NZ software app scoops top international award

PRESS RELEASE

Monday, 9 February 2009

NZ software application scoops top international award

New Zealand software developer ActionStep is the first international winner of the BoSS awards for its productivity boosting business management tools delivered over the Internet.

The United States-based judges of the Best of SaaS Showplace systems (BoSS awards) were impressed with the 20 per cent improvement in profit margin achieved by Auckland-based timber trader Lumberlink who has been using the system for two years.

“Lumberlink is just one of many customers using ActionStep to gain a strategic edge, from streamlining business processes and providing better information flow,” says ActionStep founder and chief executive officer Ted Jordan.

“In the current environment, when many firms are looking hard at their structures, these online business tools can deliver heightened productivity gains, lower costs and create real competitive advantage.”

For Lumberlink the benefits of ActionStep include improved cash flow, increased sales volumes, and reduced administrative costs.

"This ActionStep customer success story clearly demonstrates how SaaS can help geographically dispersed organisations, like Lumberlink, improve their operations by generating new revenues while reducing their costs," says Jeffrey Kaplan, the founder of the SaaS Showplace website and BoSS in the United States.

Lumberlink is one of many New Zealand businesses and professional firms, including government departments, who are using our software-as-a-service-solutions (SaaS) to streamline operations and improve service for customers, Mr Jordan says.

“ActionStep provides small and medium sized businesses with the same benefits that larger firms gain from the application of enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools.”

The BoSS award is now stimulating interest in ActionStep from overseas including the United States, Japan, China, and Europe. ActionStep already has some early-adopter customers in Australia, Chile, and the United Kingdom.

"We feel that the award is a testament to our unwavering commitment to SaaS and how it fundamentally changes the opportunity to deliver extraordinary value to businesses and government. In the current environment that is creating considerable interest from a wide range of industries,” Mr Jordan says.

“ActionStep is very excited to be the first international winner of the BoSS awards, especially since the SaaS Showplace is the leading resource for information and strategy in this space.”

The ActionStep suite includes:

• Corporate Intranet – an online knowledge base containing policies, procedures and other information needed to support operations

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – marketing, sales, and customer management integrated with operations and accounting

• Project Management – workflow, time/billing, file notes, tasks, quality control, risk management

• Contacts, Calendar, E-mail – shared across the customer organisation and integrated with operations and accounting

• Document Management – centralised document generation, storage and search engine

• Human Resources – payroll, reviews, leave management and benefits

• Accounting – multi-currency, multi-division, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, tax, banking, fixed assets, inventory, trust accounting.

ActionStep was founded in 2004 by Mr Jordan whose previous experience includes developing software applications for a wide variety of clients, including the US federal government, Fortune 500 companies, and small and medium sized businesses.

The BoSS award is a further accolade for ActionStep and its development team. In 2007, ActionStep won the New Zealand ComputerWorld Award for Excellence in the use of ICT in a Small Business.

ENDS

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