Wellington City Council and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) have deployed intelligent document processing systems to meet new regulatory requirements, eliminating manual data entry for rates rebates and invoice processing.

The implementations address urgent compliance pressures facing New Zealand’s public sector.

Wellington City Council faced regulatory mandates from the Department of Internal Affairs requiring automation of rates rebate processing by early 2025. FENZ needed to comply with new payment time reporting requirements while managing invoices across more than 650 stations.

Both organisations deployed ABBYY Document AI technology through integration partner Desktop Imaging. The vendor claims the systems achieved “100% compliance” and “zero manual data entry” for Wellington’s rates rebate processing.

Wellington City Council

Following new regulatory mandates from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) in early 2025, Wellington City Council faced an urgent need to modernize its manual rates rebate process. By implementing ABBYY Document AI through Desktop Imaging’s DI Automation: Rates Rebate Service, the Council fully automated form validation, eligibility checks, reporting, and document retention. More than 800 applications have been processed with zero manual data entry, achieving 100% compliance. Following comprehensive planning and testing, the actual deployment of the cloud-based solution took just days, with no additional IT infrastructure required.

“By using purpose-built AI for intelligent automation, Wellington City Council have eliminated manual bottlenecks and ensured every application is processed accurately and on time,” Beighton said.

 “Our expertise in New Zealand local government processes was invaluable in customising the solution to meet Wellington City Council’s specific requirements and Department of Internal Affairs compliance standards.”

Fire and Emergency New Zealand

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) processes tens of thousands of invoices annually across more than 650 stations. Manual handling and legacy systems caused delays, errors, and compliance risks. ABBYY Vantage is deployed as part of Desktop Imaging’s DI Invoicing cloud service to automatically capture, classify, and extract the data from invoices to feed the

DI Invoicing validation engine for business rule validation, fraud checks, and IRD-compliant workflows. The result is dramatically reduced manual processing, real-time compliance, faster payments, and scalable automation without additional infrastructure or staff.

"Improving accuracy and speed were top priorities for FENZ as we needed to adhere to new payment time reporting requirements. But we also wanted an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution that could be deployed quickly without adding complexity," said Kris Elliott, Solutions Specialist at Desktop Imaging. "By deploying ABBYY technology as an integral part of our DI Invoicing service for customers like FENZ, we improved accuracy, data quality, compliance, and speed. The outcomes have been immediate — faster payments, greater transparency, and more time for their teams to focus on supporting the communities they serve."

https://www.abbyy.com

https://www.desktopimaging.co.nz