The Business Link Pacific Portal: From concept to creation
One of Business Link Pacific’s (BLP) key objectives is to support the current digital transformation of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) as more businesses in the region look to take advantage of available online tools to improve their operations and reach international markets. We are committed to regularly supporting businesses to address their digital needs through training, access to software or step-by-step strategies to developing an online presence or enter new markets.
To aid in further achieving this objective, in early 2018 BLP put plans in motion to create a unified online presence that would increase the visibility of business services on offer from PICs and facilitate connections between service providers and new clients. It was to be the one-stop-shop for growing businesses and business advisory service providers in the Pacific region.
While the official launch of the Business Link Pacific Portal was a 2-day multi-country event across the Pacific region, the actual design and creation of the Portal was 18 months in the making. Here we share a behind the scenes look at the making of the BLP Portal and the international team we brought together to make it happen.
In the 2 and a half years since the BLP programme began, we have created a network of over 60 business advisory service providers, from various industries, all quality approved through a rigorous evidence-based quality assurance assessment. Now that the network is created, the next step to making these service providers readily accessible to growing businesses is the creation of an online solution that allows them the opportunity to market their services to the Pacific region; a one of a kind place dedicated to business advice.
Business advisory service providers can now register to join the Advisory Network in the Portal. Once registered in the Network, they are able to create a profile showcasing their business offer to growing businesses, easily access and submit Subsidy applications, have members of their business become BLP approved, go through competency assessments to become a BLP partner and access a range of professional development support. Business advisory service providers registered to the Portal go through a process with BLP to become quality approved for subsidies, and this is clearly indicated in their Portal profile, taking the uncertainty out of finding quality business advice.
This searchable database is also free to be used by growing businesses who are in search of a business advisor and would like to gain access to subsidised business services.
Throughout the whole Portal building process, the BLP team were focused on creating an online platform that served the needs of the Pacific business community, a digital tool tailored to growing Pacific-based ventures and the specific challenges they faced as business owners, e.g. education of and access to digital accounting solutions, creation and implementation of marketing and promotional strategies, creation and implementation of long-term business plans and assistance in human resource management.
We worked with three companies, New Zealand-based Arco and Ackama and Fiji-based Webmedia South Pacific, all with their own areas of expertise to create the BLP Portal, proving once again the value inherent in utilising local knowledge and experience.
The online framework of the BLP Portal was designed and built by Wellington-based experienced software firm, Ackama who specialise in creating and building online platforms that are user friendly and client centric.
Ackama tendered for the role of lead developer of the BLP Portal and then embarked upon the momentous task of integrating what was essentially 3 separate sites into one site that was both functional and brand cohesive. They were assisted in the building of the wire framework by David Hunter, a highly experienced designer from DAVO, a small digital design agency based in Auckland. David was also key in implementing the overall visual design of the Portal to ensure visual consistency.
“Using an agile approach to software development, we worked with BLP to rapidly design wireframes, the blueprint to the tool, to turn into a working, testable MVP (minimal viable product), focussing on key flows and tasks the primary user would be following. In a parallel stream of work we developed a look and feel to freshen up the existing brand, make it more accessible for web standards and reflective of the Pacific business community using the tool.
An interesting challenge was incorporating tools developed by two external vendors into the umbrella of the BLP portal, designing and sharing a navigation system to keep the user clear on where they were in their process or site journey. A truly international project with designers, developers and users spread across New Zealand and the Pacific.”
Nicola Brady, Senior Designer, Ackama.
The Portal was created to meet the needs of Pacific-based businesses. It was important to the BLP team that the design, language and whole user experience were directly informed by Pacific business. Hence, Nicola Brady, Senior Designer on the BLP Portal project, spent a week in Fiji performing user testing with growing businesses and business advisory service providers already in our network, to inform the Portal building process.
“In order to design a system that is useful, usable and ultimately used it’s key to include the people who are the intended audience in the design process. BLP provided a trove of research for the Ackama team to begin the design process and give us an understanding of the problem we were aiming to solve, as well as a list of assumptions we could later test and validate with small business owners and service providers in Fiji.
The test participants found the whole process very interesting and their input was quite engaging as they asked a lot of great questions during the process itself. Really huge thanks to Kitione [BLP’s Business Services Manager in Fiji at the time], Webmedia along with every service provider and SME we spoke to, as their engaging communication has made the product that much better.”
Nicola Brady, Senior Designer, Ackama
Arco, an Auckland-based software company was already responsible for the design and creation of our Diagnostic & Referral tool, a detailed online assessment that is used to gauge the level of assistance and support needed by a growing business before they are connected to a BLP approved business advisor in their country.
Building upon their previous work with BLP, Arco designed a lightweight version of this assessment to be integrated into the Portal, called the Business Health Check. The Business Health Check is specifically designed for growing businesses who are unsure of the type of advice they need to help their enterprise grow, and is an effective starting point for small-medium sized businesses keen to gain a holistic view of their enterprise.
The Business Health Check takes around 5-10mins to complete and the results are available immediately. From here, a Dashboard is created where a user can see the overall progress of the Business Health Check, keep track of the results by area, and start developing a business transformation plan. There is also an option to send the results directly to the BLP in-country Business Services Manager to set up a face to face appointment.
Arco’s design of the Business Health Check was informed by BLP’s belief that a) quality business advice can make all the difference in the positive progression of a growing business, b) gaining a holistic view of your business is highly effective in identifying where that quality advice will be best placed and c) well crafted and user friendly digital tools are an efficient way to kickstart business growth.
“Working on the Business Health Check has been an exciting and rewarding journey. It is a privilege to be working collaboratively with the Business Link Pacific team to create this innovative digital experience that has seen fantastic uptake right from the beginning. In the past the Pacific has often been neglected by digital solutions, the Business Health Check is another example of how BLP’s work is starting to close that gap.”
Matt Lloyd, Chief Executive, Arco
To complete the Portal build, a third site, the existing Business Link Pacific website was redesigned and integrated within the Portal. Filled with all the information needed to learn more about the BLP programme, its history, purpose and services, the third site was designed by Fiji-based communications and creative agency, Webmedia South Pacific.
Webmedia is one of BLP’s approved business advisors and key in-country partners for our work in Fiji. They also played a central role in the launch of the Portal in Fiji, co-event managing the event with the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation. Specialising in graphical, technological, programmable and web-based products and services, the Webmedia team were already the content managers and web developers for the existing BLP website. Together with BLP, Arco and Ackama, Webmedia redesigned the BLP website, applying the fresh new branding and refined content required to make sure the site integrated smoothly with the Portal.
“It was a challenging and exciting task. We all had to figure out a way to properly integrate and develop 3 websites with precise functionality built on different platforms all while ensuring a seamless visitor experience. Working with both Arco and Ackama was a great experience as we all collaborated and exchanged ideas to help Business Link Pacific bring to fruition their Portal and the Business Health Check tools. They say that two heads are better than one but in this case, it was three heads on a BLP body, and we’re extremely proud of the end result.”
Steve Reid, Executive Director, Webmedia South Pacific
The BLP Portal was launched in the Pacific region on 1 & 2 August 2019 with 4 special events in Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
In the nearly 2 months since the Portal went live the BLP team has seen a marked increase in the number of business advisory service providers that have registered to join the network, as well as an increase in the number of growing businesses who have taken the Business Health Check and moved from there to connect with a BLP approved business advisor.
As with any new piece of technology that is created, the improvement process continues for as long as is needed for the technology to fulfill its objectives: create a unified online presence that would increase the visibility of business services on offer from PICs and facilitate connections between service providers and new clients.
We are currently in Phase 2 of the Portal’s development, continuously looking at ways to improve the Portal for the ultimate user experience and to further promote the BLP programme across the Pacific region. Our sincere gratitude and thanks go to our international team of web developers and designers from Arco, Ackama, Webmedia South Pacific and DAVO for their expertise and working tirelessly alongside the BLP team in creating and designing what we believe is the digital tool necessary for the small-medium sized business sector in the Pacific region to thrive.
To use the BLP Portal visit: https://businesslinkpacific.com/