The Challenge: Disconnected data that hindered strategic vision
For over 30 years, Aquaterro has met the highest benchmarks for its protection products through an ongoing commitment to discipline and innovation. With more than $500 million secured in government contracts and a workforce of over 70 staff across Australia, the company's ambitions are rapidly expanding into global markets.
As the business prepared to launch into a new and highly complex domestic operation, its operational reality became clear: its small-business software was fast becoming a major chink in the company's armour.
Aquaterro's rapid evolution and financial complexity was pushing its systems to the limit. Managing over 150,000 active SKUs across multiple emerging subsidiaries required precise inventory control, but the company was being held back by a fragmented small-business software setup.
"We had a lot of disjointed information across a number of different systems," recalls CCO Dan Hutchinson. "It provided really poor visibility for our business to be able to make accurate and timely decisions."
Looking at the operational picture, Aquaterro was essentially fighting a three-front battle within its existing technology stack:
1. Information was siloed across platforms: Financial metrics sat isolated in Xero while inventory lived separately in Cin7, making it nearly impossible to get a real-time, consolidated view of the business.
2. Hidden costs were eroding profit margins: Due to roughly 99% of their product range being imported, unintegrated freight and landed cost updates meant the team lacked direct visibility into actual unit-level profitability.
3. Data mismatch was causing balance sheet risk: Constant manual bridging between the two platforms exposed the company to severe inventory valuation discrepancies, creating a downstream risk for yearend financial reporting.
For Senior Finance Manager Karleen Frost, who joined the company nearly nine years ago at the onset of its growth spurt, this tack of software cohesion was an ongoing headache.
"We were so disconnected," Frost explains. "We had Cin7 operating the inventory and Xero operating the finance numbers ... trying to join figures together to get profitability statements and work out where our inventory was sitting was just a mess."
Without automated tracking, the team was essentially flying blind on true product profitability. This misalignment trickled down to year-end reporting, where system discrepancies threatened asset valuations on the balance sheet.
The breaking point arrived in 2019, when, recognising an ambitious growth path couldn't be built on a foundation of guesswork, Aquaterro began a comprehensive search for a unified, single-platform solution.
The Solution: Secure operations, maximised efficiencies
By transitioning to a unified enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, Aquaterro further solved its operational vulnerabilities, delivering transformative gains across three key areas:
1. One source of truth for a more united front.
With expanding operations spanning multiple capital cities, keeping distant teams aligned used to be an uphill battle. Today, MYOB Acumatica acts as the ultimate enabler for company-wide collaboration.
"The team loves MYOB Acumatica because it's one source of truth. .. We can operate in different states, in different buildings, all looking at the same data at the same time."
Karleen Frost | Senior Finance Manager
By leveraging automated intercompany branch processes to manage internal balances, Aquaterro eliminated manual data duplication loops. According to Hutchinson, deploying this single feature has saved the equivalent of an entire full-time employee's salary every single year.
2. Unlocking a faster, less manual administrative 'frontline
Previously, compiling operational data required drawing information from separate departments and capturing accounts payable, accounts receivable, and sales orders manually. By integrating the Velixo app directly with MYOB Acumatica, Aquaterro revolutionised its reporting workflows.
"A report that we used to spend 5 days running now takes just 15 minutes, and I know those figures are more accurate ... This allows the finance team to focus on strategic profitability analysis rather than manual data entry".
Karleen Frost | Senior Finance Manager
3. A scalable foundation for a new business boom
The true test of the platform came when Aquaterro established its Helmet Refurbishment Centre. The facility takes five-year-old defence helmets used in active combat, strips them down to the shell, and completely renews them to meet the military's latest operational standards.
Because each helmet requires rigorous tracking through the cleaning, painting, and reassembly process, the operation carries over 8,000 distinct product variations.
"We needed a system that could track all of those variations down to a granular level so we could understand our costs ... We were able to complete that refurbishment process all within the MYOB Acumatica framework."
Dan Hutchinson | CCO
MYOB Acumatica's built-in serial and work-center tracking allowed this new business line to flourish, taking on an average of 750 refurbishments a month. In the five years it has been running, the center has become one of the best performing branches of the entire organisation.
Choosing BusinessHub: A partner aligned to the mission
To handle their complex inventory, multiple branches, and industrial manufacturing, Aquaterro chose MYOB Acumatica Manufacturing. While the software's native features were exactly what the company required, the ultimate catalyst for success was the deep trust built with their specialist implementation partner, BusinessHub.
''Aquaterro sees MYOB and its partners, especially BusinessHub, as an integral part of the solution."
Dan Hutchinson | CCO
Stepping up from small-business applications to an ERP can be an intimidating hurdle, but BusinessHub smoothed the transition by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Aquaterro team, guiding them carefully through the implementation and helping alleviate the many risks and stresses. "They were there with us handholding the whole way, says Frost.
"They know our business as well as we know our business now. For every headache we had along the way ... there were only answers. This collaboration allowed Aquaterro to map its intricate operational requirements into a single database".
Karleen Frost | Senior Finance Manager
BusinessHub engineered automated data guardrails and validation checkpoints into the implementation blueprint, safeguarding daily business continuity throughout the entire legacy data migration.
What's next: Better equipped to take elite equipment to the world
With its domestic manufacturing facilities optimised, Aquaterro is actively setting up to scale directly into global defence markets. This international expansion requires meeting stringent, multi-national defence compliance frameworks and establishing seamless export pathways across shifting currencies, foreign tax structures, and international borders.
"We really look for efficiencies to make sure that we are able to develop into those new areas with confidence," says Hutchinson.
Backed by their enduring partnership with BusinessHub, leadership also plans to deploy MYOB Acumatica's latest built-in Al modules department-by-department to further refine these global data workflows.
Reflecting on the entire transformation journey, Hutchinson offers a final piece of advice for other rapidly growing companies:
"It's a really big undertaking when you're looking to change ERP systems, and ultimately you're going to get out what you put in ... You have to commit as a whole business to that process and that system of change. But once you've got the buy-in and you've got the system in place, it pays dividends."
Dan Hutchinson, CCO
Today, as a result of replacing a fragmented architecture with a unified platform, Aquaterro's leadership team no longer spends time navigating combative software silos. Instead, they are more agile, more precise, and better equipped than ever to focus on what matters most: protecting those who protect us.
