Hydroflow is a specialist distributor of valves, pipe fittings and plumbing hardware which has made its presence known within the water industry throughout New Zealand. The company has built an excellent reputation in water reticulation, backflow prevention and farm water solutions.

Growth generates need
As Hydroflow has expanded over the years, its accounting and data requirements have grown with it. Around the middle of 2002, financial controller Les Young decided the company had finally outgrown its existing package, Attache.

Young considered several alternatives, including Exonet and Exchequer, but he eventually settled on Greentree (who were recently recognised as one of 25 global rising stars by MIS magazine). "It was the best fit for our business, with additional features that the others didn’t have," he says.

After a painless transition, Greentree went live at Hydroflow in September 2002 and a total of 12 staff are now using the system across the North and South Island.

Young has been impressed by Greentree’s capabilities. "I like the processing of sales orders, its reporting abilities, the ease of getting information out of it — detailed information is very good — IT processing and general functionality is very slick."

Hydroflow has also purchased Greentree’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) module, which Young says will be of great benefit to the management on the marketing side. The CRM module provides a solution that can be easily tailored to suit most businesses, with seamless integration into the core Greentree financial and distribution modules.

Young says Greentree has already given Hydroflow much better control over its stock. "It was very difficult to achieve with our previous system, but good stock control makes everything easier." Greentree provides customer and supplier balance history information in a much simpler way than the previous package and Young reports that financial reporting in general is easier.

Young also appreciates the way Greentree can handle a large data file. "We use the same data file from year to year, so the size of it increases constantly. But with Greentree we have been able to retain all the information in a very detailed format."

Across the board, Greentree has enabled an easier flow of information for this plumbing supplies firm.