Technologies are highly used in workplaces
Introduction
Background of the study
Technologies have evolved over the last few decades, and they have shaped how people carry out their daily activities, whether at home, workplaces, shopping, and traveling. With increased practical and useful technologies, people get to perform different activities without struggling. The use of technology today has become a necessity for a business to succeed, remain relevant in the market as well as compete fairly with the business competitors. Some of the main areas technologies are being used to help in daily activities include the communication sector where two or more individuals can communicate with one another while they are located in different geographical locations. This can happen through email, messaging, phone calls, or any other available ways to interact with friends or families. Another sector where technologies are mainly implemented is in workplaces to prepare documents, save information to be retrieved later, and securing crucial information so that authorized individuals can only access it.
Technologies are highly used in workplaces, from running types of machinery to storing important information, packaging products, employee interaction using various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A firm also gets to interact with its clients get feedback about their products and the areas that the customer is not contented. If the organization is customer-oriented, they will take the feedback positively and act on the mentioned areas. Although there are a lot of benefits brought by the implementation of technologies, blind application of techniques can be frustrating. As a result, one can lose money, resources and time used to implement the wrong technologies. Therefore, before choosing the technology to perform in a specific business, one should effectively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages to make sure that they are aware of the technology they are going to implement.
The use of technologies helps to enhance work efficiency, and both the owner of an organization as well as the employees benefit from technology implementation. In different countries, organizations, and also communities, there are different views regarding technologies. According to some traditions, technology use leads to unemployment because some of these technologies, such as robots and other artificial intelligence innovations, are capable of performing some duties better than human beings, and individuals feel the technologies are threats to their jobs. In different customs, technologies receive a warm welcome since they view technologies as a way of making it easy to perform various tasks without using a lot of effort. In some situations, they reduce the cost of production. The customs of Saudi Arabia differ from other countries such as the U.S.A, and businesses need to be aware of this before importing or exporting some items. In contrast, other things are permanently prohibited in Saudi Arabia.
Literature Review
Introduction
In this section, I will evaluate electronic customs, risk management, custom procedures and regulations, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, objectives of the study as well as research questions.
Risk Management
Risk management is the process of identifying, evaluating, and controlling potential threats to a company’s earnings and capital (Rouse, 2020). To make sure that the regulations set are effectively implemented, technologies can be applied in Saudi Arabia customs to make sure that they have effectively identified existing or possible risks that can happen. The process of risk management begins by establishing a context, and this will help to perceive the circumstances in which the entire process will take place. Technologies can help to identify risks that can have an impact on the operations of the custom. Once the risks are identified, if there are effective technologies installed, they will determine the impact of the risk, how they can be reduced or solved permanently. The risk analysis helps to effectively determine possible risks that have a possibility of occurring, their likelihood of occurring, how they can be mitigated, and how an organization can prevent similar and other risks from occurring (Rouse, 2020).
Custom procedures and regulations
The taxes and customs duties on imports in Saudi Arabia are usually at 4.85%. To begin with, Saudi Arabia is known for its strict rules and regulations when it comes to particular items and products due to security and religious reasons. Some of the items banned from being imported in Saudi Arabia include non-medical-drugs, alcohol, and also a large number of non-Islamic religious items as well as other materials that are considered to be offensive according to the Islamic religion (Export Enterprises SA, 2020). Also, the import of electronic equipment as well as weapons, is highly regulated for security purposes. There are several documentary regulations needed for the expedition of products in Saudi Arabia.
A sanitary certificate is required to import meat products, and the meat should be delivered by veterinarian services from the country exporting the products and also a slaughter certificate to indicate that the animal was slaughtered as per the Islamic rites. The documents are supposed to be stamped by these organizations: “Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the exporter country, “bilateral” Chamber of Commerce, Consulate of Saudi Arabia from the exporter country.” (Government of Saudi Arabia, 2020). Doing some of the above tasks might involve a lot of energy to complete, and the strategy used might be inaccurate. To make sure that the activities are effective and accurate technologies are used.
The import procedures should be followed strictly, and there are several documents required to get customs clearance in Saudi Arabia, and the procedures and list keep on changing from time to time. The lists of documents include; Saudi Arabian Standard of Origin (SASO) certificate of conformity, and it is given by a verified certification body from the state of origin, “A clean bill of lading or airway bill.” (Government of Saudi Arabia, 2020). Another significant document is the certificate of origin verified by a local chamber of commerce, and it should be translated into Arabic. Customs invoice is a requirement for most products being imported to Saudi Arabia, although there is an exception with products that do not have significant value. Another document is a commercial invoice, clearly indicating the name of the carrier, country of origin, the quantity of products and brand, and detailed description of the products being imported included their value and weight. The last document is an insurance document that requires the original document to be accompanied by a Saudi Arabia’s translation. There is another exception to the samples being imported in Saudi Arabia to be displayed in exhibitions or shows. Samples, therefore, do not go through Saudi Arabia shelf life and labeling regulations, but they are inspected at the ports upon entering Saudi Arabia. If a product is being imported to Saudi Arabia as a sample, it should have a commercial invoice clearly indicating that the product should not be sold, and it has no commercial value (Export Enterprises SA, 2020).
Electronic Customs
A mandatory electronic customs clearance system was implemented on January 1 2014 by the SFDA (Saudi Food and Drug Authority) for all food products imported into Saudi Arabia. The e-clearance will include every type of food product being imported, including packed food products and also raw materials to be used in food processing (Riyadh, 2013). As a way of making sure that all importers are included in the e-clearance, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority has requested or importers who import products as well as customs brokers to fill an online registration process of their goods and contacts details at the Saudi Food and Drug Authority website Imported Food Control Department. They were given a deadline to make sure that everyone participated in the exercise. The SFDA stated that after the deadline, they were not going to accept importation of food products from custom brokers and importers who are not registered on E-clearance (Riyadh, 2013). Local importers are the ones responsible for the registration of imported products. All the importers are required to create an E-Account and set up their personal username and password. Once they have opened the E-Account, the importers can upload their food product details, including bar code harmonized code, item code, and listed ingredients in Arabic and English and Arabic and also a copy of the product labels. The product label should include all details needed by the Gulf Standard Regulation.
Research questions
How has Saudi Arabia been able to implement e-clearance in its customs?
How have the use of technology helped to improve work efficiency at customs?
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate different technologies being used at customs in Saudi Arabia and how they have helped to evolve from traditional ways of doing things to the modern ways being implemented.
Project scope
The focus of this study will be to access various technologies currently being used at customs in Saudi Arabia. I will also evaluate the effectiveness of the technologies being used to come up with various improvements that can be added to the existing technologies and what can be done to make sure that technologies being used are up to standards. To add on this, new technologies are being introduced to the market on a daily basis, and evaluating the technologies to select the ones that suit a specific task should e considered a priority.