Technical specifications
Here you'll find high-level information on the technical aspects of our government product.
On this page
The product is made up of 3 core components:
- FormBuilder is where agencies can build, prototype, and publish government services.
- A case management portal is where agencies can process submissions.
- The Business Connect platform where businesses transact with your government service.
Supported technologies
The Business Connect platform is built on modern web technologies to ensure compatibility and reliability across various platforms. Our platform supports:
- the latest versions of popular web browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.
- responsive design for seamless usage on smartphones and tablets.
Form hosting
Forms are securely hosted on the Business Connect platform, ensuring reliability and data security. Our hosting infrastructure is located in AWS Australia, adhering to NZ Government security standards and regulations.
Hosting types
Forms can be deployed in the following ways to be accessed by public users:
- Forms can be seamlessly integrated into the Business Connect platform, offering the option for RealMe authentication. This ensures secure access for users within the Business Connect environment.
- Alternatively, forms can be published publicly and accessed via a sharable URL. This ‘Form as a link’ allows for direct accessibility by public users and can be linked to from government agency websites, portals, and emails.
Choose the deployment method that best suits your requirements and ensures a smooth user experience for public users interacting with your forms.
Hosting specifications
- Availability: 99.95% Uptime
- RTO / RPO: 4 minutes / 1 minute
- Performance: Load tested up to 100,000/day
- Location: AWS Australia
Outages occur less than once a year, and then only for a few minutes. Regular releases do not involve outages, even if releases are large.
Partial outages have not affected council and agency users. Partial outages have been due to RealMe outages and have been consistent with outages experienced by all government and financial sites using RealMe. If we expect a partial outage, we’ll tell you ahead of time. We’ll also tell end users using a banner on the Business Connect website.
Security
- HTTPS: All form submissions and data transmissions are encrypted using HTTPS.
- DDoS / spam: Google reCAPTCHA & AWS Shield are used to prevent a distributed denial of service (DDoS) and spam submissions.
- User authentication: For Business Connect Portal published services
Submission routing
Agencies have the following options for processing submissions:
- Receive by email.
- Accessed in a case management portal supplied via Pegasystems.
- Access by Application Programming Interface (API).
Available APIs and webhooks
The following are automatically configured for every new form published.
Webhook
Webhooks allow for agencies to be digitally notified when a new submission is received or a status has been updated on a case within Business Connect.
- With the trigger of 'on submission' or 'status update'
- Notify agency’s HTTPS endpoint.
APIs
The APIs listed below allow agencies to retrieve case data from Business Connect for back-office processing and storage. There are also some APIs such as the Send Email Notification and Request Information API which allow agencies to use Business Connect as the front end for their back-office tools.
GET
- Cases – Call this API to get a list of all submitted cases.
- Case details – Call this API to get all the case data for a specific case.
- Document – Call this API to get uploaded document attachments as Base64.
- RFI request – Call this API to get the response data returned from a Request for Information (RFI) request.
PUT
- Update case – Call this API to update case data.
POST
Send Email Notification - Call this API to send an email to the customer from the Business Connect platform. Agencies are only required to pass the email content section and emails are sent out using the standard Business Connect email template.
Request Information - Call this API to initiate the RFI flow. The customer receives a notification to provide further information. A JSON form definition is provided as part of the request which will dynamically render the information request form for the customer to populate and submit.
Data management
Storage
- Form submissions are securely stored in AWS Australia.
- Individual or bulk data exports can be done in a JSON format.
- Regular backups ensure data integrity and availability.
Privacy
- Configure data retention policies to meet your service or organisation’s requirements.
- Implement features for obtaining and managing user consent for data processing.
Technical support
Detailed documentation is available for developers and administrators.
Reach out to our dedicated team via email for assistance at hello@businessconnect.govt.nz or engage with other government users and experts in our SharePoint community forum.
You can also register for a webinar or drop-in session for your technical form building questions.