Benefits of a CNS VPN-FM - November 2007

Albacore - CNS VPN-FM - By Marcia Macleod - October 2007

Freight forwarders cannot survive without electronic connections to Customs. Most of these connections are made via one of the community system providers: Community Network Services (CNS), Maritime Cargo Processing (MCP), CusLink or CCS-UK. Community systems take the forwarder's customs declaration, for either export or import cargo, translate it into a format acceptable by HMRC, and transfer it to Customs' CHIEF computer system.

These systems also act as portals, enabling all parties relevant to the movement of any consignment to share data, such as consignee and consignor details, weight and cube of cargo, ship or airline on which the cargo is booked, etc.

While forwarders rely on the services of CNS, MCP and CCS-UK, obtaining secure, dependable and cost-effective connection to the community systems presents a real challenge, especially to smaller agents. ISDN and Kilostream, until recently the only connections allowed by CNS and MCP, are slow and expensive, in the case of ISDN swallowing up money every time a call is made.

Now, however, there is a new solution - a Virtual Private Network (VPN) - and Albacore is the leading CNS approved supplier.

A VPN routes all communication over the Internet, but by using secure routers, it becomes a 'closed', or private network, rather than the 'open', easily accessible Cyberspace. And to make it even safer - and easier - for agents to route confidential information, Albacore provides a Facilities Managed (FM) service, providing 24/7 support and a dial back-up system.

"We can take over connections to CNS and MCP, email and Internet browsing all in one box," explains Cliff Atkinson who, with Andy Puntis, founded Albacore in 1992. "This provides our customers with a faster, more reliable and, in most cases, cheaper connection."

One of the benefits of VPNs is that, being based on broadband, they are always on. "Users don't have to wait to dial up their chosen community service," says Cliff. "Broadband is much faster."

"Through our secure routers, we monitor the status and performance of our customers' connections to CNS and MCP. Our utility software (ASLUtils), which we install on the customer's CNS/MCP gateway PC, not only monitors the connection to CNS and MCP, but also the PC's operation, such as disk space, processor performance and the status of the anti-virus software which is supplied as part of our FM service. This information is relayed back to our 24/7 help desk so that critical conditions can be notified to the duty support engineer."

VPNs are ideal for remote workers, too. "Employees working at home can access the office system easily and safely," Andy adds. "Forwarders know their staff can work from wherever they happen to be, without the risk of unauthorised hackers logging on to the system."

Another advantage to using Albacore's FM service is that if anything goes wrong, Albacore takes full responsibility for fixing it. "There's no ping-ponging between the broadband provider and BT," says Cliff. "It's down to us to make sure it's working correctly."

One customer, Bridge Shipping at Ipswich, had connections to both CNS and MCP, but the latter relied on a very expensive dedicated kilostream. With Albacore's managed service, Bridge Shipping has saved upwards of £5,000 per annum.

Just as important, says director Robert Leek, "Bridge now has a single Internet connection that serves all my company needs. All five of our staff who require access to CNS, MCP and the Internet can use all the facilities whenever and as often as they want, knowing the solution is always available at a fixed monthly fee."

Another company that switched to Albacore's managed service, Puma Cargo, reckons it saved £3,000 per year. And, says director Brian Hobson, the VPN allows Puma to clear both air and sea shipments from either of its two offices, in Leeds and Manchester Airport, spreading the load and providing back-up if one or the other has system problems.

MCP users can also take advantage of the LPD/LPR printing utility, which is included with Albacore's ASLUtils software. This allows outputs from MCP's Destin8 to be printed in the user's office, rather than just being received by email. The ASLUtils software enables different Destin8 outputs to be printed to specified printers, with the administrator having control over the number of copies of each particular output type. Documents can be stored without being printed, if desired. All Destin8 outputs, whether printed or not, are archived to disk so that they can be viewed or re-printed in the future.

"LPD/LPR printing is the best solution," says Andy, "because even if someone is off sick or on holiday, the document will be printed directly without anyone needing to process emails."

Installing a VPN is surprisingly cheap - just £450. Albacore's managed service runs £996 per annum for a CNS connection and an extra £120 per annum for a second connection to MCP. All prices are exclusive of VAT; email, Internet browsing, remote worker access and other extras are charged separately.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of using Albacore's managed VPN is the peace of mind gained from knowing your customs connection will never let you down. And, since ISDN will be phased out before too long anyway, why wait to upgrade the technology essential to run your business?