Resolution is the brainchild of Te Anau basin farmer Paul Ruddenklau, now the company’s general manager, who joined forces with four other founders to launch it to market in 2019 after more than a decade of development.
It’s now used throughout New Zealand across sheep, beef, dairy, and arable farms, with a significant portion of that growth coming from farmer-to-farmer recommendations, Paul said.
Co-founder/finance manager Henry Douglas agreed, giving an example of a surge of inquiries during duck shooting season.
“We had all these inquiries come through, and we thought, ‘what’s been going on here?’” he said.
“They were obviously having a quiet time duck shooting, and they were all out sitting in the maimai having a beer with their mates and showing them what they were doing on Resolution - next week, the guys were contacting us.”
The software is used to record, store and share farm information digitally - data like photos, documents and day to day events can be entered on a mobile device or desktop, and are organised through a central timeline and an interactive farm map.
Paul said Resolution grew out of a challenge he faced on the farms he was working on - paperwork.
He needed to keep careful records of his operations and have an efficient way of sharing that information with the right people - but because they were typically done on paper, it was easier said than done.
“I was hand-writing several thousand records a year,” he said. “We had information everywhere, but we didn’t have it in one place.”
Paul searched for a digital solution, but after trying several offerings, he found they didn’t provide the flexibility and simplicity he wanted – so he set about making his own.
He approached Matt Gilbert - now also a co-founder and the company’s senior developer - requesting “a three year old’s computer game, where I can click on a paddock and it gives me all the data,” Paul said.
A prototype was developed, and Paul brought in his neighbour Henry, who was “using it every day”, as well as Resolution’s now-chief technology officer, James Mackintosh, to continue working on it.
By the time Resolution launched commercially in 2019, there were five co-founders in total, with the addition of marketing and sales associate Robbie Hill, who farms in Hawke’s Bay.
The company now has 40 employees, including eight full-time developers.
“We’re extremely proud to be a tech company that makes software that works every time, is fit for purpose and is farmer-led,” Paul said.
ANZ, the company’s bank, said it is looking forward to supporting Resolution’s future growth.
“Its sheer practicality really stands out - it addresses an on-farm challenge with a scalable, farmer-first solution that helps manage the record keeping, planning and compliance work required on working farms,” said Cameron Reed, ANZ’s business & agri regional manager for the Provincial Southern region.
"We love backing businesses that innovate to solve real-world problems - and Resolution does exactly that.”
Looking to the future, Resolution is now eyeing further domestic and overseas expansion, with a number of users already signed up in Australia and the UK.
