Pilots
Digital trade is fundamentally about making trade cheaper, faster, simpler and more sustainable. To achieve this requires companies and governments to modernise trade systems and use technology solutions to operate effectively in the digital environment. We help companies achieve this so that systems can connect and information can flow across borders without friction, the need for paper or unnecessary manual and bureaucratic processes.
If you would like to understand how to digitalise trade operations or be involved in a digitalisation pilot, get in touch!
Needs Accelerator
Investigating systems to identify problems and potential solutions either internally or across supply chains is a key first step to testing the implementation of standardised digital processes and systems. Our Needs Accelerator programme provides a 6 week, pre-pilot opportunity to enable companies to identify where problems may exist and what the solutions are.
Needs Accelerator Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Needs Accelerator?
A structure for organisations in trade to harness external collaboration to solve mission-critical challenges.
What does it entail?
C4DTI will bring together stakeholders from across trade to discuss challenge areas. These challenge areas will be researched to prioritise a mission-critical opportunity to trial and implement new technology.
The Needs Accelerator designs suitable pilots to test these emerging technologies, ensuring their success and their interoperability across the trade industry.
The Needs Accelerator is a 4-stage process:
1.Challenge identification
2.Research into challenge areas
3.Pilot prioritisation
4.Pilot design
What is C4DTI’s role?
C4DTI’s mission is to support the consistent adoption and implementation of interoperable laws, rules, standards frameworks and technology solutions. The Centre’s role in the Needs Accelerator is pivotal – it has the ability to convene the right industry stakeholders and ensure challenges and pilots consider relevant standards and policy.
Cross-Border Pilots
Pilots are a necessary part of testing the implementation of technology solutions and standardised processes and systems to ensure all stakeholders are operating effectively in a real-world cross-border digital environment. Our pilots guarantee all parties in a transaction are adopting the same international legal, standards and rules frameworks within a supportive, managed environment.
We use a common Playbook approach to ensure every pilot is following international best practice and is consistent with similar exercises being undertaken elsewhere in the world.
Our approach will also ensure that before any pilot is embarked on, we will capture both private and public sector requirements and, crucially, we will identify in advance the “route to scalability” – stating in principle what success would look like and what the business model for any successful technical solution would be in the real world of trade logistics and data management.
Crucially these pilots will focus on outcomes for the end user – regardless of size, commodity, trade corridor or existing intermediary suppliers.
Singapore
Our first pilots will be between UK and Singapore – following their passage of MLETR type legislation and the recent signature between the two jurisdictions of the Digital Economy Agreement- with more to follow in other trade corridors. The aim will be to test systems and develop a uniform, scalable approach to digitalisation pilots worldwide in cooperation with the ICC Digital Standards Initiative – a common Playbook.
C4DTI is an official delivery partner working with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)- each acting on behalf of and with a strong mandate from their respective governments. The pilots will help operationalise the Digital Economy Agreement framework and operate under the oversight of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Ministry of Communications and Information in Singapore.