Auckland, New Zealand – April 2008 – Sage Business Solutions, one of the world’s largest suppliers of business software, have announced that milking equipment manufacturer Rotary Platforms New Zealand (RPNZ) has implemented Sage Accpac and Sage Service Manager to support the company’s explosive growth in the dairy industry.    

A subsidiary of Waikato Milking Systems, RPNZ is a leader in the New Zealand dairy industry, having increased its annual revenue six-fold in the nine months ending 2007. The rapid growth increased administrative pressure on the business and emphasised the need for improved forecasting and financial management tools.   Following a competitive assessment of business software solutions, RPNZ chose Sage Accpac and Sage Service Manager for its proven success in the dairy industry and its extensive resource planning and management capabilities.    

Integration between Sage Accpac and Sage Service Manager was crucial as it offered RPNZ capabilities beyond the basic job-costing functionalities of other solutions without the need for significant customisation.   “Sage Accpac and Sage Service Manager deliver the transparency we need across our business to better plan for and manage future workloads and resource requirements,” said Richard Aubrey, Group Financial Controller, Waikato Milking Systems.   “Working with the data Accpac delivers, we can track available resources and orders pending, schedule equipment maintenance and identify and address resource constraints and capacity issues before they become a problem. This puts RPNZ in a better position to capitalise on growth opportunities in the market without jeopardising service delivery or stretching the business and staff beyond its means.”   

Implemented by Sage Business Solutions’ New Zealand partner, Business Enabling Systems, RPNZ use Sage Accpac and Sage Service Manager to: 

• Improve inventory management;                        
• Track deposits;                        
• Automate and schedule equipment orders and maintenance;                        
• Plan for and forecast resource distribution;                      
• Generate bills of materials for each platform in the RPNZ offering;  and
• Identify and address resource constraints and capacity issues.   

“The dairy industry is exploding in New Zealand driven by high local demand and international export opportunities. Dairy companies and their suppliers are constantly looking for new ways to refine, develop and extend their offerings to customers so as to differentiate and compete,” said Mike Lorge, Managing Director, Sage Business Solutions, Australia and New Zealand.   "The visibility Sage’s solutions offer into business processes and operations are perfect for these rapidly growing companies. They deliver the confidence needed to pursue growth opportunities and new paths without jeopardising current service delivery or standards.”  

“New Zealand exports over $5.7 billion worth of dairy products each year and represents over 35% of the world trade[*]. This offers a tremendous opportunity for business software providers and we see dairy and its suppliers as a key vertical industry for Sage in 2008,” Lorge said.  

Business Enabling Systems worked closely with RPNZ to ensure the Accpac and Service Manager implementation is flexible enough to accommodate future growth within the business. Planning is also underway to extend the roll-out across other subsidiaries of Waikato Milking Systems.  

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For further information, please contact:  Kate Hines n2n Communications+61 2 9213 2311khines@n2n.com.au  

About Sage:   The Sage Group plc is a leading supplier of accounting and business management software solutions and services to 5.5 million small and medium sized clients worldwide.  With over 13 900 employees, the Sage Group comprises market-leading businesses throughout Europe, United Kingdom, North America, South Africa and Australia.  Its products and services are sold through a global network of 25 000 reseller partners, 40 000 accountants as well as directly to clients from Sage companies throughout the world. For the financial year ending 30 September 2007, the Group’s revenue grew by 30% to £1,175.6m. [*] Source: Statistics New Zealand