new zealand | engagement with smes (katie wellington)

THE BRIDGE BETWEEN

BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT

14MAR13

• 97% of enterprises

• 31% of all employees

• 42% of the economy’s total output

SMEs in New Zealand: Structure and Dynamics 2010

- Ministry of Economic Development and Statistics New Zealand

SMES HOLD AN IMPORTANT POSITION

WITHIN NEW ZEALAND

BUSINESS.GOVT.NZ IS FOCUSED ON HELPING

THEM SUCCEED

“Doing business with government, and

getting information from government,

should be easy.”

WE’VE BEEN INFORMED AND INSPIRED BY

OUR CUSTOMERS - SMES

• We know the wants and needs of SMEs

• We know that SMEs are very busy and feel overwhelmed

• We know what keeps SMEs up at night

• We know that SMEs always want clear information from

a credible source

Government has great credibility in ‘government matters’

WE BUILT OUR STRATEGY AND POSITIONING

AROUND THEM

• We are a bridgebridgebridgebridge between business and government

• We packagepackagepackagepackage and demystifydemystifydemystifydemystify ‘government stuff’

We provide a single high-level source, a snapshotsnapshotsnapshotsnapshot

Where more than one agency has interest in a topic, we’ll

combine it so it makes sense from the SMEs’ point of view

We’ll use a conversationalconversationalconversationalconversational tone, and connect the dots connect the dots connect the dots connect the dots

between agencies

SOME OF OUR

TOOLS & PRODUCTS

WEBSITE

• 6000 YouTube views

• 4000 Twitter followers

• 2000 Facebook likes

SOCIAL MEDIA

• 25,000 e-newsletter

subscribers

E-NEWSLETTER

MOBILE BUSINESS TOOLBOX

- IPADAPP

• Key marketing initiative

• Sponsors fund 60k

of prizes and cash

• Regions provide judges

BUSINESS PLANCOMPETITION

OUR APPROACH

WE TAKE A ‘DESIGN THINKING & DOING’

APPROACH TO OUR WORK

1. FOCUSING ON THE THE NEEDS AND

CONTEXT OF OUR CUSTOMERS

2. PRIORITISINGACTION OVER

DOCUMENTATION

3. EXPERIMENTING, PROTOTYPING EARLY,

TESTING THROUGHOUT

THIS BRINGS HUGE BENEFITS FOR

OUR ORGANISATION

• It de-risks the innovation process

• It helps us to prioritise our effort and resources

• We don’t waste money building things that we later find

people won’t value

• Because we collaborate with SMEs at every stage of the

process, we get new learnings and ideas for

breakthrough innovations

• Multi award winningNetguide Best Website for Small Business, 2011, 2012

AUT Business Excellence award winner, Government,

2012

• Over 1 million visits in 2012

AND LEADS TO A GREAT PRODUCT FOR OUR

CUSTOMERS

0

30,000

60,000

90,000

120,000

Visits

Date

Visits

AN EXAMPLE:

EMPLOYEE COST

CALCULATOR

WE INVOLVED SMES IN AN

‘IDEA GENERATION’ SESSION

Idea most likely to be approved by business

Idea most likely to delight customers

Idea that most supports the strategy

Voting – Ideation

WE INTERVIEWED SMES FURTHER,

TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS

WE WORKED WITH SMES AS WE DEVELOPED

THE FUNCTIONALITY

WE’RE HEADING INTO VISUAL DESIGN NOW

A FEW OTHER

THINGS WE’VE DONE

IN THIS WAY

WEBSITE REFRESH

CONTENT REFOCUS

AND REALIGNMENT

ONECHECK

SEARCH TOOL

COMING UP:

COMPLIANCE ESSENTIALS TOOL

Katie.Wellington@Business.govt.nz

B-CAL CALENDAR