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I had the great pleasure of touring Ireland a few weeks ago. When we went to the airport for our return home, I was pleasantly surprised to see that US Customs and Immigration processing is now done there, as it is in Canada. Not only that, they also had the GOES (Global Entry System) kiosks there. This approach now allows you to enter the US as if it were a domestic flight since all customs and immigration processing is done before you leave Ireland.

Verification

The end-to-end process is an interesting one. When we checked our bags at the ticket counter, they were tagged as usual, and we were given a tracking number. The bag was now ready to be processed and transported through to our final destination. At that time, the bag was also photographed, yet at this point, I was unaware this took place.

At the Customs and Immigration post, you check in as you normally would and present your passport. At this time the agent scans your passport, asks you questions and then on a screen you can view, presents you with the photo of your bag that was taken when you checked it. You are then asked to verify that this is in fact your bag. If all is OK, and everything is verified, you are on your way.

Consider This

In order to this to happen, there is coordination effort needed across several partners. These include the US, Ireland, the airport, the airlines, and perhaps a few others I am missing. The idea of extending the enterprise to include all related partners in the process is one that I applaud. I am sure it was not an easily accomplished task but the fact it was done and is now functioning as smoothly as I witnessed, is proof that it can be done when the right focus and resource is in place.

In the traditional process, if you have ever traveled internationally, you can relate to what I am about to present. Many times there are long lines and processing times when reentering the US. You have lines waiting to talk with the immigration agents, lines waiting for claiming your bag, lines waiting for processing through customs, lines waiting for putting your bags back into checked luggage, and of course, lines waiting to process through the airport security checkpoint. The worst I have experience was coming back through Los Angeles. I had a three and a half hour layover that should have provided plenty of time for me to get through the process and catch my connecting flight. When all was said and done, I had 10 minutes to find the gate, and board my flight. Thankfully, I made it.

Conclusion

In my view, it is possible to extend the enterprise beyond your own organization. It requires vision, focus, coordination, and resource. The results of these efforts can be hugely beneficial. In the case I presented, not only do you have happy customers, the flying public, you also have a process that captures and processes information at the first touch point, the departure airport. In this way, all of the necessary processing is done at the source. This in turn decreases the effort downstream reducing the burden on the US airports. It also streamlines the process significantly. In this case, from the user perspective, there is an additional 20 minutes required on the front end with one added step. On the back end when you arrive, four steps are eliminated and there is the benefit of time saving which in my case in Los Angeles would have been as much as three hours.

Take time to think about your processes and how extending beyond your enterprise to include your partners, may be of benefit. It might surprise you how much you can gain as a result, not to mention the positive impact on your customers.

What say you?

Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a topic of interest you would like discussed in this forum? Let me know. If you are looking for some great research information from our industry, feel free to visit our research site and download some of our Industry Watch Reports today at www.aiim.org/research

Bob Larrivee, Director of Custom Research – AIIM
Email me: blarrivee@aiim.org

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