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What is Business Connect?
Business Connect is the online platform where businesses can manage licences and permits from across government in one place.
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We've built the platform so you don't have to
Business Connect is one of a range of initiatives the government is delivering to help make our small businesses the best supported in the world.
What you get with Business Connect
Government agencies get:
- better quality, more complete data – leading to improved compliance and higher quality applications
- options for API integrations with payment systems and back-end processes
- a library of reusable components that make it easy to quickly deliver new services.
Business Connect is free for government agencies and councils, so you'll also save the time, expense and headache of designing, building and maintaining your own online application services.
Business Connect for government agencies
Your business customers get:
- a consistent, customer-friendly experience across councils and government agencies
- a faster and more transparent experience when dealing with government
- one place to apply for, manage and renew licences, permits and registrations.
Business Connect for businesses
Watch: What is Business Connect?
Video Transcript
[Blue and white branding for Business Connect is used, the words ‘Business Connect’ and the Business Connect’ logo is shown on screen.]
Narrator
Business Connect is the Government’s latest initiative that’s part of our Better for Business commitment to making it easier for businesses to deal with government.
[Business Connect logo is shown on a blue screen, and the Better for Business logo appears on a grey screen. The video is narrated by a woman. The Business Connect logo becomes the main screen, which zooms off screen to form a blue screen.]
Narrator
Business Connect is a digital platform that will enable businesses to apply for permissions, such as licenses or permits, from different government agencies in one place.
[A laptop opens on screen. A white hexagon on the laptop screen turns and pops out on the left and right sides sides of the laptop – one saying ‘licenses’ and the other saying ‘permits’.]
Narrator
We’ve listened to feedback from over 12,000 businesses across New Zealand to understand how government can improve, and they’ve told us that government services need to be easier to use and more joined up.
[Five red speech bubbles appear on screen. First says, ‘have one contact point’; second says ‘where am I in the process?’; third says, ‘don’t ask me to repeat same info’; fourth says, ‘make common processes the same?’; fifth says ‘info I can understand’. They then come together and form a row at the top of the screen.]
[A man folding his arms appears underneath the hexagons, followed by a woman on his left and another man on his right. Two more people appear on screen – a man holding a flowerpot on the far left, and a woman on her cell phone holding a briefcase on the far right.]
Narrator
Currently, businesses need to navigate across multiple government agencies to complete different processes for similar services and often the same information is requested, but in different ways.
[Blue screen appears, with disjointed sides of a white hexagon coming together. A red hexagon appears inside the hexagon, and the white hexagon then splits into three. The red hexagon moves between the white hexagons.]
Narrator
This can be time consuming and frustrating as businesses are left to figure out where they need to go and what information is required, without knowing where they are in the process.
[A white rectangle is displayed on a grey screen with four smaller rectangles below on the left, and one rectangle below on the right. The image splits into two. The rectangles then are shown being displayed on a laptop screen and a cell-phone. Multiple laptop and cell-phone screens appear onscreen. Random rectangles from different laptop and cell-phone screens light up and then come together to form another rectangle shape. The rectangle then gets flattened to form a white line across the grey screen.]
Narrator
Take Lola’s Café for example – a Wellington café that requires 11 different licenses from multiple government agencies to operate. Each time they apply for or renew a license, the same information is usually requested.
[Lola’s café appears with a blue sky, yellow/brown hill and three windmills in the background. A man stands in front of the café smiling, with arms folded. Above the café, 11 blue hexagons appear one by one. The hexagons light up randomly then join together to create one large hexagon.]
Narrator
The time spent on these applications is roughly 240 hours – that’s 7 weeks of elapsed time that Lola’s would rather be spending on their business.
[A large white number in the middle of the blue hexagon counts up to show ‘240 hours’. It then counts back down to show ‘7 weeks’.]
Narrator
Business Connect will improve this by making it easier for businesses to digitally connect to different government services from one place.
[A green screen with the Business Connect logo in the middle appears onscreen. The logo splits into three other hexagonal logos – NZBN, Better for Business, and Business.govt. A dotted white line connects these logos to the Business Connect logo. They then come back together to show only the Business Connect logo.]
Narrator
How does it work?
First, the Better for Business programme brings together 10 different government agencies to identify overlaps in their business services. Together these agencies identify opportunities to coordinate their services to improve the business experience.
[The Business Connect logo is replaced by a white question mark displayed in a blue hexagon, followed by the Better for Business logo. The logo splits off to show 10 other government agency logos: ACC, Callaghan Innovation, New Zealand Customs Service, Inland Revenue, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, NZBN, NZ Transport Agency, Stats NZ, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and Worksafe. They have white hexagonal ‘bullet points’ next to each logo which then come together as a white hexagon in the big blue hexagon in the middle which gets bigger with each new ‘bullet point’.]
Narrator
Next, there’s the New Zealand Business Number – a globally unique identifier available free to all kiwi businesses – which links to the information businesses are most often asked to share such as their trading name and email.
[The NZBN logo appears in the blue hexagon. It then rotates and becomes a red hexagon. Inside the hexagon appears ‘Trading Name, Lola’s Café with a man folding his arms.]
Narrator
The NZBN Register makes this information readily available so businesses don’t have to repeat the same details over and over when working with each other or with government. As more businesses get their NZBN and more government agencies incorporate the NZBN into their services, it will become easier and faster for businesses to interact with government.
[The hexagon then turns green to display ‘Trading Name, Suzie’s Tourism’ with a woman who has her elbow bent. The hexagon then turns grey to display ‘Trading Name, Max Construction’ with a man folding his arms, wearing a white helmet and hi-vis vest.]
[The hexagon then turns blue, displaying the NZBN logo. Different coloured hexagons are scattered across the screen, with different NZBN numbers popping up next to them.]
Narrator
Finally, business.govt.nz packages key information and advice from across government and the private sector, to help make doing business even easier.
[The business.govt logo appears in a blue hexagon. Transparent hexagons with a white outline fly toward the blue hexagon.]
Narrator
Business Connect is the platform that brings these together helping government deliver easier and more joined up services for businesses.
[Lola’s café appears again. The Business Connect logo is above Lola’s Café. Lola’s Café then slides left off screen and is replaced with the Beehive.]
Narrator
While it won’t happen overnight, in time everyone will benefit. Government agencies will be able to deliver more integrated digital services to businesses at a much lower cost. And businesses will be able to interact with government, including managing and sharing their information, from one place – saving time, effort and stress.
[Screen slides upwards to show a blue starry sky. The stars light up randomly. The screen zooms out to show these stars displayed on a laptop screen. Transparent and white hexagons begin flying into the laptop screen.]
Narrator
Business Connect – government and business working smarter.
[The laptop screen closes. The Business Connect logo appears with the words ‘Government and Business working smarter’ displayed below.]