Business-govt platform upgrade

About the project

The Business.govt.nz Platform Upgrade project is modernising the Government's primary digital channel for New Zealand businesses by replacing ageing technology, establishing a scalable platform for future digital services, refreshing content and enhancing tools to improve user experience.

The project is divided into 2 delivery phases, each with a separate Business Case.

In October 2025 Workstream 1 successfully delivered a redesigned website, modern architecture, improved user experience, and refreshed content. The current phase (Workstream 2) is redeveloping 8 key business tools for delivery to the new platform and retiring legacy systems.

Combined, these workstreams improve reliability, performance, maintainability, findability, and navigation.

Current focus

In September, a request was submitted to the MBIE internal Governance Board to update the delivery date from November 2026 to March 2027. This does not impact on the project scope or approved budget amount.

Another 2 of 8 tools (ONECheck and Choose Business Structure) have gone live on the business.govt.nz website. The 3 remaining tools are scheduled for deployment in November 2027.

Latest update

2 tools went live on 29 July 2026, including the Funding Explorer tool and tools designed to support business owner decision-making. The platform performance and stability has been resolved and the remaining tool delivery is underway.

Red status

The original closure date can no longer be achieved. The issues which have delayed delivery have been addressed.  Over the past two months, the project has addressed key delivery issues, reviewed and refined the remaining scope, revised and validated the delivery schedule. 

A Change Request was submitted to the Internal Governance Board on 21 September 2026 seeking approval to extend the project closure date to 15 March 2027 and approve the revised delivery schedule.

Following the approval of this the RAG status will change to ‘Green’.

Path to Green

A revised scope, budget and update to the whole of life cost, and timeline was considered at the internal governance in September. The project will return to Green now that the Change Request and revised timeline are approved. This will be reflected in the next reporting cycle.

Expected benefits

• A more reliable and higher-performing Business.govt.nz platform.
• Easier access to trusted information and tools for New Zealand businesses.
• Improved ability to release and maintain digital services, including Funding Explorer.
• Reduced technical risk and a stronger foundation for future improvements.

Latest Change Request

September

Change type: Financial, scope, timeline and benefits

Financial: Increase Whole of Life Cost (WOLC) from $5.22M to $5.49M

Scope: Remove Climate Action Tool from scope.

Schedule: Change the final go live dates from 30 October 2026 to 29 January 2027. Change closure date to 17 November 2026 to 15 March 2027.

Benefits: Benefits Realisation date delayed due to the extension of the schedule.  The benefit associated with anticipated reduction in operating cost has been removed.

August

Change type: Financial, scope, timeline and benefits

Financial: Unspent capex estimated at $466,835 in FY24/25 to FY25/26 to deliver Phase 1 in September 2025. Allocate $43,468 of opex from cost centre 9381 to FY25/26 to complete Phase 1 and produce the Business Case for Phase 2.

Scope: Remove authentication and content personalisation from the scope.

Schedule: Change the go live dates from 31 May to 30 September 2025. Change the dates for Workstream 2 Business Case (Lite) from 16 June to 21 July 2025.

Benefits: Change in benefits and the associated support risks from benefit # 2219 from personalised user experience to improved integrated user experience.