Building on its existing HMRC partnership, Netcompany will deliver the next phase of the Trader Support Service for businesses conducting trade between Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (NI) through the facilitation of goods movement in accordance with the Windsor Framework.
The Windsor Framework, agreed in 2023 between the UK and EU, revised the Northern Ireland Protocol by reducing customs checks on goods staying in Northern Ireland, whilst maintaining its access to the EU single market.
Netcompany has been selected by HMRC to implement and operate the next phase of the Trader Support Service (TSS). The contract has a total potential value of £245,186,136 ex-VAT over 7-years, with an anticipated value of £94m over the initial 5-year term. This appointment reflects Netcompany’s mission of responsible digitalisation, collaborating with public sector organisations to provide digital transformation that genuinely improves outcomes for citizens and businesses. With a strong heritage in digital trade and customs systems, the new TSS digital solution will be built on Netcompany’s market-proven ERMIS customs platform, powering the Trader Support Service Portal used by traders. Additionally, Netcompany’s AMPLIO platform will be integrated with ERMIS to provide casework management capabilities, enabling their customer support agents to manage more complex trader enquiries.
ERMIS currently supports HMRC’s transit activities within HMRC Borders and Trade, facilitating over 2 million trade declarations annually in the UK. Across the European Union, ERMIS processes over 20 million declarations and 150 million transactions annually.
The new TSS digital solution will be user-focused and comply with GDS service standards to deliver a more intuitive digital journey that encourages increased self-service and ultimately reduces the administrative burden on businesses, enabling them to focus on trading.
Intelligent guidance will be embedded directly into digital user journeys in this next phase of the TSS portal, which will rapidly adapt to evolving GB-NI trade policy. Users will be digitally supported by agentic AI-powered capabilities to help resolve user queries, whilst maintaining access to trade experts for complex case resolution. A key feature of Netcompany’s solution is to drive ‘channel-shift’ to predominant use of the digital channel for trader support, via increased ease of use, enhanced online guidance and AI-powered assistance.
