New Zealand’s Scenic Tourism Group offers day and overnight tours of the North and South Islands by luxury air-conditioned coaches.

The company began life as Mini Tours in 1967 and now has a range of daily brochure tours. Another division of the group is Scenic Coachlines Ltd catering for special Coach Charter requirements, for Inbound Tourists and local charter needs.

Although Scenic Group were shown many demos, and even transport-specific packages, none of them felt right. “They were trying to be too complicated and too tricky, and seemed too expensive.”

It was a technology barrier that spurred the decision to upgrade Scenic Group’s accounting package. The company was using DOS-based CBA, but general manager of operations Ajay Vagha says it was very limiting. Scenic Tourism Group can send out up to 200 job quotes on some days, but CBA was unable to email quotes. “We’d have to physically type them out,” Vagha says. “CBA was very bland and scientific, and you couldn’t even adjust the view in terms of printing.”

“We liked the system, but it was just too simplistic. We tried to find a connection to a more user-friendly system.” Although Scenic Group were shown many demos, and even transport-specific packages, none of them felt right. “They were trying to be too complicated and too tricky. And they sounded awfully expensive. We’re in the business of making money out of coaches, not having pretty computer systems. Then we saw Greentree, and things just snowballed from there,” Vagha says.

Greentree had the right specs and the right price. It went live in May 2004. The changeover took a little longer than expected, but Vagha says the complexity of the business contributed to that. "As far as workability goes, there were no glitches." The system has been customised for them, with two custom programs written, and it now has around 20 users. Vagha says the users found the functionality easy to learn, which meant they soon found out how to get the benefits from Greentree.

Very, very flexible

He likes the flexibility that Greentree has given him. “I’m big on getting the raw data that we put in every day and turning it into figures and statistics. We used to have Crystal Reports linked to our old system, but now we just press a button and Greentree extracts the reports.” Vagha also likes the immediacy of the program. “Accounting-wise, in terms of live updates, Greentree has certainly helped the accounts department keep their sanity!” He says users also appreciate being able to use their existing Excel skills to make reports and spreadsheets. “You don’t need any special coding. It’s very straightforward.”

“I’m big on getting the raw data that we put in every day and turning it into figures and statistics. We used to have Crystal Reports linked to our old system, but now we just press a button and Greentree extracts the reports.”

He believes almost every single person’s day-to-day job has been made easier by Greentree. “The user-friendliness is great. We can do quotes in such a hurry now,” he says. “A Windows-based system has been much easier.

“All the other programs we are using are Windows-based, and accounting was the only area that was lagging,” he says. “Now it is compatible with everything else.

Very, very accessible

Removing DOS from the equation has been a big benefit. “When we installed it, we wanted to upgrade to something that would last for the next few years. We didn’t know what was going to happen to DOS in terms of support, so it was one of the key reasons we changed,” Vagha says.

About Scenic Tourism Group

In 1995 Scenic Tours introduced the first deluxe five-star twin-deck coach service on the Auckland–Waitomo Glow Worm Caves–Rotorua route as an attraction-packed day tour. Onboard snacks and lunch, served airline-style by a ‘host’, enables the service to cover both destinations comfortably in a day, while those choosing to stay overnight in Rotorua enjoy a Maori hangi and concert and a trip to Lake Taupo before connecting with the return sector to Auckland later in the day.

Scenic Tours has popular departures daily from Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch and Queenstown. Destinations include the Bay of Islands, Auckland, Rotorua, Waitomo, Taupo, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Mount Cook, Milford Sound, Franz Josef Glacier, Dunedin and the internationally renowned “Tranz Alpine Experience” ™.

For more information visit: www.scenictours.co.nz