Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment modernises tenancy bond system

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is moving the country’s tenancy bond system into an online service so that the agency, landlords and tenants can conveniently view and process bond payments and other critical information.

The migration is part of MBIE’s overall transformation of tenancy services, designed to make it easier for landlords and tenants to do business in New Zealand. The new system is expected to go live in late 2015.

MBIE is working with Unisys to replace the manual and paper-based processes with a fully integrated and automated system hosted on the New Zealand government’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

Steve Griffin, country manager, Unisys New Zealand, said the migration will automate one of MBIE’s core business systems to improve the experience for New Zealand tenants and landlords while reducing unnecessary work for the Ministry’s call centre.

Every year, MBIE processes approximately 400,000 tenancy bond transactions – almost half of which are bond lodgements paid by cheque. The new system will give customers a greater choice of convenient payment methods including credit card and online payments, allowing landlords and tenants to move away from using cheques.

It will also connect with the property management software systems so that landlords and property managers can lodge bonds directly from their own systems.

The MBIE awarded the contract to Unisys following a competitive tender. Unisys will also provide IT support for the system through to 2019.

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