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CLIENT STORIES Pioneer Parts with Broker With as few as 200 Customs entries per year, Pioneer Electronics of Canada, Inc. still enjoys significant cost savings from MSR's Automated Customs Clearance System (ACCS). "Although these transactions are few in number," says Don Jackson, Pioneer's traffic manager, "they have multiple line items – often as many as 400 mainly replacement parts". The company imports everything from 60-inch projection television sets to thumb-nail-sized integrated circuits. Goods are shipped mostly from either Malaysia or Japan. Pioneer's approach to Customs clearance is decidedly low key. For example, to input data Jackson uses a 386 stand-alone computer. No files are uploaded or downloaded. The output is printed on Canada Customs B3 forms and presented to Customs in hardcopy. "ACCS enabled us to expand from one familiar format to another" says Jackson. "And by keeping the process in-house, we don't have to pay for other people's errors. We can correct it ourselves and follow up on our own to ensure that it has been carried out." The system also avoided the need to add staff to handle Customs clearance despite a substantial increase in volume. "This helped us to keep our overhead low" he says. "With a corresponding positive impact from the savings on the bottom line." Jackson also likes ACCS's user-friendliness. "It only takes a couple of sessions to train someone to use it productively," he says. "And MSR provides prompt and useful support whenever I need it." In early 1998, Pioneer will be poised to optimize ACCS's value when it upgrades its corporate information technology system and expands on its use of EDI (electronic data interchange). "We plan to link up with CADEX and ACROSS to deal with Customs Canada directly" says Jackson. Other future plans include using data captured by ACCS for other purposes. "We want to eliminate redundancies with other departments in the company" says Jackson. "Pioneer's sales volume has increased substantially since 1990. We expect this annual growth to continue for the next few years. Automated Customs affords us the flexibility to deal with any increase in business without increasing our expenses. It's good infrastructure." Company: Pioneer Electronics of Canada |
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