System design
Electronic payments and import automation
Designing the electronic payment and integration architecture for El Salvador’s Foreign Trade Facilitation Platform (SFCE), including API services that automate import processes for the Ministry of Agriculture.
- Role
- Systems Design Consultant · IESC, ATraCSI project
- Period
- Feb 2025 — Jul 2025
Context
IESC (Improving Economies for Stronger Communities) runs the ATraCSI project, which supports trade facilitation in El Salvador. The Foreign Trade Facilitation Platform, SFCE, brings the procedures that importers and exporters need into one electronic channel.
As a systems design consultant I supported the design of the payment and integration pieces of that platform.
The challenge
Import procedures involve several institutions, each with its own systems and rules. Fees have to be paid electronically at the right moment of the process, and the result has to flow back to every system that depends on it.
The design had to be precise enough for implementation teams to build from, while staying flexible as institutions changed requirements.
Approach
API-based service architecture
I designed the services around clear API contracts so that the platform, the payment channel and institutional systems could evolve independently and still interoperate.
Automating the Ministry of Agriculture import process
For the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG), I described how an import request moves through validation, payment and approval, and which steps can be automated. The design targeted Angular on the front end and Java Spring Boot services on the back end.
Design for the people who build and operate it
The deliverables were written for implementation and operations teams: sequence of calls, error cases, responsibilities and integration points, so the design could be built without re-interpretation.
Outcome
A documented architecture for electronic payments and integration in SFCE that implementation teams could use as a reference.
A path to automate import procedures that previously depended on manual steps between institutions.