Our Story - Abel ERP software designed for growing businesses

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Imagine if every business could afford the powerful tools only large organisations use to manage and grow their businesses...

In 1996, Founder and Managing Director Allan Baird started Abel Software with a clear vision: to deliver serious ERP functionality for small and mid-sized businesses that was affordable, flexible and easy to use. With the help of a trusted team of visionary software engineers and consultants, we created Abel ERP – a purpose-built ERP solution for all businesses.

We are still on the same mission. Since 1996, we’ve stayed true to the Abel® way of providing the little guys what the big guys have.

We now support businesses in more than 13 countries across five continents and in six languages. Our customers include small and mid-sized businesses, publicly listed companies and a global Forbes 400 company.

Like many of our customers, we’re still driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a New Zealander’s passion for fresh thinking and simplicity. We continue to create innovative and integrated ERP tools that deliver the automation, control and end-to-end visibility our customers need in their business.

We take special pride in delivering purpose-built, easy-to-use software that can scale as our customers grow and develop. There is no better testament to our agile solutions and dedicated customer service than knowing that some of our very first customers are still happy Abel customers 25 years later.

Our Team

Jane Mattsen

Business Manager & Executive Director

Callum Baird

CIO & Development Manager

Allan Baird

Founder and Managing Director

The Abel Brand

"Abel by name, Able by nature"

Abel® is named after Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first European to reach New Zealand. The crest that sits above Abel’s logo represents the sails of Abel Tasman’s sailing ship. Like early voyagers, we also map out new landscapes – and every day explore new possibilities in helping our customers navigate to success.

Realizing the Vision

In 1998 our first Abel® site was installed for the New Zealand Wool Testing Authority, a customer who remains with us today. By 2002 our customer base had expanded to include global textile services leader Alsco Inc., who use Abel to manage millions of transactions daily across 135 branches worldwide, proving that Abel’s design and technology scales to meet major business demands.

Since 1998 Abel’s user base has continued to grow. We continue to deliver on the same vision – and we are proud to be a part of our customers’ success stories.

Abel’s strengths are best expressed by what our customers say about us

View our case studies for more information

A honey of a solution for Taupo exporter

To manage the complex quality control standards for exporting manuka honey, Cosana chose Abel® to provide the...

Raising the bar for craft beer

Growing from home brewers to international exporters, Deep Creek Brewing Company chose Abel® to integrate the...

Rising to the top with real-time data

When a corporate divestment prompted leading New Zealand dairy solutions provider DTS to transform their syste...

What our customers say:

Chris Bowman

Chief Executive - Cosana

"“Without a doubt, we know Abel has all the flexibility and functionality we need to grow and succeed, as well as the support and innovation we might need along the way. The rest is up to us.” "
Paul Brown

co-founder - Deep Creek Brewing Company

"“Working with Abel went as well as I could expect. We changed from three different software systems to one integrated system and it was working perfectly within a month.”"
Gavin Thwaites

Chief Executive Officer - Dairy Technology Services

"We couldn’t be happier with Abel,” he says. “Automating our processes has made us so much more efficient. We have fewer people working on manual tasks, we’ve cut costs and we now have the traceability and visibility we needed across our business. That’s making it easier for the whole organization to succeed."
NZ Drinks

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"For NZ Drinks, automation was a great decision, and Abel’s robustness and flexibility provides us with a great foundation for growth, if we wanted to quadruple our business tomorrow, we wouldn’t have to change anything."
Disc Brakes Australia

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"Once you configure Abel to suit your business processes, it just delivers. You get a system that can handle a very high level of complexity which would cost a lot more if you went anywhere else. I hate to think where we might have been today without Abel."

View Our Case Studies

Latest Abel News

Improve throughput for jobs with similar setup

November 21, 2023

Planners can use Abel to help them optimize the schedule for jobs that have similar setup. The goal is to minimize setup and clean times and therefore improve throughput. This suits operations that have a mixture of jobs with common… Read more »

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The Abel Software Story