From Case study, what are your recommendations to this company to modernize work? Case study Bermuda Import

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From Case study, what are your recommendations to this company to modernize work?

Case study

Bermuda Import & Export (BIECO) is a family-owned import business, started in 1949. Graham Fowle, the grandson of the original owner and current company president, gradually expanded company lines, starting with the addition of produce and alcohol. Bermuda Import & Export now has 25 employees and carries produce, seafood, groceries, alcohol, dry and frozen goods, and some dairy and meat. The majority of goods are perishable items. Bermuda is a small market of 21 square miles; the company sells to all available outlets, including restaurants, hotels, resorts, clubs, grocery and convenience stores. There are no consumer retail sales.

In Bermuda, everything is imported – and nothing comes into the island without some type of import fee/cost. BIECO brings in two containers of produce (not including seafood and alcohol) weekly. The containers usually arrive on Sunday night and Monday morning, and produce must be pre-cleared through H.M. Customs – Bermuda (Customs) in time for delivery to restaurants, shops, and hotels early on Monday morning. This requires a deposit to be paid in advance on all pre-cleared items of 1½ times their normal duty rate.

The old system of managing tracking and invoicing of shipments through Customs was time and labor-intensive. It involved a complicated spreadsheet, with manual entry of the details of each individual item. These details included (but were not limited to) vessel information, voyage number, bill of lading, container information, date of arrival, Customs Procedural Codes, tariff numbers, country of origin, purchase order number, wharfage charges (assessed against cargo, vessel’s stores, fuel and supplies for passage on, over, under or through any wharf) and vessel details.