Seamless customs processes during peak season at MS Direct
MS Direct faced a complex system migration right in the middle of the e-commerce peak. With AEB, a smooth transition was ensured – with increased transparency as well as new and expanded service offerings for customers.
Challenge
"The changeover was extremely successful and allows us to ensure an even higher standard of service. All agreed SLAs were met without any negative impact. For the vast majority of our customers, the change went completely unnoticed."
Ole Zimmer, Head of Global Customs
MS Direct supports international online retailers in cross-border commerce, in particular when shipping to Switzerland and the UK. The company manages all relevant processes centrally via its own shipping platform – from classification to shipping and returns. Customs clearance is an integrated part of this holistic solution. In the course of the changeover from e-dec to Passar, new requirements for the existing system landscape arose. The previously used on-premises customs tool could only meet these requirements to a limited extent. A new solution therefore had to be implemented in time for the migration to Passar 1.0. The deadline was clearly set, meaning that the implementation coincided with the most intensive phase of the year. During Black Friday, the fall sales season, and growing shipment volumes, the implementation ran in parallel with ongoing operations.
At the same time, customers expected maximum stability. Delays, errors, or compliance failures were not an option. It was a highly challenging situation, which was made even more difficult by the prevailing time pressure.
The goal was clear: to implement a complex transformation project under high pressure – without any impact on day-to-day business.
An important prerequisite for success was the integration into the company's own cross-border platform. As a result, MS Direct was not only able to automate large parts of the customs clearance process and thereby optimize internal processes, but could also offer completely new services to customers:
customs status queries via API at package level, download of customs documents, and transparent insights into all relevant data points of the customs process, including for its own internal audits.
The implementation followed a tight schedule and a clearly structured approach: Each changeover was preceded by a comprehensive test run, enabling potential failures to be identified and resolved early on, without impacting customer processes. At the same time, the tests served to validate data and to fine-tune the processes in a targeted manner. Individual requirements were flexibly mapped in parallel using templates and additional fields.
One of the main components of the new system was the individual customs clearance, which could thus continue to be made available to customers. Thanks to almost unlimited scalability, thousands of shipments per truck can be handled efficiently, in accordance with regulations, and with complete transparency.
Result
About MS Direct AG
MS Direct is a Swiss provider of fulfillment and cross-border e-commerce solutions with locations in Switzerland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. MS Direct manages international shipping processes centrally and automatically via its own shipping platform. From customs clearance to shipping and returns, the company covers all relevant steps in cross-border e-commerce and enables straightforward connection to existing shops and systems.