Eclipse Expands with Xapt Australia Acquisition

Sydney - Tuesday, 15 October 2002 - "Leading business solutions reseller, Eclipse Computing (Australia) Pty Ltd is continuing to expand its national operations the acquisition of Xapt Australia.

Xapt Australia were resellers of the widely acclaimed ERP solution, Microsoft Navision Axapta. The acquisition includes Axapta clients in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland along with a team of accredited Axapta consultants.

Eclipse has ambitions to become the largest Australian Axapta reseller and support centre over the next 12 months.

Eclipse is one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies, ranked number 27 in BRW’s Fast 100 last year, and has built its business by providing high-level customer service to support a range of software solutions including Axapta.

In July this year, Eclipse became the first Microsoft Business Solutions’ reseller to offer both Great Plains and Axapta, following the Microsoft acquisition of Navision.

Bradley Stroop, Chief Executive Officer of Eclipse said, “We see Axapta as the business solution of the future. It is at an early stage of its life cycle and, yet, is already building a strong momentum in Australia.”

Axapta is a versatile enterprise resource planning solution that gives medium sized organisations the power to gain a competitive advantage.

Mr Stroop said the acquisition had helped Eclipse achieve critical mass. The company now has Axapta clients across Australia and accredited Axapta teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

“This is a win-win scenario,” Mr Stroop said. “The former Xapt clients now have access to all Eclipse services including our unrivalled 24/7 (all day, every day) support service.”

Eclipse has forged a reputation for providing a level of ‘old-fashioned’ client servicing that is unheard of in this day and age.

This has led to Eclipse achieving Inner Circle status with Microsoft Business Solutions in August this year (awarded to only 1% of reseller partners globally) as well as recognition as the number one reseller of Great Plains eEnterprise, Pivotal CRM solutions and SunSystems in Australia.

“Old-fashioned service stands for knowledge, expertise, care, passion, pride and an eye for detail,” Mr Stroop said.

“This is the personal commitment I promise each of our clients and I drive all our people to value the ethos and deliver on it without fail,” he said.

Eclipse has launched further rapid growth since becoming part of the publicly listed Australian investment company, Utility Services Corporation Limited (USC) in May this year.

“With USC’s backing, we can consolidate our position as a leader in the intelligent solutions market and expand our business model,” Mr Stroop said.

“Being part of USC provides us with a solid foundation. USC has major plans for Eclipse and is providing capital to support our expansion plans and to further enhance servicing to our existing client base,” he said.

Eclipse is a multi-award winning company. Recent awards include:

• Microsoft Business Solutions Inner Circle 2002
• Microsoft Great Plains’ Award for Commitment to Exceptional Customer Satisfaction 2001
• Microsoft Great Plains’ Fastest Growing Reseller in 2001
• SunSystems Premiere Channel Partner 2001
• SunSystems Highest Client Retention Rate 1987-2001
• SunSystems Leading Reseller of Sun5 2001
• Leading Pivotal Partner 2001