Questions/Answers

The CIPC was established in May 2011 through the amalgamation of the former Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) and the Office of Companies and Intellectual Property Enforcement (OCIPE). Since its inception, CIPC has faced many challenges. These have included ICT systems unable to cope with organisational requirements, a large backlog of company registration applications and an organisational culture that has been insufficiently oriented towards service delivery. In its first year of operation the CIPC has focused on addressing these challenges. CIPC introduced self-service terminals using biometric identity verification technology by authenticating fingerprints with the Department of Home Affairs in real-time. South Africa is one of a few countries to store fingerprints and this enables world class identity verification in a secure way. This way of transacting changed the company registration landscape entirely as registration entails the scanning of a fingerprint, sending data to the Department of Home Affairs and having results returned in a few seconds. Company registrations through this channel is instantaneous provided that the necessary fees are paid. No paper is involved in this channel. CIPC added government services to its registration portfolio. Through a collaboration with SARS, companies receive their tax number instantly as soon as the registration is concluded at CIPC. From a customer perspective, there is no need therefore to visit multiple government institutions before being able to do business. A further collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry resulted in Exempted Micro-Enterprises being able to apply for and receive BEE certificates at CIPC's self-service terminals when applying for company registrations or filing annual returns. This enables companies who follow this route to receive three government services in one seamless process. CIPC introduced company registrations through banks in 2013.

Goals and objectives of the project i. The project was aimed at improving the ease of doing business in South Africa, with specific reference to starting a business ii. To move from an inefficient administration office to a credible, customer-centric world-class regulator iii. To improve the reputation of the organisation iv. To ensure the credibility of the data that CIPC stores v. To improve efficiency vi. To allow for quick and easy company registration

With respect to innovative idea, the use of biometric identity verification technology puts South Africa among few countries in Africa that rely on sophisticated technology to enable company registration. The technology provides for world class identity verification in a secure way. This way of transacting changed the company registration landscape entirely as registration entails the scanning of a fingerprint, sending data to the Department of Home Affairs and having results returned in a few seconds. Company registrations through this channel is instantaneous provided that the necessary fees are paid. No paper is involved in this channel. A paper-based, centralised registration office resulted in the public having to travel to the Capital City, Pretoria or having to use the services of an intermediary if they wanted to register their company. Today, through partnerships with other public entities in the difference provinces and the banks, CIPC has a presence throughout the country. With respect to effective partnerships, CIPC introduced company registrations through banks. It was the first and still is the only registry in the world to have successfully implemented this type of collaboration. This partnership enables the registration of businesses whilst applying for a business bank account.

Firm partnerships with SARS (tax office) and the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) are in place to ensure the continuity of the integrated government services. Partnership agreements are in place with Department of Home Affairs to ensure the continued relationship which allows for identity verification in a real-time manner using biometrics. Memoranda of Understanding and Service Level Agreements with the banks (4) ensure the collaboration is sustained legally.Technically, the organisation has enhanced its IT systems, especially hardware and infrastructure to ensure that the new ways of working are supported. Service delivery improvements i. The turn-around times in the companies’ registration process has been reduced drastically i.e. from 20-30 days to instantaneous through banks and Third Parties to same day at Self-Service Terminals (SSTS) and 3 days via e-services, depending on the availability of funds and submission of correct supporting documents in respect of E-services. ii. Complaints about capturing errors have reduced significantly since the introduction of all the alternative online channels which places the onus to capture on the customer or collaboration partner. iii. Through collaboration with SARS, the dti,-BEE Commission and the 4 banks, in many ways, CIPC registration has become a one-stop shop for business owners.

Broadly, the issues that CIPC contended with related to accessibility, visibility and backlogs due to archaic systems. CIPC closed its cash office and customer interface centre and replaced it with Self-Service Terminals in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town as well as at partner sites in other provinces The CIPC continues to increase its visibility and reach with targeted campaigns. The organisation engaged on several Media Campaign, including recently using the slogan “Your Business, our Focus” whose aim was to promote the awareness of the CIPC brand whilst at the same time promoting the automated services and ease of transaction. The campaign reached all the nine provinces. The CIPC has started to implement its Social media strategy using Facebook and Twitter as a means of reaching out to clients through information sharing as well as engaging with them on these platforms on the resolution of queries. We are seeing a lot of attention and traction on the use of these platforms and the gains that come from continuous interaction with our customers. The use of biometric identity verification allows for all transactions performed using this channel to be instant. The CIPC has continued to build on the pre-existing partnerships with the four big banks. Through these partnerships, the CIPC has ensured increased accessibility, through the banks’ countrywide footprint.

The impact of the transformation on the lives of citizens i. Reduction in turnaround times of company registrations (in 2011 it took between 20 and 30 days to register a company; today it can take seconds to do so) ii. Addressing accessibility issues – a paper-based, centralised registration office resulted in the public having to travel to Pretoria or having to use the services of an intermediary if they wanted to register their business. Today CIPC has a presence throughout the country. iii. Improving data quality – the previous paper based system resulted in numerous capturing errors which resulted in enormous amounts of rework and high frustration levels for both customers and CIPC officials. With the increase of online services, the error rate reduced significantly as customers were empowered to capture their own data. iv. Improved identity verification systems – fingerprint scanning and the use of banks’ processes improved identity verification tremendously v. improving the ease of doing business, with specific reference to starting a business vi. Transformation from paper burden to a customer-centric approach. vii. To allow for quick and easy company registration viii. enhanced eservices portal that allows customer to transact without leaving their house.

The collaboration wit the banks, in the company registration space, is the first in the world. This partnership enables the registration of businesses whilst applying for a business bank account in one process. The deployment of self-service terminals using biometric identity verification technology to authenticate fingerprints with the Department of Home Affairs in real-time was the country's first. This way of transacting changed the company registration landscape entirely as registration entails the scanning of a fingerprint, sending data to the Department of Home Affairs and having results returned in a few seconds. Together with the above improved channels, CIPC added government services to its registration portfolio. Through a collaboration with the tax office, SARS, companies receive their tax number instantly as soon as the registration is concluded at CIPC. A further collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) and BEE Commission resulted in Exempted Micro-Enterprises (EMEs) being able to apply for and receive BEE certificates (Affidavits) at CIPC’s self-service terminals when applying for company registrations or filing annual returns. CIPC enhanced the back-end processing by developing an automated indexing and queuing system which led to improved turnaround times.

CIPC introduced self-service terminals using biometric identity verification technology by authenticating fingerprints with the Department of Home Affairs in real-time. This was the country's first. The CIPC's collaboration with the banks (First National Bank, ABSA, Standard Bank and Nedbank) is unique in the world. There is no other company registration jurisdiction with such partnership. This was the first and still is the only registry in the world to have successfully implemented this type of collaboration.

The organisation relied on it IT staff members for development and enhancement of the required its systems. Where necessary, new hardware and infrastructure was procured to ensure that the new ways of working are supported.

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CIPC extended the services from basic company registration services using biometrics to other related services such as auditor changes, change of address, financial year-end and is continuing to use this platform to eventually offer all company registration and related services with no paper or images involved, only data verification, capturing, storing and processing. The banking service has been extended to offer annual returns and BEE certificates. E-services is in the processed of being further enhanced to allow for even simpler transacting. The introduction of a new transacting model known as the ‘Third Party Model’ enables the CIPC customers to transact instantly using the Department of Home Affairs’ (DHA) biometric identity verification. The “Third Party Model” enables interested individuals and organisations to render company registration and related services in a secure seamless way. The use of biometric identity verification against the Home Affairs National Identity System (HANIS) allows for all transactions performed using this channel to be instant. To date, third parties from across the country have signed up to render this service. The Department of Home affairs has entered into a partnership with the First National Bank for issuing of Passports.

CIPC has actually discontinued paper/manual applications. Exceptions have to be filed with a motivation. the registration cost is among the lowest in the world.

Once operationalised the new project became the CIPC’s operating model. Firm partnerships with SARS and the dti are in place to ensure the continuity of the integrated government services. Partnership agreements are in place with Department of Home Affairs and Memoranda of Understanding and Service Level Agreements with the banks ensure the collaboration is sustained legally.Technically, the organisation has enhanced its systems, especially hardware and infrastructure to ensure that the new ways of working are supported.

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CIPC innovative project was evaluated in 2017 by the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) and the State Information Techonology Agency (SITA) during the organisation's participation in the innovation awards. These are prestigious innovation awards conducted annually among government and public sector entities. CIPC has been receiving positive comments from its customers in the social media space.

CIPC received 2 innovation awards in 2017. The organisation shared the first prize on the CPSI awards and came second in relation to the SITA GovTech awards.

1. Percentage of Online Application- CIPC has transformed from 100% manual application process in late 2013 to over 90% online application. 2. Number of days to register/incoporate a company- The number of days has dropped from 25 days to an instant registration of a company, provided that the customer has sufficient funds in their CIPC account. 3. Number of other government services offered with company registration- currently, customers receive company certificate with tax number which was a separate tax office (SARS) registration process in the past. Other online services offered with company registration are domain names registration (e.g. www.xxx.co.za) and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Certificate. Prior to a collaboration with other government entities, these services were exclusively rendered by their respective statutory bodies. 4. Public Private Partnership with the bank- all four major banks in South Africa have seized the win win opportunity to collaborate with CIPC.

The role players in CIPC innovative efforts is the It division and innovation and collaboration unit within the office of the executive authority, the CIPC commissioner. Outside of CIPC, our collaborating partners i.e. the Department of Home Affairs, SARS, the 4 major banks (ABSA, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank) in South Africa and other public entities (i.e the BEE Commission, SARS, ZADNA) continue to play a crucial role in our efforts to make it easy to do business in the country.

Change management internally and externally was one challenge that, in hindsight, could lead to improved management in future. Staff members working in the particular areas didn’t initially understand why the changes were necessary and getting used to the new ways of working required some education, awareness and training. Externally the same problems were experienced. Furthermore, the CIPC model resulted in disintermediation of businesses that were thriving on CIPC’s inefficiencies at the time. The changes initially led to widespread rumours and mistrust. Fortunately, common ground has been found with CIPC offering simpler channels to the public whilst still allowing intermediaries to render services on behalf of end users. However, our primary mandate is to service the public and not to build business models that will advance the interest of intermediaries.