  Technological advances regarding software integration processes have
revolutionized the communication between government and society, which are
increasingly based on information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) has emerged originating new prospects for
system integration within organizations and external partners, providing
essential information for decision-making process. Brazilian e-Government
initiatives has introduced as a national electronic document model known as
Electronic Transportation Knowledge (CT-e), looking for simplifying additional
obligations of taxpayers and, at the same time, allowing real-time monitoring
of cargo transportation services provided by the Revenue. Nonetheless, there is
a major challenge that prevents Transportation Management Systems (TMS) and
Government to be benefited by this innovation, due to their distinct platforms
and databases that prevent information exchange between them. This paper
proposes an architectural solution to integrate TMS systems with CT-e Web
Service applying concepts of SOA and N-tier architecture. Through a real case
study of a large Cargo carrier, we report an increase in transportation
knowledge management, speeding up in the communication and data validation
process and several costs reduction including paper, printing, document storage
and those involved in the necessary logistics that is needed to recover such
documents.
