DECCS Making Remote Export Licensing Easier, More Improvements Coming, DDTC Says

The State Department is working to improve its new online licensing system and wants to establish an industry working group to help the system run smoothly, said Karen Wrege, chief information officer at the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Wrege said she was surprised at how quickly industry acclimated to the Defense Export Control and Compliance System (see 2002040060 and 1905070055), which she said has made export licensing processes easier for those working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In my experience, when a new system goes online … there's a period of time where people really need to adjust to the new system. And this adjustment can take four or six or even eight months,” Wrege said in an Oct. 6 press call. “What we found in this instance is that because of this thrust into telework ... participants and internal users really adapted to the system very quickly.”

She said that many of the “main players,” including defense exporters, were “able to just hit the ground running and not have any issues at all bringing their applications into” DDTC. The system has been more challenging for those using the system less frequently, Wrege said, such as manufacturers that don’t export. “Those are the people that we’re really trying to help get acclimated quickly,” she said.

Since launching DECCS in February, Wrege said, DDTC has received more than 38,000 help desk questions. In response, DDTC has “bolstered” its help desk and issued a range of guidance, Wrege said, including more than 400 frequently asked questions. DDTC also worked closely with the Defense Trade Advisory Group on DECCS, which has made several recommendations, including an “automated programming interface … where [users] can do more machine-to-machine transfer of information to us.”

DDTC is also working with the Office of Management and Budget for approval for a working group of “business and technical people,” Wrege said. She said she hopes to hold quarterly sessions with the group to work on system improvements.

The agency has made several improvements to DECCS since its launch, including the ability for users to copy license applications they had already submitted so they don’t have to submit the same information a second time, she said. DDTC also allows users to submit supplemental details to their registration applications and commodity jurisdiction applications after they have been adjudicated.

Wrege said DECCS has helped export licensing run smoothly and is a big improvement on the previous system, which relied heavily on paper. “Frankly, I couldn't really believe the state of things when I got to the directorate back in December of 2014,” she said. “[Users are now] able to work from home, be safe, and they’re starting to really see the potential of the DECCS system to make their life easier and to allow for better work-life balance.”