A software business started in a garage and which now sells billing services to energy companies around the world won last night's top Westpac Auckland Business Awards prize.
Agility CIS, run by Mike Thorne, is a New Zealand business that sells data-to-cash systems for electricity, gas, water, internet and telecommunication businesses in Australasia, the Middle East, Tonga and North America, and created Orion, a system for utility billing and customer management for anything metered.
Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett said the award was richly deserved.
"Like so many Kiwi entrepreneurial businesses, Agility CIS started in a garage and has grown exponentially as a result of the founder's ingenuity and the adaptability of the business to the changing marketplace - in this case deregulation of the electricity market," Barnett said.
Other awards went to Pure SEO, Apex Ceilings, Terry Scott and Transdev Auckland, My Food Bag, Outsource IT and Auckland Adventure Jet.