“It became clear we needed a solution that would give us full real-time visibility of costs and allow us to make informed decisions for both in-progress and future developments.”
Tumu Property, a specialised division of Tumu, manages and delivers property development projects across the organisation. Acting as the group’s internal property arm, it oversees the full construction process, from land preparation through to final handover, before returning completed developments to the relevant Tumu entity to own and operate.
This model ensures consistent quality, strict control, and the benefit of specialised expertise across all Tumu property projects.
The Challenge:
As the scale and complexity of Tumu’s projects increased, so did the pressures and inefficiencies it created on their existing mix of manual processes and disconnected systems.
“Over time, it became
clear we needed a
solution that would give
us full real-time visibility
of costs and allow
us to make informed
decisions for both
in-progress and future
developments.
Maria Beal,
Operations Manager,
Tumu Property
In early 2024, Tumu partnered with Adaptable Consulting to start the transition of their group wide financial systems over to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) ERP platform. Having previously relied on several manual processes, Tumu Property opted for an interim construction project management system, knowing that when the time was right, they would look to find a more integrated solution once BC was rolled out across this business entity. Although only ever intended to be a temporary solution, several challenges and inefficiencies emerged quickly with this setup.
“We were entering data multiple times across different systems, which was incredibly inefficient. The disconnected nature of having separate systems for project management and accounting meant a large amount of double data entry, limited visibility into costs, and an inability to perform detailed analysis of project financials,” comments Maria.
Finding a purpose-built solution for construction project management.
With the finance modules of BC already underway across the group, Tumu Property and Adaptable Consulting began exploring project management extensions that would integrate seamlessly and provide the functionality they were after. This led Tumu Property, together with Adaptable Consulting, to evaluate specialised construction project management solutions that would be available within BC.
After a thorough evaluation process of shortlisted providers, a purpose-built BC extension called NB Projects, developed by India based Cetas Information Technology, emerged as the clear choice. NB Projects stood out due to its proven install base of over fifty other construction businesses globally, its feature packed list of industry specific benefits, strong partner support, and the overall alignment with terminology Tumu were accustomed to.
“Among other things, NB Projects would allow us to gain complete visibility and control over our project budgets, including drilling down to whatever level of detail is needed for different user groups.
Everything from costing, purchasing, inventory, sub-contractor, change requests and reporting – all connected in one system, eliminating the need to enter data multiple times or switch between platforms,” explains Maria.
Microsoft partners team up to deliver seven-week implementation, despite working across different time zones.
The implementation of this project began with a joint discovery phase, where Cetas sent a senior functional consultant onsite to New Zealand. This consultant collaborated with Adaptable Consulting and Tumu Property to capture full scope requirements, support functional design, and later returned to help oversee training, testing, and go-live deployment.
Adaptable Consulting managed overall project oversight, acting as Tumu’s primary point of contact, while coordinating with Cetas for construction specific functionality. This “one team” approach ensured clarity, transparency, and smooth communication despite different time zones.
“From our side of things, Tumu’s preparation and Adaptable’s collaboration around clear scope definition were two of the key success factors that enabled a quick but thorough implementation. We worked cohesively from planning through to implementation and handover. Adaptable brought deep Business Central and essential local compliance knowledge, while Cetas delivered the construction industry specific expertise – together acting as a true extension of the Tumu team”, comments Prakash Kandaraj, Sales & Marketing Director at Cetas Information Technology.
Benefits and outcome
Since migrating to NB Projects, Tumu has moved from manual, error-prone processes to standardised, construction driven workflows with real-time data accuracy, and project control.
This transformational impact enables Tumu to scale operations, control costs more tightly, and make confident data-driven project decisions.
Maria sums up the experience:
“Given the complexity of many parts of this, it’s been a pretty seamless implementation. While there have been learning curves, they’re about us growing with the system – not about the system itself. The support from both Adaptable and Cetas has been very helpful, accommodating, clear, and professional throughout.”
Following the successful rollout, Tumu and Adaptable have already begun scoping additional opportunities, with Cetas continuing as a trusted partner. For Cetas, this first implementation in New Zealand has also opened the door to future collaborations with Adaptable.
“The energy and commitment from all parties made this project a success. Both partners agree this project was one of their most rewarding collaborations, with mutual respect for aligned methodologies and strong joint customer focus,” comments Prakash.
By combining Adaptable’s Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and local expertise with Cetas’s global construction knowledge, Tumu Property has digitally transformed its operations. The new integrated solution not only streamlines current workflows but positions Tumu for scalable, cost-controlled, and insight-driven growth.
Some of the Tumu Property, Adaptable
Consulting and Cetas team come together
to celebrate the successful implementation.
This project was proudly completed in collaboration with our Microsoft Solutions Partners Cetas and their NB Projects solution.
Maria Beal,
Operations Manager,
Tumu Property