SPIRE has revolutionised the export control industry. Its award-winning technology has transformed a complex archaic paper-based manual process with multiple systems into one centralised, highly secure, paperless web-based system.

An end-to-end electronic system for processing export licence applications for goods controlled by the UK Government - SPIRE ensures each step of the application process is tracked, dated and timed, giving organisations the flexibility and control to monitor status and progress.

UK Export licence applications for controlled goods are sent electronically to BIS (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) to process. These are then approved or rejected on the advice of other government departments (including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and, the Department for International Development).

SPIRE was developed to:

• Simplify and improve the services offered to UK Exporters.
• Provide a step change improvement in the efficiency of the business processes within both the UK Export Control Organisation and across the wider UK Government Export Licensing processes.
• Replace the disparate and numerous IT and paper-based systems supporting the current business processes. The various systems had grown organically over a number of years and were not providing the flexibility and functionality required.
• Provide secure web-based access to major government departments as well as thousands of UK exporters, including major multi-nationals.

One central web-based system for export licence applications

SPIRE is now the only system in the UK to process licence applications for the export of strategic goods. It is a highly sophisticated, business-to-government and government-to-government system for export licensing, as well as being security accredited to UK Government Restricted Level.

SPIRE's flexibility has allowed the Ministry of Defence to include their pre-licensing approval application on the system. This process is owned and run by MoD and completes the single system principle for the export community.

The system has brought the following benefits to the industry:

• Environmental impact minimized - paper consumption cut by up to 95% in the first year. Approximately 3 million pages are saved each year, equating to 15 tonnes of paper or 364 trees*.
• Greater efficiency - approx 17,000 licence applications and over 4,000 enquiries are submitted each year.
• Increased productivity – less manual processing – allowing teams to spend more quality time on the decision making processes.
• Reduction in carbon footprint and energy costs - couriers to transport licence information between Government departments across UK have completely disappeared.
• Greater flexibility, control and scalability – adapting to increased demands. The system has grown steadily at a rate of 5% per month with over 11,600 users across 5,600 organisations and up to 1,100 logins a day.

Data securely encrypted to UK Government Restricted Level

All data sent between exporters and BIS (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) is securely encrypted to UK Government Level Restricted. Documents and forms are submitted to SPIRE and are securely stored with full audit trail facilities implemented. At the end of the licensing process, an electronic digitally signed licence is issued from SPIRE using specialised document creation and digital signature technology.

SPIRE is used daily by Exporters and Traders, BIS (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills), The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for International Development, HM Revenue and Customs and Government Communications Headquarters.

The system has over 11,600 active users across 5,600 organisations with up to 1,100 logins a day. It comprises of multiple systems including the following:

• Standard Individual Export Licensing System
• Standard Individual Trading Controls Licensing System
• Open Export Licensing System
• Open Trading Controls Licensing System
• General Open Licence Registration System
• Exporter (Companies and Individuals) Records System
• Compliance Visits and Records System

Publicly searchable statistics

The excellent quality of data produced by SPIRE has enabled a publicly searchable database, which allows anyone in the world access to data about the UK Government’s export licences. This information is key to Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and parliamentary committees to keep informed on what licences have been issued or refused by the Government.

*source printgreener.com.