Justification for Change Request

Justification for Non-Substantive Change

to Internet Website Forms (ITA-4148P)

OMB Control No. 0625-0237

This is a request for approval to use “Client Registration” form, which is based on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form.

Overview

The Commercial Service (CS) wishes to obtain approval to create a “Client Registration” form, which is a slightly modified version of the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form that is contained in the Internet Website Forms collection. The CS would like to use the “Client Registration” form with clients that will be referred to the CS via our partners, such as Federal Express, under the Strategic Partner Program beginning on June 15, 2010. Clients that are not referred to the CS via our partners under the Strategic Partner Program would continue to use the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form. The use of the proposed “Client Registration” form would increase total burden associated with collection 0625-0237, CS estimates an additional 1,500 respondents/responses x 5 minutes = 125 burden hours.

Justification

The CS has been tasked to double exports within the next five years as part of the President’s National Export Initiative (NEI) and has launched a strategy to target experienced exporters and encourage them to expand their exports into new markets. The CS has teamed with strategic partners, such as Federal Express, to promote exporting and CS export assistance services to a broad audience of current exporters. Under this Strategic Partner Program, CS partners such as Federal Express, would forward the proposed CS “Client Registration” link via e-mail to their clients that are experienced exporters.

The companies that receive the link would click on it and complete the registration process if they are interested in obtaining CS export assistance or learning about the CS’s export services.

The CS has designed a “Client Registration” form that is based upon the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form. The primary difference between the two forms is that the “Client Registration” form reduces the burden on clients by eliminating several information fields. Therefore, the CS requests approval to use the “Client Registration” form with its Strategic Partner Program. The currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form would continue to be used by companies that are not involved in the strategic partner program with the expectation that, in the near future, the “Export.gov Registration” form would be eliminated and replaced with the streamlined “Client Registration” form. The use of the “Client Registration” form would reduce overall burden for collection 0625-0237 as it asks for less information than the currently approved “Export.gov Registration.”

Differences between the proposed “Client Registration” form and the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form

The differences between the proposed “Client Registration” form and the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form fall into four categories:

1. Information fields on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form that are not included on the “Client Registration” form;

2. New information fields on the “Client Registration” form that are not on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form;

3. Minor text changes on information fields on the “Client Registration” form; and

4. Changes in voluntary and required information fields.

Information fields on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” that have been eliminated on the “Client Registration” form

The following six fields from the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form have been eliminated on the “Client Registration” form because they are not needed by the CS to determine the most appropriate method of assisting clients that are reaching the CS through the Strategic Partner Program:

Account type

Contact Middle Initial

Contact Suffix

Fax Number

Business Types

Product Description

New information fields on the “Client Registration” form that are not on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form

The CS would like approval to add the following two new information fields to the proposed “Client Registration” form (the two fields are not included on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form):

• Confirm E-Mail Address (required field): This request for e-mail address confirmation is an industry best practice to assure that clients have not made a typographical error when entering their e-mail address.

• Estimated percentage of annual sales derived from exporting (required field): This information helps the CS to assess a client’s level of export experience and assists the CS with determining the best export assistance channel for the client. Clients will select an answer from a drop-down menu containing the following range of revenue categories:

Less than 5%

5% –9%

10% - 19%

20% - 29%

30% or more

Minor text changes to information fields on the “Client Registration” form

The following text contained on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” form has been modified on the “Client Registration” form:

Text on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” Form	Text changes on the “Client Registration” Form
Mr./Ms./Dr.	Salutation (Mr./Ms./Dr.)
Company Web Site	Business Web Site
Number of Employees	Number of Employees in Business
Industry	Select Your Industry Sector(s)
Countries of Interest	Countries Your Business is Currently Exporting To (Select up to 5) [Note: “not currently exporting” will be added to the currently approved drop-down list of countries ]

The above changes will improve clarity and provide the CS with a client’s top 5 export markets to enable the CS to evaluate the client’s export experience and respond with appropriate export assistance services.

Changes in optional and required information fields

Four information fields that are required on the currently approved “Export.gov Registration” would be optional on the “Client Registration” form, and two formerly optional fields would now be required on the proposed “Client Registration” form. Please refer to the table below for details on the changes.

The two newly required fields (business web site, number of employees in business) will provide the CS with a basic understanding about the client so that CS staff is prepared for initial client contact and discussions. The required website information will enable the CS to learn valuable client information.

Information Field	Currently Approved “Export.gov Registration”	Proposed “Client Registration”
Salutation (Mr./Ms./Dr.)	Required	Optional
Business Address Line 1	Required	Optional
Business City	Required	Optional
Business Country	Required	Optional
Business Website	Optional	Required
Number of Employees in Business	Optional	Required

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