated in the WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation (Article VII of GATT 1994).   

There are four main players involved in the workflow of price research and gathering: 

1. Analysts: responsible for creating price requests
2. Gatherers: gather prices in accordance with Article VII
3. Coordinators: manage the workflow within the system
4. Validators: ensure that the gathered prices are acceptable for comparison   

S econdary users include Administrators (who manage the system) and Managers (who have access to statistical reports within the system). 

As far as the System is concerned, a work order represents a single transaction which has been selected, within the client country, for audit by ICS. This selectivity can be driven by risk management module or operate in manual mode whereby the customs auditor, whether external or internal, can create audit work orders on a discretionary basis from the entire pool of declarations.   

The key documents that make up a work order are: 

1. ICS Inspection Report
2. Import Declaration(s)
3. Commercial Invoice(s)
4. Packing List (when available)
5. Bill of Lading/Air Waybill   

The Price Research System allows for the data capture of all this information to create a work order in the system. One or more price requests may be issued per work order if pricing information is required. Price requests are created when ICS needs to gather prices for items contained in work orders selected for auditing. The Price request is directly related to the work order information.   

Key system issues concerning price requests include: 

• Inboxes – All users have an inbox in which price requests are received and forwarded to the next user in the flow, similar to a mailbox. Management has tools that inform about any possible bottlenecks caused by users (e.g. too many requests in one inbox) or under- utilization of resources (e.g. too few price requests per user). 

• A data driven workflow – The stages and states that the price request goes through are based on a set of rules encoded in database tables. This also allows the workflow to be flexible. For example, a price request issued for goods originating from the U.K. can be sent directly by the system to ICS’ price research office in London. However, in cases where ICS has more than one price research office in one country or small geographic area, the system can be programmed to forward the price requests to the coordinator for that country (or area) who will then distribute it based on more specific criteria.