Form Processing Efficiency

Data standardisation has long been targeted by Government agencies to facilitate the flow of information between separate departments.

Example:

When applying for a new passport in New Zealana, a citizen passes an application to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). As part of the passport processing, the DIA passport officer needs to request checks from at least:

• Births, Deaths and Marriages section within DIA
• Department of Labour for immigration and residency status
• Ministry of Justice for any criminal convictions
• Department of Corrections for any information on community service or parole conditions

Today all of these departments run different information systems that make software integration complex and therefore expensive or impractical. As a result, the proess relies heavilty on a system of paper, email and faxes.

The adoption of 2D barcodes would assist this scenario by encoding key citizen data used by the associated stakeholders in the passport issuance process. This information could be stored as an XML structure in a 2D barcode that would allow an automatic interface to be coded rather than relying on current OCR technologies. This would enable faster seraches to occur and minimise the human interactions required.