New Zealand businesses will be able to find exciting innovation opportunities thanks to new globally unique digital identifiers for different parts of their business.

NZBN Organisation Parts, linked to a business’s legal entity identifier, the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), and reinforced by a global international standard, will accelerate businesses’ adoption of digital ways of working.

A business can assign Organisation Part identifiers to its different physical or logical parts (e.g., branches, departments, and delivery addresses) to enable accurate, safe digital interactions, and ensure key messages between trading partners (e.g., purchase orders, invoices, and deliveries) will be directed to the right place.

“Organisation Parts will future-proof and empower businesses to innovate, digitise, and compete in the evolving digital economy”, says Ross van der Schyff, General Manager Business & Consumer at the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE).

“The NZBN 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.”

Dr Peter Stevens CEO, GS1 New Zealand, noted the importance of businesses being globally connected for New Zealand’s status as a trading nation.

“GS1’s Global Location Numbers were chosen by the Government in 2013 because they are globally unique, and part of a credible international system with strong links to trade and supply chain logistics.

“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 investor Serge van Dam says that the NZBN – now augmented with Organisation Parts – is the unique digital key that the digital ecosystem needs.

“If businesses, technology providers and the Government adopt it in earnest, we can enhance the efficiency and productivity of our economy, delivering widespread economic gains and streamlined processes for New Zealanders, particularly business owners and operators.”

Over 831,000 businesses already have an NZBN, allowing them to trade with confidence and certainty, connect and interact more easily, with more accuracy, and save time and money.

Businesses both large and small will find the NZBN, and Organisation Parts, a valuable tool in creating future digital enhancements.

Underpinned by leading global digital infrastructure, Organisation Parts will accelerate New Zealand’s journey towards becoming a truly digital nation, a key aspiration that Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash outlined recently.

“Agencies like Xero and New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) estimate real GDP could increase between $3.5b and $6.2b if there was just a 20 percent increase in the uptake of cloud computing alone,” Minister Nash said in May.