MED's www.businessconsultation.govt.nz Case Study
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<Guide to Online Participation/4. Resources/4.2. Case studies
This page is the case study about the Ministry of Economic Development's http://www.businessconsultation.govt.nz
Contents |
About www.businessconsultation.govt.nz
The Ministry of Economic Development's (MED) Businessconsultation.govt.nz connects government agencies with business people who are interested in being involved with government consultations on business issues.
The website provides a single point for business people to register their interest in being consulted. MED manages these details on an internal database, and connects agencies who are seeking input from the business community with people who have signed up to the database. MED positions itself as a relationship manager between business people and agencies that need input into their policy or regulatory processes.
The site also handles submissions to the Quality Regulation Task Force. Interested parties can fill in an online form to call attention to particular business rules and regulations they believe should be reviewed or changed. They are also encouraged to send in solutions to problems with particular rules.
The site describes its origin and purpose in the following way.
- The development of this website and database is a response to the business community, and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in particular, who have voiced concern that they are often excluded from the early stages of policy development, regulatory implementation design, and evaluation of existing regulation. SMEs have proved difficult for government agencies to consult with due to their small size and diversity.
- The purpose of the Business Consultation Database is to collect a register of people with an interest in business who are willing to be consulted on business-related policy development, regulatory implementation design, and evaluation of existing regulation. The results of this consultation could usefully inform Regulatory Impact Statements and Business Compliance Cost Statements.
The site administrator reports that about 200 individuals have signed up to the site. The last agency to use the site, as of 22 May 2007, was the Inland Revenue Department, consulting on the "Discretions to be exercised by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue under the KiwiSaver Act 2006".
Process
MED has worked out detailed processes for managing the connection between agencies and business people.
The site states that business people signing up to be consulted will be treated in accordance with the following 'promises':
- You will only be asked for your opinion on areas of regulation in which you have an interest.
- You will only be consulted the number of times per year you specify.
- You will be able to specify how you prefer to be consulted: via email, post, phone or face-to-face. Agencies can then take your preferences into account when they are undertaking their consultation processes.
In signing up, business people supply basic details, as well as their role within their business, their type of business (eg sector, turnover and number of employees), the kind of regulations and policy issues they are interested in, how often they are prepared to be involved in consultations and how they would prefer to be consulted, as above.
Agencies interested in using the business consultation database can send a request to MED by filling in a form that identifies the kind of people the agency would like to reach with its consultation.
Agencies are then provided with two services. First, they are given names of individuals who fit the agency-specified profile -- these are called type one members. Secondly, other members whose 'areas of regulatory interest' match the agency's are notified of the consultation by email, and are sent a link to the consultation website and relvant documents. These are called type two members.
When the site signs up business people it clarifies how their information will be used and how they may opt out of the service, if they so choose.
- By registering your interest in being consulted, you also accept that:
- Government agencies are not required to use this website to consult; and while agencies may consult with a database member, the respondent's views may not always be reflected in the outcome of the consultation;
- Your information will be stored on the Business Consultation Database website at the Ministry of Economic Development and may be shared with other government agencies for consultation purposes;
- You can change your details or be removed at any time by emailing membership@businessconsultation.govt.nz.
Importantly, the site does not host content or discussions of consultations. It is simply a connector between people and government agencies.
MED acknowledges more work needs to be done to market the service the site provides -- to agencies and to the business community. Take-up could be improved on both fronts.
Feedback design learning
The site is a useful example of an attempt to manage relationships between agencies and business people. The site is instructive in that it:
- allows people to customise how often they hear from government
- allows people to customise what they want to hear from government about
- helps agencies to easily connect with a willing audience, saving them workand improving their chances of soliciting input into their consultation process and, by extension, their policy development.
The site does have some weaknesses. It is difficult to navigate. It is also difficult to discover what sort of consultations, as a business person, you might be notified about. There is little in terms of a 'value proposition', or offer, to encourage the interest of a potential sign-up -- should they come across the site. The site needs work to improve its marketing and public profile.
Nevertheless, building on the basic concepts established by www.businessconsultation.govt.nz could be powerful. Allowing people to register and customise their involvement and exposure to consultations should help to deal with the possibility of consultation fatigue, poor co-ordination between agencies seeking to engage the public and improved efficiency in recruiting interested people to the right consultations.
Feedback design opportunities
If we were to imagine an improved site and service from the perspective of agencies and people, what would it need?
It would need to:
- have a higher profile and be well marketed
- be more navigable
- have an engaging offer for people to get involved with an issue or share knowledge, rather than an agency summary.
All three characteristics would help to increase input for the agency and inform people about the site and service.
Feedback prototypes
Rewrite summaries of consultation to be engaging rather than agency focused. Can we imagine creating a template that 'advertises' consultation, rather than 'notifies' people about consultation? The model should follow something like a job posting -- we need agencies to at least attempt to attract people to opportunities to participate.
Here's a possible template for doing this differently.
- What's the consultation called?
- What are the issues or decisions that need to be made? How much influence is possible at this stage?
- Who is the 'ideal responder'? What skills and knowledge would be useful inputs?
- How much time will it take to respond? Will it be a deep, values based discussion? Or can you vote quickly and be finished in 10 minutes?
- What are some links that will give you a deeper appreciation of the issue?
- How important is this decision for the future of a sector/issue?
- A button to add the consultation information and closing date to your Outlook calendar or other Web-based tool, like a blog, Facebook or MySpace page. At the very least a del.icio.us button, surely. This would also be a golden opportunity to use microformats, for instance.
- This could all be done in a three-minute video, incidentally. Basically, a commercial for a consulation. Perhaps that would be the best interface? Or would something on the Web page work better? Possibly use both?
- Could the site become part of a service provided by the newzealand.govt.nz portal? Could it in turn become an API -- a portable, customisable business consultation notifier?
