Convera wins customs contract for search technology

Convera, a provider of search and categorization software, won a $2 million contract from the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security, company officials announced Nov. 4.

Customs and Border Protection chose the Vienna, Va., company's RetrievalWare software as the search technology for the Customs and Border Protection Harmonized Tariff Schedule handbook.

RetrievalWare allows online users to quickly pinpoint specific data they need within the tariff handbook, such as import regulations and tariff rates for merchandise.

The handbook will help create a new high-tech trade system to streamline import operations, and offer greater efficiency for Customs and Border Protection staff and the international trade community, according to Convera officials.

The electronic tariff handbook is a component of the Automated Commercial Environment, a new trade processing system. The initial contract for ACE, awarded to prime contractor IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., in 2001, is for five years with two five-year options and has an estimated value of $1.3 billion.