Published on the 01/10/2024 | Written by Heather Wright

Playing to demand for integrated systems and local customisation…

Datacom New Zealand upping its push into the ERP market for small- and medium-sized businesses with a new deal with cloud ERP provider Wiise.

Datacom will be a service partner for the Australian KPMG-owned ERP provider which is building out its New Zealand footprint after setting up business in the Kiwi market last year with a custom version of its cloud ERP. It signed Endeavour and Thyme Technology as its first Kiwi delivery partners earlier this year.

“This emphasis reflects growing demand for platforms that can quickly adapt to changing business environments and leverage AI for greater mechanical advantage.”

The new deal sees Datacom offering Wiise solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses and providing integration with clients’ existing operations.

Aidan Jones, Datacom general manager business platforms, says Wiise, which is built on Microsoft Dynamics Business Central with localised enhancements for the Kiwi market, is a valuable tool to support scalable growth for customers.

“The platform is both accessible and flexible, thanks to its low-code approach which allows for easy configuration, and offers an end-to-end integrated platform that not only addresses our customers’ needs but is also highly scalable, easily deployed and reduces complexity and risk for our clients.”

The company already offers Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP, along with its local government-focused Datascape.

“ERP is a pretty tricky thing to implement,” Wiise chief executive Charlie Wood told iStart earlier this year. “You can’t just come out of a generic IT background and suddenly go ‘I’ll do ERP implementations’. You have to be a functional consultant and understand what you are doing.”

Wiise, which was developed in a strategic partnership between KPMG Australia, Microsoft and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, was spun out of KPMG in 2018. Last year the professional services firm invested a further AU$16 million into the venture to help with its international expansion, with an initial focus on New Zealand.

The New Zealand version features localised enhancements including integrated bank feeds compatible with major local banks, NZ post code finder, an IRD compliant chart of accounts and pre-defined reporting capabilities.

Wiise says the platform helps SMBs manage their finances, inventory, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service and reporting in a single, integrated system, in real-time.

“The new partnership with Datacom aligns with broader industry movements towards integrated solutions that simplify complex business processes, provide a single source of truth for data and enhance customer experience,” Wiise says.

The emphasis on integrated systems and local market customisation reflects the growing demand for platforms that can quickly adapt to changing business environments and leverage AI for greater mechanical advantage, it adds.

Earlier this year Wood told iStart the company’s offering is the ‘Goldilocks’ of ERP, sitting between the Xeros and MYOBs and the larger Netsuites, with the company eyeing up New Zealand’s discrete manufacturing sector as a prime market.

“We tend to do a lot of work with anything that is wholesale manufacturing, distribution, anything complex and inventory based,” he said at the time.

“Our partnership with Datacom is a strategic move that aligns perfectly with our focus on serving the specific needs of New Zealand organisations by ensuring that growing New Zelaand businesses have access to a suite of tools that are modern, scalable and cost-effective,” Wood says.