A Dematerialized process is a process that is no longer using the paper support for transactions. In a commercial transaction the purpose of the paper is first to vehicle the information and secondly to confirm the authenticity of the authority that signed the paper document. These two functions of information transport and signature are now fully supported by electronic means and are now fully operational, it is no longer necessary to make paper the sole support of formalities in general and foreign trade in particular.
The term « dematerialization » means « paperless » and Its importance in foreign trade processes has become crucial.
Today, we notice that both enterprise businesses and our everyday life have been impacted by the paperless procedures. Indeed, currently, most of our tasks can be supported by a computer. Moreover, the use of paper as a support has many constraints and is no longer necessary.
According to Ms. Binta T. Ndiaye, Head of Operations Department at GAINDE 2000, dematerialization aims to provide to an organization, an administration or end customers, a working environment and paperless environment. Indeed, it is generally based on a fully electronic management of data and/or documents produced natively electronic or delivered by partners (administrations, customers, suppliers, etc.) from an electronic processing.
This electronic process is more efficient in the pre-clearance processes that are generally poorly understood by the general public. Ms. Bineta T. Ndiaye explains the process of electronic collection and processing of pre-clearance formalities. According to her, the electronic pre-clearance formalities is the process a collection of all the documents that must be supporting a customs transaction.
Before 2004 it was a very tedious process, considering that the manual collection of documents had a lot of risks such as the loss of time, long delays in processing and delivery time etc…
In 2011, this pre-clearance procedure has become completely paperless foe the benefits of economic operators. With the advent of the Electronic Single Window, ORBUS, which has been operational since 2004, they can collect all their documents supporting their operation from the comfort of their office and send them directly to the customs office for processing, while respecting the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and performance agreed with all stakeholders of the single window (Banks, Insurance, Inspection Companies such as Cotecna, public administrations and Government Agencies…).
ORBUS system was designated to facilitate pre-clearance formalities through electronic exchanges of information and documents amongst the various stakeholders. It allows efficient Trade facilitation with optimization and a good security assurance of operations throughout the clearance procedures.
There is a legal framework that covers ORBUS operations with the Law No. 2008-08 of 25thJanuary 2008 on electronic transactions and protection of personal data.
« The strength of the ORBUS system resides on its human, logistical organization» according to Ms Bineta T. Ndiaye. She emphasized on this, « as stipulated in our quality manual of procedures and information security policy, the satisfaction of our customer requirements and taking into account the needs of all interested parties are our key guidelines.
In addition, performance reports of the whole system are developed monthly and shared with all our partners. Surveys on the satisfaction level are regularly measured together with an annual workshop to share issues and Ideas with our partners.
