Media release: Sealord, Easy Group give Microsoft's CRM and ERP solutions the green light

Microsoft New Zealand has outmanoeuvred strong competition to win two big software tenders.

Microsoft’s Dynamics AX Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 2012 system has gone live for the first time in New Zealand at direct sales and online retailer and lender Easy Group, while its award-winning Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution will be deployed next month at global seafood company Sealord.

Easy Group Chief Executive Officer, Laurence Pope, says the deployment of Dynamics AX 2012, will play a vital role in ensuring the company achieves its aggressive plans for growth.

“We now have a single, fully-integrated and intuitive software solution to automate and streamline Easy Shop’s sales and inventory processes."

“This new system will have advanced automation features that are being developed specifically for our business model, enabling our mobile team to be connected to our systems while they’re on the road,” says Laurence.

“In addition, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will significantly reduce the overheads associated with each sale, removing the human component through automation.”

At Sealord, the focus has been on developing customer partnerships by enhancing services and improving business processes in order to gain efficiencies, says Microsoft New Zealand Dynamics Lead, Lindsay Zwart.

“To do this it needed an intelligent software solution that provided timely and robust business intelligence. Microsoft Dynamics CRM replaced their many standalone CRM components in one platform, which allowed seamless flow through one business system to another.”

Sealord Information Systems Manager Neville Richardson says the company chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM over competing products on the market because of its ability to integrate into Sealord’s existing Enterprise software environment, easier end-user adoption and Microsoft’s competitive on-going pricing.

“We’ve been able to leverage Microsoft’s products, along with the vendor’s experience, to develop our ideal solution to meet our needs in a very short timeframe. Not only will the software be ready six weeks after project initiation, our people will be able to drive it correctly from day one.”

Neville says the company plans to take advantage of Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform and introduce new tablets to their sales force.

“We’re confident our team will love these new tools which, put simply, means they’ll want to use them and that, in turn, speeds up our user adoption rate.”

Furthermore add-ins to Dynamics CRM, such as ‘Parrot’, will enable the seafood company to engage even more with its customers via social media to enhance their ‘Sealord experience’.

Both Sealord and Easy Group conducted extensive RFP processes before selecting their Microsoft Dynamics solutions. Easy Group has deployed Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 ERP and Sealord is in the process of deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM.