Company Registration & Business Filing Solution - Case Study

The Singapore Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority

At the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore, the time needed for company registration has been reduced from days to hours or even minutes, thanks to BizFile, the ACRA implementation of the Company Registration & Business Filing System.

BizFile provides a secure trusted environment for information hosting. It also automates and organises information processing within ACRA while enabling multi-directional exchange of information between ACRA, various government agencies and the public at large.

The BizFile system enables the public to file all legally prescribed business/company forms and their supporting documents with ACRA for the purposes of registration and statutory disclosure requirements by offering public access 7 days a week, 24 hours a day over the Internet. The public is also able to have access to a suite of electronic services for the retrieval and purchase of all forms lodged and information pertaining to businesses/companies registered with ACRA.

As part of the systems development, SCS automated the previously manual backend and internal processing workflow at ACRA using a workflow engine. SCS introduced security services such as date and time stamping as well as watermarking to ensure non-repudiation and authenticity of electronic documents. Information captured is maintained in a secure environment in compliance with the first schedule of the Evidence Act of 1996. The system developed by SCS was also able to generate management reports for analysis.

The BizFile system is the first fully electronic filing project in Asia Pacific and is a pioneer amongst government systems worldwide in allowing members of the public to e-file all legally prescribed business/company forms and their supporting documents for the purposes of registration and statutory disclosure requirements without the need for physical signatures.