Asian deal aids NZ company's global growth

Duncan Cox's company focuses on in-depth work rather than reselling products. Sandra Mu / Getty Images

Adaptable Solutions is taking its name seriously.

With a big client win in Asia, the Auckland-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) firm is changing its focus from local growth to international expansion.

"In terms of growth we'd like to develop our Singapore business. In Asia there is potential for volume ... it's good justification for expanding," says managing director Duncan Cox.

The company recently opened an office in Singapore after winning consulting business in the Asia-Pacific area with Behringer, a manufacturer and distributor of audio equipment and musical instruments.

Behringer is a big client for Adaptable, as the German company sells everything from microphones to lighting systems to computer-based recording products in more than 125 countries.

A privately owned company, Adaptable started out in 2000 as a product of the dot-com era, specialising in e-commerce. Again holding true to its name, over the past few years the company has largely moved out of that line of work.

"We still do that but it's now a secondary line," Cox says.

In 2002 the company decided to leverage off its previous experience in the ERP market, and began searching for the most modern product in the marketplace. The search ended with the application Axapta, which was subsequently bought by Microsoft and renamed Dynamics AX.

The application is now supported in 45 languages in most of the world, and has become one of the major players in the ERP global market.

Adaptable's ERP systems cover all aspects of a business, from accounting functions and inventory control, to human resources, marketing and strategic management.

Behringer originally purchased Dynamics AX from a Hong Kong-based reseller, but encountered problems with the implementation and sought out Adaptable to fix the issue.

Cox says: "They searched around the Asia-Pacific region for someone who could provide some consulting resources ... We were contracted in and that was two years ago. Over the next 12 months they basically replaced their reseller with us. They gave us more and more work and around a year ago they transferred their whole business to us."

The small company has increased staff to 11 since getting the Behringer deal.

"We have a multimillion-dollar turnover and they [Behringer] have been a significant proportion of that over the past couple of years."

Cox says Adaptable is more of a niche player than a high-volume company and tends to focus on in-depth work rather than reselling shrink-wrapped products.

It's not about getting in and out fast, he says.

"We tend to look for customers who want the system implemented and really get some business benefit from it."

While Adaptable is not the only New Zealand reseller for Dynamics AX, Cox says the company's manufacturing expertise sets it apart, as well as its new office in Asia.

"Now we have the ability to implement for New Zealand companies that have an offshoot in Asia."

But Adaptable still gets to enjoy the best of both worlds, Cox says.

"With Behringer ... all the technical work has been done back here in New Zealand. We can actually grow the business globally from New Zealand, which is quite nice."

ADAPTABLE SOLUTIONS
Who: Managing director Duncan Cox.
Where: Auckland.
What: Implementing enterprise resource planning applications.
Why: "Our differentiator is our ability to implement information systems in the manufacturing area."