In the continuing D-Trade saga at DDTC, part of ELLIE vanished yesterday. ELLIE was the electronic predecessor to D-Trade. DDTC announced that, effective October 12, 2006, ELLIE may no longer be used to file DSP-5, DSP-61 and DSP-73 license applications. ELLIE may now only be used for Form DSP-119 used to amend licenses.

On the same date, DDTC issued updated downloadable versions of forms DSP-5, DSP-61 and DSP-73. By doing so, DDTC implicitly acknowledged that many, if not most, ELLIE users will now download those applications and file them on dead trees rather than through the unnecessarily burdensome and problem-plagued D-Trade system.

The three new license forms, which can be found here, are in Microsoft Word format, rather than in the Fillable PDF format which is used by most federal agencies for downloadable forms. Completed Word forms are more easily saved on computers than their PDF counterparts; on the other hand, Word forms can be harder to fill out properly and allow for more user error than PDF forms.

These new downloadable forms supersede their antiquated carbonless NCR paper versions. DDTC indicates that only one copy of these applications must be filed as opposed to the prior requirement of an original and 7 copies.

Now that DDTC has gotten rid of the last of its carbonless NCR paper forms, it may well be that the only federal agency still using NCR paper forms is BIS, DDTC’s counterpart and arch-rival at the Department of Commerce. BIS’s Form 748P is only available in a non-downloadable version on NCR paper. One wonders why agencies that deal with high-tech licensing issues seem so wedded to antiquated technologies.

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Copyright © 2006 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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