The country’s newest Crown Research Institute, the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, has chosen SAP as the best platform to manage its complex recently-merged organisation.Plant & Food Research was launched in December 2008, combining the previous Crop & Food Research and HortResearch. The merged organisations needed a singular platform to work for commercial and government clients to work on projects as short as a few months or as long as several years in addition to supporting staff around the world.“The IT systems of the two organisations didn’t have much in common, they even had different email applications,” said John McMaster, CIO, Plant & Food Research. “Clearly it was essential for the new organisation that we migrate to a unified system to meet out needs today and in the future. The fact that it has been delivered on time and within budget reinforces the decision we took.”Graeme Riley, SAP New Zealand Managing Director, said that a common platform is central to the success of a merger like Plant & Food Research, particularly when rapid deployment is preferred and productivity is critical.“The organisation elected to replace its business management systems and create a platform that supports continued growth by streamlining systems and using analytic tools to get timely, accurate and actionable information, so it can help New Zealand retain its competitive edge by continuing to innovate and add value to primary industries,” he said.