Digital trade is expanding at an exponential rate, creating new opportunities for New Zealanders. Digital trade is especially important for New Zealand’s economy, which is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses. Digital technologies enable these businesses to overcome scale and distance barriers, allowing them to enter global markets previously only accessible to larger corporations, thereby accelerating their growth.
To address this, New Zealand businesses will be able to discover exciting innovation opportunities because of the new globally unique digital identifiers for various aspects of their operations. New Zealand’s business digital identifier, which is supported by a global international standard, will hasten businesses’ adoption of digital ways of working.
A company can assign Organisation Part identifiers to its various physical or logical parts, such as branches, departments, and delivery addresses, to enable accurate, safe digital interactions and ensure key messages between trading partners are routed to the correct location “Organisation Parts will future-proof and empower businesses to innovate, digitise, and compete in the evolving digital economy”, says General Manager Business & Consumer at the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE).
“The digital identifier ecosystem has evolved to meet customer needs and now reflects New Zealand businesses’ structures and digital interactions. Organisation Parts will help businesses prepare for exciting opportunities, such as e-invoicing, secure transactions, and cloud-based information sharing, available with the growing digital economy.” It is noted by the CEO that the importance of businesses being globally connected for New Zealand’s status as a trading nation.
“Future uses of Organisation Parts could include creating digital pathways to track food from the paddock to the plate, car parts to the manufacturer, and medicine to specific cabinets in a hospital.” Active tech investors said that the organisation digital identifier – now augmented with Organisation Parts – is the unique digital key that the digital ecosystem needs.
It is also mentioned that if New Zealand businesses, technology providers, and the government take it seriously, it has the potential to improve the economy’s efficiency and productivity, resulting in widespread economic gains and streamlined processes for New Zealanders, particularly business owners and operators.
Over 831,000 businesses already own a digital identifier system, which allows them to trade with greater confidence and certainty, connect and interact more easily and accurately, and save time and money. Businesses of all sizes will find the system and Organisation Parts to be a valuable tool in developing future digital enhancements. Organisation Parts, underpinned by leading global digital infrastructure, will accelerate New Zealand’s journey to becoming a truly digital nation, a key aspiration recently outlined by the Small Business Minister.
While the pandemic created a short-term demand for software and services to enable business continuity, remote working, and essential services, there is a much greater opportunity for local tech innovators to transform into global players, thereby supporting this country’s strong economic future. The government has acknowledged this in its Industry Transformation Plan for digital technology, which includes assistance for local businesses seeking international expansion.
Similarly, one of the driving factors in establishing a data centre region in New Zealand is the enormous potential to fuel business growth through cloud adoption and accelerate local digital transformation.
During this crisis, digital transformation is more important than ever. However, it will not look the same as it did before the pandemic. Resources, both in terms of talent and money, will most likely be limited. Digital initiatives may need to be reprioritized based on their current relevance. New issues and opportunities may emerge with greater urgency. For some businesses, the forces of disruption may be so powerful that the long-term strategic vision must be rewritten.
