A short update to let you know that OneX and our lead agency have decided not to go ahead with creating the OneX platform reflecting the complexity of the environment we were working within.
We would like to thank all our supporters for their time and helping OneX to raise awareness of the impact on the business customer who needs to navigate multiple government agencies to successfully support their business.
That’s all for now!
Thanks from OneX
Over the past few weeks OneX has defined our space as ‘connecting exporters to government when things go wrong’. This has been the natural progression from identifying clusters of problems along the end-to-end customer journey to identifying the space we are going to work with. When issues arise in the export process exporters are often unsure of who to contact to get the right advice. The costs of being put in touch with the wrong people or being given the wrong information are high, so it’s important that problems are solved first time.
We have deep-dived into the realms of contact-center data made available by border agencies. Our proposed solution is based upon multi-agency engagement and we are stoked with the level of responsiveness we have experienced from agencies. In getting a consignment to the destination country a multitude of things can go wrong and present the exporter with a problem and we aim to provide a virtual centre of excellence.
We are looking forward to continuing this conversation next week working out the next steps to getting our concept flying for demo day.
We have also had amazing support from R9, Creative HQ and the rest of our cohort.
We have only 14 days to go to Demo Day – the sprint is on!
A rebrand sees Business Buddy become OneX as the team leaps forward into a new space working to validate a new online tool that will help businesses find their way around government when it comes to export queries.
Initial research conducted by OneX has pinpointed 7 key areas of difficulty exporters typically face in New Zealand at some point during the export process. It was found that the exact export process depends on many factors, such as whether a broker and distributor are used, the size and annual trade volume of the company, the industry sector, and the destinations to which the company exports.
During this initial research, OneX have talked to exporters, brokers, representatives from government agencies and industry associations. OneX identified New Zealand companies frequently experience difficulty contacting the right person in government for routine issues. Secondly there are cases where a business has experienced a critical issue and has not known who to contact in government to get the help that they need. And in a third scenario there are New Zealand businesses who have agreed to terms that result in the erosion of profitability in the longer term.
OneX is currently engaging more export companies who are interested in trialing out a new tool that will help them navigate through the difficult process. If your New Zealand based business is interested in signing up to a free trial please contact OneX at info@onex.nz.
We are currently looking at the issues New Zealand exporters face when undertaking an export.
We are keen to chat with small business with an annual turnover of less than NZ$1million, especially businesses who are currently or considering exporting to China. We would like to uncover:
Please get in touch with us via email or phone:
E. r9businessbuddy@gmail.com
M. +64 21 08178439
By Preeti Pillai
The R9 Accelerator 2.0 journey began for me when I walked into one of the Information Sessions hosted by R9 and CreativeHQ in January. Having worked in the R9 space before I was keen to help out and be part of the exciting work happening in this area. Having committed to a full time contract with ANZ, I decided that I would look to play a supporting role in the accelerator. So I turned up to the Rev-Up Weekend as a Coach, where one thing led to another…
Revving-up
…And before I knew it, I was part of the First Point team working on Opportunity 5 – a single point of contact for enquiries about exporting to China. The Rev-Up weekend was exhilarating and provided us with the opportunity to take a deeper look into the problem area. We had some great support and subject matter expertise from NZ Customs. One of my team mates Jennifer Monk and I hit it off and decided to apply as a team for this opportunity. Both of us were “Designers” professionally. Jennifer was also quite the “Visionary”, and I, the “Hustler”, so between the two of us, we had those roles covered well. And now, we needed a “Hacker”. So we went along to the Co-Founder dating session and courted a young, vibrant maths wizard. Chris Bryant was keen on taking this opportunity and we were keen on stealing him, and also his team name “Business Buddy”.
We got accepted into the accelerator! Yuhuuu! Exhilarating! (This is not only going to be my most used expression in this blog, but also in the accelerator). Prior to the Bootcamp, we were fortunate to have secured Jacqui Francis, a very experienced Advisor from NZ Customs, as a full time team member. Jacqui would play the role of our Domain Expert.
And so was born Business Buddy… (background music please). Well, we may soon be changing that name, apparently there is another one around.
Bootcamp
The week long Bootcamp was awesome! No, it was exhilarating! Learnt a lot about Innovation and some handy new concepts and methodologies – Agile, Lean, Kanban, and Business Model Canvas. Learnt how to pass around little plastic balls more efficiently each time. Learnt how to best balance a marshmallow on spaghetti sticks. I finally learnt how to create a proper paper plane! We took the time to set up our team email, work tools, social media pages, etc. With each session/challenge, got to know each other’s personalities a lot better. Learnt more about myself and my own personality. Got a good taster of how exhilarating juggling two full-on jobs over the next 12 weeks was going to be.
Week 1 and 2
In the first couple of days, we were mainly focussed on getting ourselves set up and running. We laid out our goals and set up our Kanban board. Over the week, we also started to gather some customer contacts and arrange workshops with NZ Customs, to gain a better understanding of the current offerings and the problem domain. NZ Customs have been very resourceful and have enabled a fast track customer engagement for us. We are now underway talking to exporters and third parties, and are setting up meetings with some more.
CreativeHQ is continuing to deliver training nuggets and keeps us on our toes. We also had the opportunity to pitch to and network with potential mentors and government navigators.
Being part-time meant that I was missing some of the day-time activities and playing catch up after work and on weekends. By the start of the second week, my team mates and I seemed to have established a rhythm and we are now collaborating quite well. If at all anything, we have got an excellent coverage of all the hours in a day, and coverage across two cities, with Jacqui based in Christchurch sometimes.
There is a huge sense of community and it’s an incredible environment to be a part of. The accelerator so far has provided a huge learning experience, from technical knowledge of business models and sales, to the soft skills of engaging, collaborating and supporting each other to add value.
By the initial First Point team [originally published on January 31, 2016]
Team First Point present to you an end to end customer-centric solution, beyond agency boundaries.
Our team has worked with NZ Customs domain expert, Richard Bargh, over the Rev Up weekend to understand the issues surrounding exports to China.
We identified two primary customer profiles: a new exporter, and an exporter who needs assistance when things go wrong. We have mapped out a customer experience journey for each.
High-level concept
Team designers prototyped the solution beginning with a screen where the customer can select their export product type and destination, and be provided with process steps and information to help inform decision making.
The solution also contains a registration and login facility for customers to register and to log individual consignments. Consignments can then be tracked by the exporter. Having one view of the consignment allows the different government agencies to assist the customer via multiple channels in the event something has gone wrong.
Check out the High Level Prototype the team came up with.
Benefits and cost savings
Customer
Government
