Case Study The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agency DHS/CBP is engaged in a $3 Billion, multi-year modernization effort to update its cargo processing systems. This effort began in 2001 with the development of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), a replacement for CBP's mainframe applications. The purpose of ACE is to streamline business processes, ensure cargo security and combat terrorism through monitoring materials and persons that enter and leave the country. It also improves the efficiency of compliance with U.S. government mandates in global commerce. By the end of 2016, the ACE will become 'The Single Window' through which the trade community will process imports and whereby the U.S. will determine admissibility and secure delivery to the homeland. Manual processes will be streamlined and automated; paper will be eliminated, and the international trade community will be able to easily and efficiently comply with U.S. laws and regulations. ACE currently supports the automated processing of worldwide air, rail, sea and truck electronic manifests, as well as the filings of Custom's brokerage firms which permit fast and efficient determination of admissibility into the commerce of the U.S., including whether incoming cargo poses a security risk. CMW Services and Solutions for Customs & Border Protection's ACE Program: CMW has been providing the ACE modernization effort with technical leadership, as well as design and implementation support, since the program's inception. We provide decomposition of legacy systems, application security architecture, and quantitative models used to build CBP's modernized cargo applications. The design of the applications addresses the needs of Internal Affairs (Bureau of Professional Responsibility) for traditional law enforcement integrity monitoring. We provide homeland security solutions for all modes of transport and all ports of entry. The modernized system expedites evaluation of incoming cargo by various criteria shared with other government agencies, including defense against terrorist activity or illegitimate trade. CMW specializes in the interoperability of multiple applications and massive data streams. The Online Transition Processing (OLTP) transaction volume represents 16% of the nation's GDP ($18 Trillion in imports). ACE generates about $39B in Federal revenue for the U.S. Treasury. CMW has an in-depth understanding of the business processes that CBP utilizes for cargo imports, as well as an understanding of the factors required to evaluate the admissibility legitimacy for cargo, crew, and other persons. CMW understands the processes used for the cargo manifest declaration, entry processing and cargo release procedures. Our company is integral to the functioning U.S. Custom's Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with the worldwide trade and government community, system integration and interoperability of applications across the enterprise. CMW plays an integral role in supporting the implementation of electronic protocol guides and standards for exchanging data within the Trade such as ANSI X.12, CUSCAR, CAMIR, CATAIR, MEDPID, and UN/EDIFACT. We support defining system requirements, business rules and use cases required for effective U.S. Customs modernization. Our support allows CBP to quickly determine if incoming cargo poses a risk; reduces wait times at ports of entry and enhances the visibility of the status of incoming cargo, crew and conveyances.