"online engagement with the government's is not bad at all but the tender processes is what puts us off and we just mostly turn away, purely because of the time and consequently, the cost implications that responding to these tenders take" P2
"generally tender processes for smaller businesses, tend to be soul destroying. I've had experienced that over the years, which has probably put me off..I just think government has a problem, recognising the capability of SMEs to deliver what they require"P2
Two previous discoveries identified unmet needs, time and money loss in the due-diligence and identity verification space when SMEs transact with government. A digital business identity solution could address these needs and forms the central hypothesis of the Digital Business Identity Alpha.
The first discovery focused more on government service provider users whilst the second honed in on the SME needs when transacting with government.
BEIS investigated a digital business identity facility to address cross-government issues relating to data, security, fraud and service efficiency.
The discovery sought to understand the needs and benefits of a digital identity and due diligence for SMEs for government support and services.
They investigated the feasibility of this solution for government and what a DBI could look like: what attributes define a business, which need to be verified, against which data sources, what data sources are available and which data sources provide what levels of assurance.
The discovery focused on three use cases to demonstrate the functionality and benefits of a DBI:
A fourth use case, licensing, had been identified for further exploration in the alpha phase.
This discovery aimed to explore and define the problems surrounding the in-house administrative experiences SMEs undergo when transacting with multiple government services and how it impacts their business.