Inland Revenue Announces Winner For APP4IR Competition
Inland Revenue would like to congratulate Matt Innes and Josh Lee on winning the APP4IR Challenge.
Commissioner Naomi Ferguson said that the calibre of entries were outstanding, however Matt and Josh were chosen as the
winner because they showed a real insight into what our customers want, and had a fantastic simple design based on the
existing myIR service.
“This design would allow people to use the app on different devices and to manage their business and personal IR
accounts at the same time. It was a great idea overall.”
Ms Ferguson said that the Challenge has also been a great success for Inland Revenue and was delighted to see such a
positive response.
“This is the first time that we have used crowdsourcing. Through this we have been able to reach out to such a large
number of people and tap into the rich vein of creativity and innovation that is here in New Zealand.
“We received over 50 submissions for the Challenge and they demonstrated a wide variety of different approaches as to
how Inland Revenue can develop an app to help our small businesses. Many of these ideas made clever use of the features
built into the mobile devices that make business easier and that will also make working with Inland Revenue easier as
well.
Ms Ferguson said that Inland Revenue’s current mobile web app has proved very successful, but technology and customer
expectations are constantly changing, and the department is showing that it is responding to that change.
“The current app is a great first step but is only available to individual customers and we want to provide more
services and greater usability to small businesses.
“People want to do business with us the same way as they would with any other business and using their tablets and
smart-phones. Therefore not only are we making it easier, but our services need to be more cost-effective as well, and
this Challenge is one innovative way of making that happen.
“I would like to thank everyone who entered the Challenge for their hard work and effort and congratulate Matt and Josh
once again.
ENDS