March-1-2000

Announcing AESWebLink
Integrating Your Internet Application with AESDirect

On October 4, 1999 the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, launched AESDirect, its highly anticipated, free Internet SED filing service. "Since its first day, the service has been working without a hitch rapidly attracting the attention of freight forwarders and exporters. As of today, over 450 companies have registered to use AESDirect, filing at a rate of over 40,000 shipments per month," said Robert Foley, President of Flagship Customs Services, Inc. (FCS), the company that developed and operates the service for the Census Bureau. "The Census Bureau is extremely pleased with the operation and industry response to AESDirect. We intend to improve the system with enhancements to make it even more effective for the U.S. export trade community," said Chuck Woods, Assistant Division Chief for Data Collection in the Foreign Trade Division at the Census Bureau.

With the service firmly established and growing, the Census Bureau is announcing the first in a series of major upgrades designed to make it easier for companies to integrate their operations with AESDirect.

The first of these enhancements is AESWebLink. "AESWebLink represents a whole new level of service and integration that will make it easier and more efficient for companies to utilize AESDirect," Foley said.

"We are aggressively pursuing this option and expect the beta version to be ready to test in a few short months," Woods said.

AESWebLink will enable Internet application developers to pass data from their applications into AESDirect. This will make it easier for end users to enter data into AESDirect and eliminate double entry of data.

AESWebLink is intended as a plug-in capability for sharing information between an AESDirect certified Internet application and AESDirect, streamlining electronic export data capture and information flow, and reducing data entry burdens. "AESWebLink is a perfect example of how to use the interoperability and pervasiveness of the Internet, and reflects the trend towards using the Internet to deliver application services," Foley said.

The Census Bureau and FCS are looking for companies to assist in the testing of AESWebLink. Please contact Bob Foley on 301-562-7790 ext. 12 if you are interested.