NCTS Migration and transition strategy
Annex 3
Part I – General Requirements & Principles for the transition or migration towards NCTS Phase 5
1. Legal requirements as established in the UCC DA-IA & TDA and in the UCC WP. The
UCC WP defines the deployment window for the Member States and traders for the updated
of NCTS (Phase 5) as 1/10/2019 (earliest start date of operations) - 2/03/2020 (latest date by
which a MS and its traders have to be migrated). Therefore, the common domain and external
domain as part of the scope of the updated NCTS are subject to this window.
2. Common domain part of NCTS Phase 5 should be ready as from the start date of the
deployment window, i.e. 1/10/2019 and MS can define when to commence NCTS Phase 5
operations and when to determine the end of NCTS Phase 4 operations for their traders, both
possible up to 2/03/2020. After this date, there cannot be any old type declaration lodged
anymore and handled in the common domain.
Whilst the need for a migration into 2 steps was discussed mainly in the PG for AES; a
similar approach could be considered for the migration towards the updated NCTS. The idea
would be to: firstly, establish the data migration (changes to the existing messages) till a date
agreed before 1/03/2020 and secondly, switch on the new functional processes and the related
new messages once all MS (and CTC Partner Countries) have migrated (towards the end of
the window). However, all new NCTS requirements and specifications should be developed
and tested in one go prior to 1/10/2019. This is to avoid a separate functional phasing which
would require additional testing and therefore impossible within a short deployment window
of 5 months.
3. Movements started in NCTS Phase 4 should be continued and closed with old type
messages. In principle, this means NCTS Phase 4 is to be maintained until all MS and traders
have moved to NCTS Phase 5 (though realising the cost aspect for operating 2 systems in
parallel). A deadline should be defined for how long NCTS Phase 4 has to be available for
closing NCTS Phase 4 movements and for other MS enquiries (IE904, IE027) and
cancellations (IE010). Normally, if we apply NTCA follow up procedure we must have a
maximum of 150 days for closing old NCTS Phase 4 movements  we could for instance
suggest that NCTS Phase 4 movements could be managed up to 10/2020.
4. Define and ensure commitment towards important milestones and coordinate and monitor
progress reporting from MS against these milestones (based on national planning
requirements stipulated in the UCC WP). A similar approach is to be applied towards the
CTC Partner Countries.
5. Publish clear overviews of the IT environment to be used by traders (only NCTS Phase 4,
only NCTS Phase 5, both) per MS & CTC Partner Countries.
6. Establish common specifications for the handling of the different types of old versus new
type messages ('B', 'C') in the different environments.
7. Reflect more deeply on interdependent migration of AES and NCTS.
NCTS Migration and transition strategy
Annex 3
8. Reflect on migration of interfacing systems at EU and national level (customs decisions
system, EOS, national risk management systems, etc).
9. Consider the impact of the different possibilities. COM and MS/CTC Partner countries
must perform a transition / migration functional and technical impacts study with various
scenarios as soon as possible.
10. Define a feasible migration strategy document for AES and NCTS to be discussed in
ECCG (CBG) and TCG meetings in 2nd half 2016.
11. Ensure business continuity during the migration period and define additional legal
requirements where needed. It is considered that this business continuity will be complex and
will require detailed analysis and discussion.
Part II - Migration scenarios proposed by PG
Two approaches for migrating to NCTS Phase 5 are possible in theory:
(1)
Big bang: all Member States start at the same moment on the same day. From a
system point of view, this is easier to implement because old messages will not be
exchanged any more after the big bang happens. But from an organisational point of
view, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to coordinate the 28 Member
States, the other CTC Partner Countries and the trader communities to start new
operations on the same day.
This scenario is not supported by the UCC WP.
However, for countries which favour a big bang strategy, this Big Bang could be
defined at national level at a moment within the deployment window (national big
bang i.e. all traders will be expected to migrate on the date the country itself migrate to
NCTS Phase 5) – see hereafter (2). This will not create difficulties for other countries
which need more flexibility and time to migrate all their traders (External and national
domain).
(2)
Deployment window: a time window is available during which Member States (see
UCC WP) and CTC Partner Countries (see amended CTC) can choose and plan
individually their start date of new operations and provide a deadline for their traders
for having migrated (smaller countries prefer a national big bang, whilst bigger
countries need a long window to migrate all their traders). This also allows an adaptive
approach to the differences in countries and ensures a gradual and feasible migration
of traders until the legal deadline is reached. This approach is technically more
complex as the national systems will have to support both old type NCTS Phase 4 ('B')
messages and new type NCTS Phase 5 ('C') messages during the deployment window.
Big Bang or not MS will have to cope with 2 types of messages unless COM is in
charge of the message translation
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The practical implications of a big bang approach, needing all MS and CTC Partner countries
to swap from old to new systems on a single day (with COM + 28 MS + CTC Partner
Countries + thousands of traders) will not be feasible. This was clearly stated by MS during
the preparation of the UCC WP update (exercise launched in 2015) and has finally led to the
agreement of a new approach in the planning of the updated NCTS project i.e. from a single
date of starting operations to a deployment window (see UCC WP Decision No 2016/578 of
11 April 2016).
To this end, the PG on NCTS discussed in its meeting in June, the possible scenarios for the
migration to NCTS Phase 5. The following outcome can be reported:
Migration Scenario 1
The above schema was developed during the first meeting discussions. For the countries that have
moved to NCTS Phase 5, the traders can submit new and old type messages (for the period
established by that country). If new type messages are lodged, there should be a downgrading to old
type messages if they need to be transmitted to a country still in NCTS Phase 4. The countries that
moved to NCTS Phase 5 should keep NCTS Phase 4 operational in parallel. In this schema the
convertion of messages is done by MS.
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Migration Scenario 2 – PG Preferred Alternative
In a follow up discussion, the PG expressed clearly its preference for this schema, which foresees that
the translation/convertion of messages is carried out by a central component developed and
managed by COM.