Mobile app development business acquired by Company-X

Hot Mustard’s Sales App Centre mobile app development business acquired by Company-X

Agribusiness mobile app developer Hot Mustard’s Sales App Centre’s mobile app development business will be acquired by software specialist Company-X on September 1.

The acquisition comes after Sales App Centre managing director Paul Bell sought Company-X out.

“We were a specialist software company focused on agribusiness with a small team looking for an opportunity to work with a larger development company with more expertise and resources,” Bell said.

“One of the reasons we approached Company-X is that it has some agribusiness clients, and a very good understanding of the agribusiness sector.”

DeLaval, the worldwide leader in milking equipment and solutions, is a long-term Company-X client. Company-X built a global e-learning solution for DeLaval. Company-X used the text to voice editor it built, Voxcoda, to provide narration in multiple languages.

Sales App Centre was incorporated in March 2012 and developed the first mobile apps for Ballance Agri Nutrients, DairyNZ and Zespri International.

“We specialise in apps for agribusiness, ” Bell said. “Including a lot of farmer-facing apps that need to work in the field where there is no internet connectivity.”

Other Sales App Centre clients include CRV Ambreed, Farmlands Co-Op Society, Giltrap Engineering and Primary ITO.

Company-X will assume responsibility for app and systems development, including the associated databases and application programming interface (APIs). Hot Mustard’s new business unit Hum will retain responsibility for website development.

Bell said Sales App Centre clients could only benefit from the acquisition, as they will be working with a larger, better resourced, broadly experienced team, with a proven software development track record. Company-X also had comprehensive testing and support services.

Sales App Centre business analyst Adrian Searle, who has worked on almost every project in the last seven years, joined Company-X in the acquisition and will continue to support clients.

Bell said he was “pretty excited and energised” by the acquisition.

Company-X co-founder and director Jeremy Hughes said: “We recognise that Hot Mustard’s key strength is media and design and having Company-X own the software development space lets the two companies work to their respective strengths.”

Company-X co-founder David Hallett said: “Company-X is looking forward to partnering with our new clients and providing them with superlative service.”

Hot Mustard will continue to work with Sales App Centre through Company-X.

About Company-X

Company-X offers software savvy delivered with a Kiwi can-do attitude.

Founded in 2012 by software specialists David Hallett and Jeremy Hughes, Company-X immediately won contracts with New Zealand government departments and a US multinational.

The Company-X team has grown to nearly 60 New Zealand-based software specialists, with only the best and brightest passing the Company-X interview and assessment process. The team prides itself with experience in a wide range of technologies and languages and loves challenging problems.

Company-X is the first Australasian reseller of RealWear head-mounted tablets.

Company-X ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ Asia Pacific, a list of the fastest-growing technology companies in the Asia Pacific region, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Company-X has won many awards:

• Company-X software quality assurance tester Jes Elliott won the Reseller News Women in ICT 2021 Rising Star Award.
• The Independent Software Vendor Award at the 2020 Reseller News Innovation Awards for Voxcoda, state-of-the-art software-as-a-service that turns text into human-like audio files at a fraction of the cost of booking a voice artist, recording studio and sound engineer.
• The Independent Software Vendor Award at the 2019 Reseller News Innovation Awards for a hands-free auditing application developed for AsureQuality.
• The Service Excellence and Global Operator awards at the 2018 Westpac Waikato Business Awards.
• The Services Exporter of the Year category at the 2017 Air New Zealand Cargo ExportNZ Awards.
• The Homegrown Innovators Independent Software Vendors Award at the 2017 Reseller News ICT Industry Awards.
• The Roading Asset Management Innovation Award at the 2017 Road Infrastructure Management Forum for the Road Efficiency Group Insights tool built for the New Zealand transport sector.

About Hot Mustard and Sales App Centre

Hot Mustard is a combination of an experienced advertising team with an experienced digital team with a reputation for producing great integrated campaigns across social, digital and traditional media. Hot Mustard has creative, media, design and tech all under one roof, making them agile, efficient and accountable. Collaborative, informed, focused. Hot Mustard is a small but highly specialised team developing new ways of working to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.

Sales App Centre was formed a decade ago by Hot Mustard to specialise in the development of agribusiness applications for mobile devices. Sales App Centre took its understanding of the industry’s business processes, to produce leading edge business apps.

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