NZ Hothouse
“We’re more secure than we’ve ever been before.”
- Ron Baas, Chief Financial Controller
While traditional growers, who might have an outside packhouse, send their produce to farmers markets or sell to the supermarket, NZ Hothouse is several steps ahead. Yes, NZ Hothouse are known for growing delicious fresh produce – mainly tomatoes and cucumbers – but they also market, pack, and distribute through their associated transport company.
It’s a story of vertical integration and scale done well. But for a company dealing in perishable goods and supplying to fiercely competitive supermarket chains – their main customers are Countdown and Foodstuffs – the stakes are high. Accountability, confidence, and IT stability are non-negotiable.
Financial Controller Ron Baas explains:
“Because we’re a 24/7 operation and we’re in supermarkets, time is everything. Supermarkets don’t want excuses. We’ve got computers controlling our greenhouses. We’d grind to a halt without those systems going.”
Ron’s background is in horticulture and accounting. His role involves looking after operations and heading up the IT team, but he can’t cover all the bases. NZ Hothouse has one IT engineer in-house. Back in 2019 they needed to undergo major server updates. And it had to be done right. They wanted some support with project management and independent guidance on their future direction.
Ron explains: “We were moving to more of a Microsoft environment because most of our applications are Microsoft. It was getting harder and harder to manage that side of things [ourselves].”
They started working with Unisphere in 2019.
Ron and other leaders at NZ Hothouse needed to find someone to give them a strategic review of their business. They wanted a virtual Chief Information Officer (CIO) as they had some gaps in that area. They chose James from Unisphere. As well as helping them manage the major changes to a Microsoft environment, Unisphere provided NZ Hothouse with advice on what systems they needed in terms of managing failover. The important part is ensuring all systems are live 24/7. Ron describes their systems as more mainstream now; before they were bespoke.
When we asked Ron what it was like working with Unisphere he said:
“They have an independent view. James is also very strong on the security side of things. He brings new things to the table that a lot of IT service providers don't – others tend to be stuck in a bit of a groove sometimes. James is across a whole lot of different businesses, he's seen a lot. He can take the best out of what people have got and say this is the solution for this particular problem.”
Not only does their new and improved IT environment give them greater stability, Ron explains how it makes his life easier:
“I’m absolutely not worried about things as much. Unisphere bring accountability to make sure that things are being done and being done on time. James is very strong on that. We chat and swap notes every second week.”
As well as fortnightly check-ins, James and Unisphere give NZ Hothouse greater oversight with the reports they run in the background.
Ron has a lean IT team in-house, so it’s important that it’s not just James but:
“There’s other skills that the Unisphere team bring to the party. Mark is a project manager, we’ve used him. Kat is involved in the security side of things. We can access whatever we need at the time. James has a lot of contacts as well, so if there’s something we want to tap into he’s a resource for that, which is really handy.”
Keen to join dozens of organisations like NZ Hothouse who trust Unisphere with their outsourced IT?
NZ Hothouse’s experience goes to show that you can be a market leader and have a lean in-house IT team. Outsourcing your project and change management to Unisphere gives you access to the skills and expertise as and when you need it. What’s more you’ll also gain oversight, accountability, and access to a wide network of people who bring their own diverse range of skills and perspectives. Outsourcing frees up time and resources for you to focus on your core business and helps you stop worrying about the security, stability, and sustainability of your IT.