In an increasingly interconnected customs landscape, efficient and reliable communication between national authorities is crucial. HMRC, the UK's leading revenue and customs department, faced significant challenges in managing its diverse interactions with EU member states through the Common Communication Network (CCN). The complexity of implementing individual CCN/CSI interfaces for each application created a technical bottleneck that threatened to undermine operational efficiency. Vivansa's expertise in customs systems integration provided the ideal solution: a centralized EU Gateway powered by our proven lxr.CCN technology.
Context and challenges
HMRC's international operations depend on constant data exchange with both EU Member State Authorities and EU Central Services. Prior to Vivansa's involvement, each application requiring CCN connectivity needed to implement its own CCN/CSI interface — a costly process requiring specialised knowledge of the complex, proprietary C-language CSI API. The technical complexity required scarce specialist skills that were difficult to recruit and retain; the decentralised approach created redundancy and inefficiency across systems; each new application increased costs and implementation timelines; and the lack of standardization complicated maintenance and upgrades across the application landscape.
HMRC recognised the need for a central shared point for systems connectivity to the CCN network — an "EU Gateway" component providing a layer of separation between internal systems and the external CCN interface, so internal systems could be built independently from the implementation details of external integration.
Vivansa's mission
Leveraging our extensive experience with similar connectivity challenges, Vivansa was selected to adapt our existing CCN/CSI connector technology to meet HMRC's specific requirements: to design, implement, and support a robust, high-performance integration solution that would become the backbone of HMRC's European data exchange operations.
Working in close partnership with ASPIRE (the consortium of Capgemini, Fujitsu, Accenture, and BT responsible for HMRC's IT services), Vivansa undertook an 18-month implementation project. Our team employed a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach using Java and Oracle WebLogic to create a standardised gateway interface.
The resulting solution — lxr.CCN — provided a software connector that abstracted the complexity of the CCN/CSI protocol, offering HMRC applications a simpler, standardized way to exchange data through the trans-European network. After successful integration into HMRC's EU Gateway, Vivansa was further entrusted with second-level support and maintenance for the lxr.CCN product — a testament to its critical importance in HMRC's IT landscape.
Outcomes
Initially rolled out on 1 January 2010 to support the Excise Movement Control System (EMCS), the gateway's use expanded over time to support other critical EU applications including the Import Control System (ICS), EU VAT, Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS), and ITR (UK EOS).
Today, the EU Gateway processes hundreds of millions of messages annually with exceptional reliability. The centralised approach has significantly reduced development and maintenance costs while enabling faster deployment of new applications requiring CCN connectivity. Most recently, Vivansa supported HMRC in migrating the EU Gateway from GB CCN to XI CCN to address the requirements introduced by Brexit — demonstrating the solution's flexibility in adapting to major regulatory changes.
What makes this story particularly noteworthy is the extraordinary longevity of the solution. Now in its fourteenth year of production operation, the lxr.CCN connector continues to evolve — recently upgraded to support the NJCSI stack — reflecting both the enduring value of the original architecture and the strength of the ongoing partnership between Vivansa and HMRC.