RealMe says StudyLink deal spurs uptake despite skinnier budget

Wednesday 16th December 2015

The Department of Internal Affairs says uptake of its RealMe login and identity verification service has been spurred on since the addition of student finance service StudyLink in May, although the agency is still trying to contain operating costs.

The service passed 93,000 verified users on Dec. 7, more than twice the 44,000 or so at the end of May, once students could use RealMe when applying for allowances and loans, and also when a user's identity could be authenticated at the same time as they renewed their passport, DIA manager of market and business development Tom Waldron told BusinessDesk. The StudyLink tie-up means RealMe gets users at an early age and the agency hopes they will want to use it for other services later in life, such as when they're applying for a mortgage.

"That’s been the key anchor tenant that’s actually resulted in our uptake rate in terms of verified accounts," said Waldron, who heads up RealMe. "The number of uses of that has increased dramatically with literally thousands of students asserting through RealMe for their identity."

RealMe was rolled out in 2013 and has been part of the government's plan to make it easier for New Zealanders to complete transactions with the government online. Its target is for an average of 70 percent of the most common transactions to be done online by 2017, and is currently tracking at 40 percent.

So far it provides 66 services across 21 agencies, including lenders Bank of New Zealand, TSB Bank and Westpac Banking Corp, financial services firm NZ Forex and OMF, and software developer Secured Signing.

DIA wants to use RealMe as part of a broader IT initiative to build a platform enabling greater sharing of information in the department's other areas, such as citizenship, births, deaths and marriages, and the charity sector. That wider DIA plan appeared in the Treasury's June quarter monitoring list of major projects on affordability concerns, which advised the department to pause its ambitions while a review of RealMe was underway.

Waldron stresses that RealMe itself isn't on the Treasury's watchlist, and that a review of its operating model is still being worked through.

"Like any other government agency initiative, we’re always looking at determining the most efficient operating model, and obviously cost is going to be part of that," he said. "We’re trying to minimise Crown investment while ensuring we’re delivering good customer services."

The 2015 budget saw the government pledge to inject $12.5 million of new capital to keep developing RealMe over the next four years, while at the same scaling back funding for operational expenses

RealMe's operational funding is set to drop from $14 million in the year ending June 30, 2016 to $6.5 million in the 2017/18 financial year and $2.4 million the following year, with the expectation it will start generating external revenue.

DIA's 2014 four-year plan forecast RealMe fees and charges generating $1.5 million in the year ended June 30, 2015, rising to $12.1 million in 2018.

RealMe didn't hit short-term targets for the number of services available in the 2015 financial year due to delays in other agencies' projects and business cases, according to the DIA's annual report. That meant RealMe's $848,000 of revenue generated in the 12 months ended June 30 lagged behind the $1.6 million estimated.

To help drive revenue from the private sector, RealMe partnered with state-owned enterprise New Zealand Post several years ago.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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