(Source: Dominion Post)
PRIVATELY-OWNED distributor Caspex Corporation will spend about $3 million over two years installing an enterprise resource planning software suite supplied by mid-sized United States ERP vendor Lawson Software.
Auckland-based Caspex employs more than 200 staff. The software will be installed first at Blue Wing Honda, the largest of the company's eight subsidiaries, which distributes Honda motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and jetskis.
Chief executive Bob Boniface says the company spent three years looking for a replacement for its 10 year-old Australian-developed software system, Pronto.
It settled on Lawson, because of its "feel for the distribution industry" -- a sector that Lawson has specialised in, alongside the fashion and food industries and asset intensive businesses.
Mr Boniface says the company's dealers could look forward to improved service, in part because staff would be able to update information in the ERP system from throughout New Zealand, using handheld computers.
Lawson Software's managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Stephen Moore, says it employs 20 consultants in New Zealand.
The economic downturn has not greatly affected demand for ERP software, but is perhaps lengthening sales cycles. "Everyone is a little more conservative."
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