New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is rolling out a business transformation programme focused on ensuring high-quality, consistent customer service.

The initiatives will be rolled out following ACC Board approval and Cabinet noting of the updated business case.

Dame Paula Rebstock, ACC board chair, says the transformation programme follows feedback from more than 5,500 New Zealanders and ACC staff who wanted to see ACC being more responsive, transparent and easier to deal with.

“ACC has recently revised its target operating model to put customers – injured clients, health providers, and levy payers – at the heart of what it does,” Rebstock says.

“In order to successfully do this, ACC requires a significant investment to ensure it can integrate its people, processes, information and technology to meet the needs of our customers.

“This will give ACC the ability to gather and analyse large volumes of data, automate transactions and provide customers with online self-service and digital channels. It will remove a lot of the manual and paper-based systems and the issues associated with them for customers and staff,” she says.

Scott Pickering, ACC chief executive, says funding for the programme is coming from ACC's operating budget and will have no impact on levies. The whole of life cost for the programme is $456 million. The costs have reduced from the estimated $750-$950 million from the July 2014 business case.

“The budget reduction is due to technology savings following more detailed design and planning work over the last year,” Pickering says.

“Rather than replacing all of ACC's IT systems as we originally planned; we are looking at improving some existing systems and replacing others with new technology. This has reduced the overall cost and the risk to business operations while still ensuring our customers receive a much-improved level of service.

“ACC's transformation is not just about technology – it's about focusing on everyday service improvements. This includes the work we have been doing in investing in our people through customer experience training and having an organisational structure more closely aligned with key customer groups,” he says.

ACC will deliver the programme in two stages over a five-year period. The first stage focuses on solutions that can be delivered in a relatively short time period. This includes service improvements for business customers (levy payers) such as simplified levy invoices.

This stage, which is underway, builds on existing momentum through simplifying systems and processes for clients and business customers, and improves integration with health provider practice management systems. At the end of this stage, the weekly compensation experience will be improved for clients, and business customers will be able to access on-line levy information through an ACC portal.

The second stage starts in early 2018. It builds on the enhanced digital access provided to all customers in the first stage and gives clients and providers the necessary tools and information to improve rehabilitation and return to work outcomes.

At the end of this stage clients will be able to have further digital access, in particular to their claim information, including viewing and sharing their rehabilitation pathway. Providers will be able to adjust a client's rehabilitation pathway based on clinical best practice, and business customers will have greater visibility of how their levy contributes to return-to-work outcomes, ACC says.