B3 Form Building Services for a Canadian Customs Broker: A Case Study

B3 Form Building Services

The Customer

A leading international freight forwarder and customs broker in Canada that provides fully integrated services to help customers with complex international trade regulations and customs clearance.

The Challenge

The Canada Customs Coding Form, commonly referred to as the B3 Form, is a detailed online accounting report to be submitted to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for customs clearance of shipments into Canada. Timely B3 form submission is critical for completion of formalities with Canada Customs. Customs brokers have to face hefty fines on behalf of their clients in case of inaccuracies or delays in B3 form submission.

The customer approached Flatworld to outsource their data processing for B3 form completion.

For the customer, this meant giving us access to highly confidential documentation pertaining to shipments. Their main concerns were:

  • Data privacy and security of shipment information
  • Turnaround time
  • Error rates in B3 forms processed

Flatworld has over 20 years of experience in data processing services for global customers across various industry sectors. However, it was clear that this project went beyond routine data entry and would demand of our personnel, a much higher level of engagement. This meant hiring the right kind of people with excellent computational and analytical skills, high level of commitment and a willingness to learn.

The Project

Flatworld decided to take on these challenges head-on. We started off by hand-picking a dedicated team of five skilled individuals for the project.

As a first step, the customer's transition expert visited our Development Center to conduct an in-depth, on-the-job training of our team. The training, held at our state-of-the-art training facility in Bangalore, covered all aspects of data processing for customs brokers with a special focus on Canadian customs clearance regulations and B3 form building. Flatworld's core team was made completely proficient on all rules and regulations, documentation, terminology and processes required for data processing for customs brokers and B3 form generation.

Full fledged operations began within the first few weeks of training. After project roll-out, the Transition Manager was involved with the initial monitoring of the project. Project heads and Quality Assurance experts were assigned. Quality Assurance measures and communication protocols were finalized. Individual targets were fixed for team members both in terms of quantity and quality of output.

Results during the first month of operations surpassed customer's expectations. Our team delivered completed B3 forms with high levels of accuracy and well within the required turnaround time. A few months into the project, the focus moved to reducing error rates even further and streamlining workflows.

Success Factors

Over the months of operation, Flatworld has added value to its relationship with the customer by bringing in various inputs into the project -

Dual monitors: Each member of the data processing team works on two separate screens. This aids to better viewing of scanned document images on one screen and precise data input on the second screen.

Dedicated training facility: Flatworld's dedicated and fully equipped training facility greatly enhanced the quality and focus of the training imparted through the transition period of the project.

Total data security and confidentiality: We understood the legitimate concerns that the customer had about data privacy and safety. The security measures at Flatworld such as firewall protected networks, secure and encrypted servers and restricted access to our systems and work premises show our commitment to data privacy. These are just a few of the measures we have taken to ensure that our customer's data is completely safe and confidential at Flatworld.

Read more about our data privacy and confidentiality measures in data processing services for customs brokers.

Transition management: Flatworld had worked out a detailed transition strategy for the initial stages of this project. This approach went a long way in helping to see the project get off the ground without the usual problems of offshoring.

The Results

Flatworld has scaled up to 50 dedicated team members working exclusively on this project. We have detailed training manuals and documentation for knowledge transfer purposes as well as an in-house training specialist for training of all new recruits on the project.

We are now well into the first year of our project and the results are remarkable. The project has grown and stabilized into a self-sustaining model with little need for intervention from the customer's end. The customer is extremely satisfied with the results obtained up to now.

Read more about Flatworld's additional services for customs brokerage companies.

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