ABBYY and Desktop Imaging collaborate to automate New Zealand Citizen Services

ABBYY and partner, Desktop Imaging, announced they are transforming New Zealand’s public sector with the power of Document AI and intelligent automation.

The companies helped Wellington City Council and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) fully automate manual administrative work, meet new regulatory mandates, and improve operational efficiency that allows frontline teams to better serve their communities.  

“The tangible benefits citizens in New Zealand receive are a testament to the power of AI-powered automation and the collaboration between ABBYY and Desktop Imaging,” said Bruce Orcutt, chief marketing officer at ABBYY. “By leveraging industry-leading intelligent document processing and workflow automation solutions to automate critical processes, citizens now receive faster rates rebates, smoother payments, and more reliable access to essential services. By using our joint solution, government agencies can leave the digital transformation to us so they can focus on serving their constituents.” 

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.

Following comprehensive planning and testing, the actual deployment of the cloud-based solution took just days, with no additional IT infrastructure required, the vendors said.

"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,” said Stephen Beighton, director at Desktop Imaging. “Our expertise in New Zealand local government processes was invaluable in customizing the solution to meet Wellington City Council's specific requirements and Department of Internal Affairs compliance standards. It's the kind of innovation all councils should be adopting to better serve their communities. 

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, according to the vendors.

For more information about this news, visit www.abbyy.com.