Agricultural businesses are facing growing pressure to keep track of everything from contractor movements and biosecurity risks to compliance requirements and operational workflows.
For many, that information sits across several different systems, making it harder to get a clear picture of what is happening across the business.
Christchurch software company Onside is aiming to change that through its acquisition of fellow Canterbury technology firm Assura, bringing additional workflow management capabilities into its existing agricultural operations platform.
The move significantly expands the scale of the combined business, which will now support more than 60,000 users across New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Fiji.
For farmers, growers, processors and agricultural service providers, the focus is on making it easier to manage information and compliance requirements from a single place rather than relying on multiple stand-alone systems.
Onside co-founder and chief executive Ryan Higgs says increasing operational complexity is creating new challenges for agricultural businesses.
"Agribusinesses shouldn't need five different systems to know what's happening across their own operations," he says.
"Together with Assura, we can give them one view — from who's coming through the farm gate to the compliance work that keeps them in market."
The acquisition adds Assura's configurable workflow software to a platform already used for contractor management, biosecurity, health and safety, and quality assurance activities.
The intention is to give businesses a more complete view of operational risk while helping streamline compliance and reporting processes.
According to Higgs, customers have increasingly been looking for a more integrated approach to running their operations as compliance obligations and market requirements continue to evolve.
The deal comes during a period of strong growth for Onside, with the company reporting annual recurring revenue growth of 114 percent over the past year.
The business is also preparing for a capital raise to support further product development and international expansion.
Assura chief executive Hamish Howard says the two businesses share a similar focus on solving practical operational challenges for agricultural customers.
"We've built Assura around solving operational problems in a way that reflects how customers need to work.
“Joining Onside gives us the opportunity to build on that foundation and deliver more value to agriculture customers at a larger scale."
Howard will join Onside's leadership team following the acquisition as the company continues to expand its presence in overseas markets.