1. One number, infinite possibilities
Presentation to Corporate Registers Forum
Unified Identification Number session
11 March 2015, Abu Dhabi
2. Lowering bureaucratic procedures
• In 2012, the NZ Government set 10 challenging
targets to offer value for taxpayer’s money and
improve services for New Zealanders
• Better for Business is a collaborative effort by
agencies to deliver better public services for
business (‘Better for Business’). That means
doing things differently to how we’ve done
them in the past
3. Current State
• The public sector is currently organised as single,
vertical, bounded agencies that operate in isolation
from each other according to agency mandates and
functions with limited economies of scale
• Agencies are duplicating systems, processes and effort
• Small to medium enterprises are unlikely to have the
resources to cope with compliance requirements
imposed by government
5. A catalyst for change
• A New Zealand business identifier is critical for change
– and not just for the public sector. The establishment
of a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) is a pivotal
component for the platform that will link business
information for use by all parties
• This journey started with a big audacious goal to
provide better public services for business (and
decrease business costs of dealing with government by
25% in the next three years)
7. Enhancing businesses, expanding borders
• The NZBN register, once fully populated, will provide a comprehensive
accessible authoritative source of business data of New Zealand businesses
• The register will allow government and businesses to access data from the
same source
• Mutual recognition with Australian Business Number(s)
• There will be opportunities for businesses to create and offer new services
(encouraging innovation, economic growth and alternative commercial
offerings
• The NZBN has adopted the Global Location Number providing NZ with an
Internationally recognised business identifier.
8. Access, information and exchange
1.1m businesses now have their NZBN. Legislation
coming to also include for sole traders
We are creating integrated ‘cross agency’
registration, maintenance and cessation – replacing
existing processes
We will deliver an interface that allows the general
public, agencies and intermediaries to use primary
business data
Editor's Notes
Thank you for the introduction. It is an honour to come and talk to you today about New Zealand experiences with the implementation of the New Zealand Business Number.
In 2012, the NZ Government set 10 challenging targets to government agencies to maximize value for taxpayer’s money and improve services for New Zealanders
The ‘Better for Business’ programme focus is on supporting New Zealand businesses to succeed by:
taking a more “joined up” approach across government agencies
working with businesses to identify and design services that best meet their needs,
and
raising the bar for business customer service throughout the public service.
Like many of you have experienced in your jurisdiction the New Zealand public sector is currently organised as single, vertical, bounded agencies that operate in isolation from each other according to agency mandates and functions with limited economies of scale. As you are aware this silo approach results in duplication of transactions and therefore inefficiencies from each agency developing the same processes and additional compliance costs to business.
Agencies are duplicating systems, processes and effort, particularly in relation to information exchange. This duplication results in information transfer costs to government and introduces errors in the system. Currently, each agency that engages with business holds information about those businesses. Often this information is the same information, held on multiple systems, but of variable quality from agency to agency.
More than 90% of businesses in New Zealand are small-to-medium enterprises. These businesses are unlikely to have the resources to cope with compliance requirements imposed by government. The impact of repeatedly supplying the same information is therefore greater. When New Zealand businesses provide the same information to multiple agencies it results in inefficiencies and duplicated effort for businesses. As a result, businesses find interacting with government confusing, unproductive and time-consuming. The compliance costs of dealing with government can therefore adversely affect the productivity of business, and negatively impact the potential for economic growth.
All government agencies that engage with businesses hold information about those businesses. Often this information is the same information. Businesses are required to interact with multiple agencies, multiple times throughout their business lifecycle. This situation leads to inefficiencies and duplicated effort for businesses as well as increased costs for those agencies that duplicate functions for managing businesses.
There is no comprehensive source of business data common to all of New Zealand businesses. Agencies and external organisations have duplicated and/or incomplete records of business customers that they deal with; as a result incomplete or out-of-date information is held. This situation leads to the inability for agencies to use and trust the data and information being duplicated by agencies.
If there was a single all-of-government register for common business data, businesses could provide their information to that directory for use rather than advising each agency separately.
Further, the use of a single register of business data would improve information quality that would be of benefit to all users as they would be able to use and trust the data. An authoritative register would lead to a reduction in costs to agencies of collecting information. Additionally, there may be wider economic benefits that are difficult to quantify, including facilitating transactions between businesses.
Poor data quality impacts on the ability to manage customers and transform service provisions. Better data quality would assist in cross checking customer details, such as compliance stories and making fraud detection more efficient.
The vision for the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) is to provide a single unique identifier for all New Zealand businesses that will help other businesses be assured that, for any business type, the business entity is a business known to government. Businesses will “only tell government once” about their primary business data and will be able to update it at a single point. Using the NZBN will reduce the cost of interacting with other businesses and with government and enable business to business electronic data interchange.
Businesses will only need to remember their NZBN rather than the multiple numbers currently issued by different agencies and private service providers.
There have been two targets set for the ‘Better for Business’ programme which are:
1.Business costs from dealing with government will reduce by 25 per cent by 2017, through a year-on-year reduction in effort required to work with agencies
2. Government services to business will have similar key performance ratings as leading private sector firms by 2017.
The NZBN will allow businesses and government agencies to link information about a business in a secure and authoritative way. It will enable Government to have confidence that agencies are sharing information about the same business and for services to be delivered in a joined up way. For example, enabling businesses to complete common registrations in one place, reducing the volume of information provided to agencies.
We are currently having regular workshops with Chief Executives in the private sector from companies such as Multi International software companies, major banks in New Zealand and other large corporate organisations. These workshops mean that the NZ Government and the Private Sector are working in partnership to co-design, develop and deliver services around business needs that enable businesses to manage their information more efficiently among agencies and businesses with whom they interact. The NZBN is an enabler for ensuring consistent identification of businesses and a common language between software systems.
Where are we currently at?
On 2 December 2013, 1.1 million companies on the NZ Companies Office register were allocated a NZBN.
As half of NZ businesses aren’t registered companies (such as sole traders, partnerships or trusts). Legislative change is needed so these businesses can get a NZBN identifier too. MBIE recently asked for submissions on draft legislation and this is being worked through with a view to being introduced into Parliament by the end of this month
We are currently on track to deliver phase one of this project by the end of this year. Which will be an interface that allows the general public, agencies and intermediaries to use primary business data.