Business Challenge
Merge people & data from two separate businesses onto one robust platform that will provide for continued business growth with minimal interference to business.

Solution
Verde with Greentree

Business Benefits

• Reliable easy to use and scalable to cope with business growth and diversity
• Highly accessible and comprehensive view of activity across all branches
• Faster & hassle free monthend reporting across all branches
• Increased efficiency through bulk buying enabled by having one integrated system
• Automation of core functions through customised solution
• Consistency of brand and levels of service available to clients

The Full Story

Founded in 1979, Connect NZ originally formed in Wellington to sell photocopy paper. The company has now grown to become one New Zealand’s most successful technology providers with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Connect NZ employs over 100 staff and generates revenues in excess of $35m.

In February this year, Connect NZ announced plans to merge with ABLE Business Machines, heralding a new phase of consolidation and development for the company. Founded in 1984, ABLE specialise in Sales and Service of PC's, Printers and Point of Sale and Connect NZ in Document, IT, Telephony, Multimedia and Mobility solutions. Both companies have offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with a Connect presence also in Hamilton. The new entity, has become Connect NZ Group.

With a longstanding relationship with Verde (connect was one of Verde’s first clients) Connect decided the merger was a good time to consolidate the business and put the newly formed company on a secure footing from the start. With the Auckland office already using the Greentree system provided by Verde, the company decided to use Verde to create a robust infrastructure to bring the new entity’s people and data together into one system across the whole of New Zealand.

Connect’s Meredith Jarrold says they never really considered going with another service provider. Says Jarrold “we enjoy a great relationship with Verde, they understand our business and are able to think about our needs beyond what we actually ask for. It means we get a much better solution in the end”.

While the Auckland offices of ConnectNZ were used to the Greentree product there was increased functionality required under our new business environment and the challenges of getting everyone onto the same system. Verde's solution was to upgrade the existing Greentree system, roll it out over all the newly formed Connect businesses across the country, and provide several key customisations to increase the functionality based on the new company’s requirements.

Taking on some of the core functions of ABLE’s business the newly enlarged Connect NZ had an additional requirement to process jobs. Thanks to a Verde customisation called Verde Explorer the base Greentree system has been expanded to carry out jobs and can search for jobs by an item’s serial number.

Credit Management, Warranty Claims and Meta-Billing are also areas where customisations were carried out on the base system to meet the new company’s needs.

Verde’s platform for the newly formed company means that all stock codes and jobs are stored within one system. Just one report function is required to pull out critical information about the state of the entire business. Also, better searching functionality means that Connect can now use the system to view all available stock throughout the country. It allows Connect NZ Group to provide a better service to their customers and save on time checking other branches for stock.

Valuable sales data is easily accessed for any branches at any time of the month. If sales targets aren’t being met the situation can be quickly identified and addressed. Now that stock for all branches can be easily viewed within one system, significant savings can be made through bulk purchasing and savings have also been made on administration costs.

Staff in the different branches have taken time to get used to the new system, but have been encouraged by the advantages the system has offered them. The Verde solution automates a number of processes that were previously carried out manually.

As a long standing customer the newly formed Connect NZ Group are happy with the on-going relationship they have with Verde. Says Graham Brown, Finance Director, “we find the Verde team very responsive to our needs. We enjoy being able to go to them and say this is what we want to do – make it happen, and they will modify the system to what we need. As we grow, this is becoming more and more important since our business continues to change at an increasingly rapid rate”.

About Connect NZ Group

Connect NZ Group provide complete network solutions into businesses for Voice, Data, Document and Multimedia.

For more inforrmation about Connect NZ visit:
www.connectnz.co.nz