What is EMAN?
EMAN stands for Electronic Data Interchange - Manifest, or EDI Manifest. The EMAN system has been developed jointly by the Customs and Excise Department, the Trade and Industry Department as well as the Census and Statistics Department. It provides a one-stop channel for submission of manifests in respect of cargo transported by rail, ocean/river and air, which will then disseminate the manifest data received to different government departments for various purposes. The first phase of EMAN which focuses on building an infrastructure for receiving cargo manifests electronically came into service in April 2003 while the second phase, which will enhance the processing efficiency of backend systems, is expected to be implemented in 2005. The project when fully completed will considerably streamline the process of trade control and enhance Government's ability in monitoring the import and export of cargoes and compiling related statistics.
Note to River Carriers :
Tradelink and Guangdong Nanfang Communication Group Coporation specially have worked out the "China-HK Cargo Manifest Interface" for river trade shipments. With this establishment, river carriers are able to input just once the cargo manifest data and send to both Tradelink and Guangdong Nanfang.
How it works?
Your data and the iTTS gateway from Tradelink are all you need. Before submission, all manifest data should be pre-processed by the iTTS gateway. You may either directly key in data to the iTTS gateway or feed your data into the gateway by means of XML files of specified format.
How to implement?
It depends on whether you have got your own shipping system or not. If you do not have a shipping system at all, then you have to key in manifest data directly to iTTS gateway.
In case you have your own shipping system which is able to provide sufficient information for generating an EMAN XML file, then you would probably prefer to work out a system module to extract manifest data, and then export an XML file in EMAN required format for importing to iTTS gateway. The latter eliminates duplication of data input to your system and to the iTTS gateway.
| Figure-1 : EMAN workflow with iTTS gateway. |
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Parts in yellow, namely providing proper shipping system, building a data export module and constructing XML files in iTTS accepted format, are what Practisys could do for your company.
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What Practisys could help?
If you already have a shipping system and need help for interfacing with iTTS gateway, please feel free to contact us for system studies.
If you need a shipping system which is surely EMAN ready, then you may consider our PractiShipping systems - all are EMAN ready.
If you have a stringent budget, or you don't want to invest for a full system at this moment, then you may consider implementing an affordable and easy-to-implement B/L Documentation module. Contact us for more details.
| Figure-2 : Manifest Data Export Module Sample Interface |
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