‘Kiwi invasion’ – Flintfox wins big on global stage with Microsoft.
Flintfox honoured by Microsoft for outstanding sales achievement and innovation.
(Auckland, New Zealand, July 28, 2020) – Flintfox International, a disruptive innovator in pricing and rebate management and Gold Microsoft partner in the development and implementation of Supply chain solutions , are honoured to receive the 2020 MSUS Partner Award for Retail.
Flintfox is also proud to have achieved prestigious 2020/2021 Inner Circle status. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank Flintfox in the top echelon of the Microsoft Business Applications global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organisations achieve increased success. For the 4th time, Flintfox has been selected out of thousands of partners for this elite membership.
“Each year we recognise Microsoft Business Applications partners from around the world for delivering innovation and driving unsurpassed customer success,” said Cecilia Flombaum, Microsoft Business Applications Ecosystem Lead. “Our Inner Circle members are chosen based on their business performance as well as capabilities as an organisation, whether that’s creating IP, developing solutions, or having an industry leading focus on digital transformation. Microsoft is honoured to recognise Flintfox for their achievements this past year, their dedication to our customers, and their innovation around the Microsoft Cloud.”
2020/2021 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Virtual Summits, taking place quarterly between July 2020 and June 2021, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.
The Microsoft US (MSUS) Award program was developed to recognise outstanding achievement by their US partners. Flintfox was up against a competitive nomination pool and rose to the top amongst hundreds of other partners and ISV’s.
Flintfox, with their best of breed solutions for managing supply chain revenue, together with Microsoft, enable companies to achieve more in the US and beyond. With Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management and the Flintfox pricing and rebate management solution, there has never been such a complete and powerful tool available for Supply Chain companies. Flintfox are proud to have had their achievements recognised by Microsoft.
Many clients have trusted Flintfox to implement Dynamics 365 along with their Revenue Management suite of products.
“Supply chains are complex these days and managing pricing and incentives accurately for companies can be the difference between profit and loss. With Microsoft’s commitment to ERP innovation, breadth of functionality, and ease of use, Flintfox complex pricing and rebate management provides a true competitive advantage. With our Dynamics 365 offerings and our deep domain expertise along with our revenue management software, we are not just competing, we are winning. To be selected as a top partner for the prestigious Inner Circle Award is another indicator of the success of Flintfox in sales and innovative, industry-leading supply chain software.
We are proud that our outstanding achievements globally have been recognised by Microsoft US. All the more extraordinary is the size and scale of North America and thinking back to our humble beginnings in New Zealand. This is a fantastic reflection of the leading Dynamics implementation expertise we have in North America and is a great testament to our company as we continue to grow in scale and influence. Looking forward to achieving even more wins with Flintfox and Microsoft – we make an incredible team.” says Flintfox CEO and Chairman, Mike Ridgway.
Flintfox has over 15 years of leading collaborations with Microsoft as an ISV, resulting in dozens of happy Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 ERP clients getting the solutions they need to succeed and grow. As well as bringing extended functionality to D365, Flintfox has recently developed the RMx hyper-speed pricing engine in the Azure cloud, that works with any ERP, to complement the Trade Revenue Management (TRM) Suite for Dynamics. RMx delivers 5,000 complex prices calculated per second in Azure. There is currently no other solution like it in the world.
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About Flintfox
Flintfox provides best of breed Trade Revenue Management (TRM) solutions for resolving revenue challenges across the supply chain. They have over 30 years of expertise delivering TRM solutions to over 125,000 users across 25 countries within the manufacturing, wholesale distribution and retail industries. Their TRM software, for both buy and sell-side operations, integrates with any ERP and enables accurate, real-time calculations for complex revenue activities including price management, promotions pricing, rebate management, claims and deductions. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Inner Circle Member and one of only 10 software developers managed globally, Flintfox also provides consulting and implementation services for Microsoft Dynamics applications. Flintfox operates across North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific, with headquarters located in New Zealand.
Advent Partners invests in global software leader – Flintfox International.
Flintfox International poised for rapid global expansion and innovation of next generation technologies.
(JUNE 2020, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND) Flintfox International (Flintfox), a disruptive innovator and global leader in delivering supply chain management solutions, announced today that Advent Partners (Advent) has invested in the company.
The partnership with Advent will allow Flintfox to further fast-track growth and enhance its leading Revenue Management and Optimization product portfolio. All of Flintfox’s existing shareholders retained a shareholding.
“Advent Partners’ investment approach provides strong alignment with our strategy and offered us a strategic partnership to capitalize even further on our global presence as we begin to enter our next and very exciting phase of growth.” said Mike Ridgway, CEO and Chairman of Flintfox.
“Our partnership will allow us to invest further into research and development, particularly in the areas of revenue optimization, pricing performance, and rebate management, extending our competitive advantage and ensuring our global team of Microsoft Dynamics implementation consultants have the tools they need to deliver the best solution stack available on the market today.”
Despite being headquartered in New Zealand, Flintfox has, over the last decade, become recognized as one of the most influential Microsoft Global Independent Software Vendors (ISV) in the world and has cemented its position as experts in trade revenue management, and supply chain solution delivery.
This was further accelerated by the phenomenal success of the Company’s RMx Suite launched in 2017. With its hyper-speed pricing engine designed to leverage the most advanced technology available, Flintfox has quickly become a global leader in the Trade Revenue Management space, earning multiple accolades for Excellence in Innovation and ensuring its customers maintain competitive advantage.
“The adoption of Flintfox as a best of breed software solution is accelerating as global businesses seek better visibility and tools to exert control over trade revenue management and pricing strategies,” said Symon Vegter, Partner at Advent.
“Mike and his team have built an impressive business and an innovative portfolio of products that empower global customers to manage, track, and reconcile trade promotion and rebate expenditure, and execute multi-channel pricing strategies.”
Brad Lynch, Partner at Advent added “We are pleased to be partnering with Flintfox and its experienced senior leadership to support customer growth against a large global opportunity, and also continued product innovation. Flintfox has built an emerging global footprint to date. We see scope to support the team in accelerating international expansion in the large and rapidly expanding TRM market.”
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About Flintfox
Flintfox provides best of breed Trade Revenue Management (TRM) solutions for resolving revenue challenges across the supply chain. They have over 30 years of expertise delivering TRM solutions to over 125,000 users across 25 countries within the manufacturing, wholesale distribution and retail industries. Their TRM software, for both buy and sell-side operations, integrates with any ERP and enables accurate, real time calculations for complex revenue activities including price management, promotions pricing, rebate management, claims and deductions. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Inner Circle Member and one of only 10 software developers managed globally, Flintfox also provides consulting and implementation services for Microsoft Dynamics applications. Flintfox operates across North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific, with headquarters located in New Zealand. www.flintfox.com
About Advent Partners
Advent Partners is one of Australia’s most experienced private investment firms. Since its founding over 35 years ago, Advent has invested in over 90 businesses. Adopting a team-driven, partnership approach, Advent brings more than just capital to the table. It provides founders with real world experience to build market-leading businesses. https://www.advent.com.au/
Five V purchases Totara ownership interest, setting the stage for Totara’s expansion into global HR technology market
For Immediate Release
Wellington, New Zealand, June 16, 2020 – Totara today announced that its owners have entered into a purchase agreement with Sydney private equity firm Five V Capital, under which Five V will acquire a majority ownership interest in Totara. The operations and management of Totara will remain unchanged with Richard Wyles continuing as Chief Executive Officer.
Since 2011, Totara has remained focused on helping organizations experience the freedom to innovate and adapt to changing circumstances through its open and flexible HR and Learning & Development software.
Today’s rapidly evolving workplace and the strategic imperative of having engaged and well-trained employees, further accelerated by COVID-19, has prompted corporations and organizations to adapt new working practices. Totara’s products – used by over 1,800 organizations like USDA, Indeed, Pepsi, Red Hat, JetBlue, Yamaha, and more – is well-positioned to meet this growing market.
“I am excited to welcome Five V Capital in Totara’s mission to drive a new era of innovation, workplace performance and productivity,” said Wyles. “Five V’s collaborative and growth-oriented approach will accelerate our efforts to build Totara’s presence in new and existing markets – at a time when the demand for remote workforce technologies is growing exponentially.”
Wyles said: “Totara’s enterprise-ready learning management system (LMS), user-centric learning experience platform (LXP), and comprehensive performance management system – which will be released in October 2020 as the Totara Talent Experience Platform – is a formidable challenger and strategic alternative to often over-priced and inflexible HCM systems. We’re here to shake things up for the better and it’s great to have experienced and aligned partners in Five V.”
“We are excited to be part of Totara’s future and to be partnering with Richard and his team,” said Srdjan Dangubic, Partner at Five V Capital. “Totara is a globally ambitious business with enormous potential. We look forward to supporting Totara’s international expansion plans to disrupt the global HR and talent experience markets,” Wyles said.
Vista Point Advisors, a San Francisco-based boutique investment bank, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Totara.
About Totara
Totara builds employee engagement, learning, and performance management technologies that enable large multinational corporations, government entities, and mid-market companies to deliver enterprise-level talent and workforce experiences. Totara’s Talent Experience Platform (TXP) unifies an industry-leading learning management system (LMS), a user-centric learning experience platform (LXP), and a comprehensive performance management system under a single and highly adaptable architecture. Totara’s TXP and flexible architecture gives organizations the freedom to innovate, the freedom to choose, and unlocks critical resources for reinvestment into where it really counts. https://www.totaralearning.com/
About Five V
Five V Capital is a growth-focused private equity fund based in Sydney, Australia. Five V has in excess of A$450 million of capital available to partner with leading founders and businesses in Australia and New Zealand. With a focus on B2B and technology-enabled services, Five V’s current portfolio includes Education Perfect, Probe Group, Universal Store, Zenith Investment Partners, RateSetter Australia, Canva and SiteMinder. More information is available at www.fivevcapital.com/
- : Richard Wyles
- : CEO
- : richard.wyles@totaralearning.com
- : 043858399
- : https://totaralearning.com
- https://twitter.com/totaralearning | https://www.linkedin.com/company/totaralearning/
Five V purchases Totara ownership interest, setting the stage for Totara’s expansion into global HR technology market
Wellington, New Zealand, June 16, 2020 – Totara today announced that its owners have entered into a purchase agreement with Sydney private equity firm Five V Capital, under which Five V will acquire a majority ownership interest in Totara. The operations and management of Totara will remain unchanged with Richard Wyles continuing as Chief Executive Officer.
Since 2011, Totara has remained focused on helping organizations experience the freedom to innovate and adapt to changing circumstances through its open and flexible HR and Learning & Development software.
Today’s rapidly evolving workplace and the strategic imperative of having engaged and well-trained employees, further accelerated by COVID-19, has prompted corporations and organizations to adapt new working practices. Totara’s products – used by over 1,800 organizations like USDA, Indeed, Pepsi, Red Hat, JetBlue, Yamaha, and more – is well-positioned to meet this growing market.
“I am excited to welcome Five V Capital in Totara’s mission to drive a new era of innovation, workplace performance and productivity,” said Wyles. “Five V’s collaborative and growth-oriented approach will accelerate our efforts to build Totara’s presence in new and existing markets – at a time when the demand for remote workforce technologies is growing exponentially.”
Wyles said: “Totara’s enterprise-ready learning management system (LMS), user-centric learning experience platform (LXP), and comprehensive performance management system – which will be released in October 2020 as the Totara Talent Experience Platform – is a formidable challenger and strategic alternative to often over-priced and inflexible HCM systems. We’re here to shake things up for the better and it’s great to have experienced and aligned partners in Five V.”
“We are excited to be part of Totara’s future and to be partnering with Richard and his team,” said Srdjan Dangubic, Partner at Five V Capital. “Totara is a globally ambitious business with enormous potential. We look forward to supporting Totara’s international expansion plans to disrupt the global HR and talent experience markets,” Wyles said.
Vista Point Advisors, a San Francisco-based boutique investment bank, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Totara.
About Totara
Totara builds employee engagement, learning, and performance management technologies that enable large multinational corporations, government entities, and mid-market companies to deliver enterprise-level talent and workforce experiences. Totara’s Talent Experience Platform (TXP) unifies an industry-leading learning management system (LMS), a user-centric learning experience platform (LXP), and a comprehensive performance management system under a single and highly adaptable architecture. Totara’s TXP and flexible architecture gives organizations the freedom to innovate, the freedom to choose, and unlocks critical resources for reinvestment into where it really counts. https://www.totaralearning.com/
About Five V
Five V Capital is a growth-focused private equity fund based in Sydney, Australia. Five V has in excess of A$450 million of capital available to partner with leading founders and businesses in Australia and New Zealand. With a focus on B2B and technology-enabled services, Five V’s current portfolio includes Education Perfect, Probe Group, Universal Store, Zenith Investment Partners, RateSetter Australia, Canva and SiteMinder. More information is available at www.fivevcapital.com/
New Zealand Tech Alliance calls for event submissions for nationwide festival of tech
New Zealand Tech Alliance, a group of over 20 independent technology associations, is calling for submissions from organisations keen to take part in Techweek2020, a nationwide series of events showcasing and celebrating New Zealand tech innovation during the week 18 – 24 May.
Tech Alliance Chief Strategy Officer Julie Gill says Techweek2020 is a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved in New Zealand’s vibrant tech innovation ecosystem to meet, share ideas and find new ways to work together.
“Techweek is when everyone in the tech sector can showcase the amazing innovation that is taking place in Aotearoa,” Gill says.
“Techweek2020 marks the fifth year, with the first iteration of Techweek including 55 events attended by 10,000 people in Auckland. It has now grown to become a nationwide event that attracts over 46,000 attendees around the country. The theme this year is ‘Connecting our future’, which recognises that as we begin a new decade, we need to be thinking long-term about how new technology is impacting our nation.”
There are three distinct pillars of activity during Techweek – community, education and business – and submissions are welcome from organisations with ideas for events that support one or more of these pillars. Events can vary from major conferences to small meetups on niche topics, hackathons, workshops and networking events.
“Whether it is a two-day conference with multiple speakers or a 30-minute pitch session for fledgling start-ups, we’d love to hear from anyone interested in taking part,” Gill says.
Gill says she is delighted that AUT and Callaghan Innovation have once again signed on as strategic partners, and that ANZ Bank and Chorus are Festival Partners for Techweek2020. For ongoing updates and information about Techweek2020, visit www.techweek.co.nz.
Regional and Rural Schools take out National Digital Titles
Smaller regional and rural schools from across New Zealand swept the National Finals for the Tahi Rua Toru Tech in-school challenge this year.
The 2019 National Winners were announced at a gala event at TSB Arena in Wellington, following 10 regional finals held across New Zealand in October. The National Finals were attended by the regional winning teams with students coming from around the country.
As part of the Tahi Rua Toru Tech Challenge, teams of 3-4 students find a problem in their local school or community and use digital technologies to solve it. Teams are paired up with tech industry mentors and given support and resources. Over 6500 students participated in the Challenge this year.
IT Professionals New Zealand CEO Paul Matthews said today that “Regional and Rural New Zealand were the winners this year, with winning teams coming from Hāwea Flat near Wanaka, Morrinsville, Rotorua and New Plymouth”.
At the Discovery level (years 0-5), Hāwea Flat School’s Team Happy Hawea took out the title, completing a set of challenges in the fastest time. It came down to split-seconds in the end and was hotly contested.
Morrinsville Intermediate’s Team Thunderbolts took out the First Challenge (years 6-8), creating an app game to encourage fitness by getting the user to move around Morrinsville to scan QR codes whilst seeing the ‘Herd of Cows’ (sculptures) on display within their town.
John Paul College, Rotorua’s Team ShumbaLeon won the Secondary level (years 9-10), created a website showcasing cultural diversity in their school and a platform for students to share their own stories and culture with other students.
And Sacred Heart Girls College, New Plymouth’s Team Red took out Senior Secondary (years 11-13), creating a medication box that sends bluetooth messages to your phone to remind you to take your medication, and has a motion sensor and lock and software designed to reduce under or overdosing.
The Ministry of Education’s Deputy Secretary for Early Learning and Student Achievement Ellen MacGregor-Reid helped announce the winners and was seriously impressed by the level of innovation. “A huge scale of learning has clearly gone on in the challenge. The majority of the students didn’t know how to write any code at the start – and yet that was such a stand-out feature of the innovations I’ve seen,” MacGregor-Reid said.
As part of the National Finals, the Digital Technologies Teachers Aotearoa (DTTA) and IT Professionals New Zealand recognised an influential teacher who has made a huge difference to digital tech. This year the Ali Chivers Teacher Influence Award went to Julie MacMahon from St Hilda’s Collegiate School in Dunedin.
“I’ve known Julie for several years, working with her on bringing about the changes to the Digital Technologies curriculum. She’s an inspiring and energetic teacher who contributes so much to her students and their profession,” Matthews said. “A very worthy choice.”
The Challenge will enter its third year in 2020 and is part of a suite of resources and tools to help teachers and schools implement changes to Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko in the Curriculum in a safe and supported way.
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About Tahi Rua Toru Tech
Partnering with the Ministry of Education, the IT industry is supporting the introduction of the new Digital Technologies & Hangarau Matihiko (DT&HM) curriculum into schools and Kura with the 123Tech Challenge.
In the challenge, small teams of 3-4 students complete a project-based challenge either in-class in schools, or through a local Code Club. Most will complete it as a classroom activity, but the model caters to both. The 123Tech Challenge is for everyone, not just tech geniuses (although they’re welcome too!). Schools are also partnered with an industry mentor, and the Challenge provides all the guidance and support students need to make a real difference.
Tahi Rua Toru Tech is being delivered by a partnership of not-for profit organisations led by IT Professionals NZ and started in its current form in 2018.
The National Finals were held on Thursday 5th December 2019.
To learn more about Tahi Rua Toru Tech visit https://123tech.nz
To learn more about Digital Tech/Hangarau Matihiko, http://education.govt.nz/digitech.
Government’s proposed Landfill Levy increase will have no impact on plastic waste
This week the Government announced a long awaited and welcome proposal to increase the landfill levy in order to encourage behaviour change away from dumping to more recovery, recycling and reuse. However, the increased levy will have no effect on the volumes of plastic waste entering the economy, our landfills and the environment, according to plastic2parliament.
“Currently plastics account for around 8% of total waste by weight, but as much as 20% of landfill by volume and that’s an enormous proportion of the waste problem.” said Wade Bishop, initiator of the plastic2parliament letter writing initiative. (Ref. Recycle.co.nz)
“With the landfill levy based on weight there’s no incentive in this to move away from plastic packaging or other avoidable plastics that end up in our landfills and environment.” Wade Bishop said.
Plastic2parliament is encouraging New Zealanders to ask all political parties what their plastic reduction policies are by penning letters to MPs in Parliament, via the Parliamentary free-post address while also stuffing their large envelopes full of non-recyclable plastics to illustrate the plastic waste problem.
“We are asking political parties and Government to focus regulation on the producers of plastic packaging targeted at simply making less of it.” said Bishop.
The global oil industry is currently investing US$180 billion in new plastic production plants to increase production by 40% in the next 10 years. This immense supply-pressure will create a further explosion in plastic volumes here in New Zealand and the increased landfill levy will have zero effect on that. This is an over-production issue that needs urgent regulation where the problem starts: the producers.” he said.
The Plastic2parliament initiative believes that an immediate impact can be made on plastic waste by extending bans across wide categories of avoidable single-use plastics, such as cutlery, dishes, cups, takeaway containers and even bubble and pallet wraps.
The initiative also advocates a Plastic Tax on imported virgin plastics used to manufacture single-use packaging and on imported new plastic packaging.
“While the landfill levy will have a negligible effect on the cost of dumping plastic packaging for New Zealanders, it still gets under your skin having to pay even more to get rid of a toxic waste that you didn’t ask for in the first place.” Wade Bishop said.
Plastic2parliament continues to grow quickly with membership numbers of the Facebook Group reaching more than 1000 people sending more than 720 letters and plastic parcels to MPs since beginning in early October this year, including another 90 to Minister for the Environment, David Parker, this week.
ABOUT PLASTIC2PARLIAMENT
Plastic2parliament is a letter-writing initiative started by Wade Bishop of Christchurch which encourages New Zealanders concerned about single-use plastics to include these products with their letters to M.P.s using the Parliamentary Free-post address. The purpose of the initiative is to creatively emphasise how these non-recyclable products cannot be avoided by consumers and that the actual cause of plastic waste is over-production and use by manufacturers. We seek to have M.P.s advocate for meaningful plastic waste reduction policy within their respective Party focused on packaging producers.
Oil companies are investing US$180 billion right now to increase virgin plastic production by 40% before 2030. This enormous supply pressure has already created an explosion in single-use packaging globally. New Zealand will not be immune to these supply pressures and is poorly placed to deal with the waste volumes that will eventuate. (Ref. theguardian.com; and sciencemag.org)