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The indicative business case for the Immigration New Zealand business development programme is being submitted to the Immigration Leadership Team in June 2011. It sets out an investment strategy, preferred implementation options and a funding plan. The programme is an overdue investment to make INZ more efficient and cost-effective, and to improve customers’ access to information and services. PDF settings (show)
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Portfolio of staged investmentsThe business development programme covers a range of changes to services, processes and supporting platforms. These will move INZ to a future state delivering better, more flexible service at lower cost and enabling more effective management of value and risk. The programme will:
Build an organisation that is fit for the futureThe business case presents the justification for a future state in which INZ is more joined up—information flows securely and seamlessly between INZ and its customers and service partners; more transparent—customers or their agents can access the information they need at any time and any place; and more cost-effective—the time and cost of processing an application are reduced, while maintaining decision quality. It describes investments proposed for the 2011/12 financial year, savings from which can be applied to fund future years’ investments. It draws on information provided by a wide range of subject matter experts from across the business. The attraction and channel strategies provide the context for how INZ is working to bring the best people to New Zealand. The business development programme will establish a number of the enabling capabilities needed to bring these strategies to fruition. The case for change
The current INZ business model relies on bricks and mortar, people and paper. Become more customer-centredNew Zealand’s economic future depends in part on our ability to attract and keep skilled migrants, and on the continued success of our education, tourism and other export sectors. We are competing with other developed countries for the same pool of potential migrants, students and visitors. At the same time, all countries are facing increased pressures on their borders from refugees and illegal immigrants. And like other countries with high overseas debt, low income and low productivity growth, the New Zealand government needs to deliver better service for less cost. To operate in this environment, INZ needs business processes and systems that make it easy to identify and facilitate entry of people who will make a positive contribution to New Zealand, and to identify and exclude those who do not meet our requirements. This depends on a sophisticated, flexible and consistent assessment of customer risk and value. The current immigration “system” is not, in fact, a system. Information that customers need is hard to find on the INZ web site and the sheer number and complexity of different visa types mean that customers need help to navigate to the correct application form. It can be hard for applicants to get meaningful information about the status of their application and when they can expect a decision. Employers and other clients cannot rely on receiving a consistent quality of service. Government agencies that need to verify a person’s entitlement to receive public services cannot access the information they need without help from INZ staff. INZ has long recognised that its systems and processes have become progressively more complex and are no longer fit for purpose. The business development programme builds on a number of past change initiatives and in particular the proposed replacement IT system, IGMS. The current IT system, AMS, was designed and built in the early 1990s, well before the Internet and Web changed the way organisations communicate and transact business with their customers. The system includes a large number of ad hoc extensions made over the years to meet new requirements, has become increasingly expensive to maintain, and is an unsuitable platform on which to build future online services. INZ also lacks automated biometric capability for application processing. This limits its ability to fulfil its obligation as New Zealand’s authoritative source of identity information for non New Zealanders. Provide consistent, transparent serviceVisa applicants expect INZ to treat them consistently and fairly. Applicants with similar risk and value profiles ought to receive similar treatment. This is hard to achieve in the current paper-based environment, where local process variations inevitably evolve. Quality immigration decisions are necessarily information intensive and staff must be confident that the information they have is complete and reliable. Applicants need to be clear about what information they have to provide and when they can expect a decision. Cost-effective service means INZ applies its resources consistently, in a way that reflects customer risk and value. As a result, adapting to changing market needs is slow and costly. INZ faces three problems.
Better for lessThe benefit from the programme is cost reduction through simpler, more efficient, more automated processes. Online lodgement reduces data entry and rework cost (fewer return failed lodgments). Automating low risk applications reduces processing cost and improves the service for a large number of applicants. Secure online access to applicant status information reduces the number of calls to the contact centres. Authorised customers can access information when and where they need it. Continuous process improvement reduces waste (work that adds no value) and eliminates unnecessary local process variation. The first stage of the programme, process simplification, is to reduce the number of visa types and simplify the application forms. A risk-adjusted value framework supports early intervention and ensures decision quality and consistency, enabling more effective workload planning and resourcing. The business has also identified a wide range of process improvement and efficiency opportunities. Flexible, agile, efficientFully achieving these benefits will require incremental reconfiguration of INZ’s global service delivery model to meet different needs in different markets, a new technology platform (IGMS) that takes advantage of the Web to deliver more online information and services, and enhanced identity management capability. The changes will deliver the following performance improvements, while maintaining decision quality and employee engagement:
Indirect benefits include:
The scope
Make quality decisions quicklyThe programme supports and enables the Immigration New Zealand strategic direction. It delivers an enhanced customer experience in which everyone uses the online channel to access information and services. Customers choose either a self-service option, accessing information and services directly over the Internet, or assisted-service, using a mix of face-to-face, telephone and mail (paper or electronic) to interact with INZ or a service delivery partner. The mix of self-service and assisted-service will vary from market to market. In some high-risk markets, customers will be directed to the assisted-service option to mitigate the risk of attempted immigration fraud. This will include capture of biometric data, verification of paper documents, and verification of identity. Attract the best peopleThe future operating model will enable INZ to attract people to New Zealand who will contribute to economic growth. INZ’s customers are:
Protect integrity and security of the immigration systemAt the core of the future operating model is a new risk-adjusted value framework. This builds on existing risk assessment methods to provide a single global framework that can also reflect local market conditions. It will deliver consistent and appropriate treatment of risk and value, make decisions more transparent, and avoid adverse outcomes requiring intervention. This will allow INZ to set clear expectations about service offerings and better match visa type to customer risk/value profile. Better risk management in the fee-funded part of the business can reduce downstream compliance costs in the Crown-funded part. The product portfolio is the result of many years of incremental change, which have led to a proliferation of visa types. The programme will rationalise and simplify the set of visa products offered, ensuring appropriate data are recorded to support the management reporting currently based on analysis by visa type. Build capability and agilityThe programme will achieve these changes through a portfolio of related investment initiatives. Gap analysis summarises the changes the programme will deliver, enabling INZ to become more responsive to customer needs and more adaptable to changing market conditions.
Support migrants to settle in workMigrant support is not included in the programme scope. Other INZ initiatives, such as developing an employer portal and improving the INZ web site, address this goal. The options
There are seven options which each deliver a combined set of initiatives and can be implemented independently of other options:
These seven options were assessed against criteria which included payback, NPV, flexibility, customer focus, reach and ease of implementation. Based on this analysis, the business case recommends that ILT approve the following options in principle, and that scoping and detailed business cases be completed for the initiatives underlying these options:
Further investigation of potential changes to the service delivery model is needed to assess options to reduce implementation costs and shorten the payback period, by being more selective about proposed changes. The approach
The cost of the programme is significant and will need to be phased in a manner that minimises cash outflows in early years. Phasing shows the optimal cash flow. This excludes the estimated cost of changes to the service delivery model, which has a negative NPV, and the estimated cost of IGMS, which will be funded externally by an injection of capital. However even this phasing results in a funding shortfall of $10M in the first two years.  ▴ Planned project phasing The planned work
Change can’t be planned: it is emergent as the result of doing the things necessary to improve service to customers. This can only come from joint investigation by staff and managers of the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of current capability, then experimenting with what works to make it better. Planning change before we know what it should be … doesn’t make much sense. We need to follow a process that lets change emerge. The first round of change will focus on supporting INZ’s drive to lift people’s capability, re-orient around the customer and reduce costs:
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