The Australian ERP That Refused to Become Legacy Software
Arrow Research Corporation | Consensus Software Award Winner 2012
In technology, surviving is difficult.
Staying relevant for more than a decade without being swallowed by a global giant or consigned to the legacy-software pile is something else entirely.
When Melbourne-based Arrow Research Corporation won a Consensus Software Award in 2012 for Tencia, the judges weren't simply recognising another accounting package.
They were recognising a platform designed for what came next.
At the time, Arrow already had a proven business model, approximately 3,000 customers and a sales and support network of 40 partners. But Tencia represented a significant technological leap forward for the company.
Built in Australia for small and medium-sized businesses, Tencia combined accounting and business management functionality within an ERP platform designed to communicate with other systems rather than operate as an isolated piece of software.
That mattered.
Because one of the biggest problems with business software isn't necessarily what happens when you first install it.
It's what happens ten years later.
Built to Keep Changing
Technology moves quickly. Operating systems change. Businesses adopt new platforms. Customers expect information everywhere. Entire ways of moving money and data emerge that didn't exist when a piece of software was originally developed.
Eventually, yesterday's revolutionary business system becomes today's legacy problem.
Tencia was designed to resist that fate.
In its 2012 citation, Consensus judges specifically recognised the platform's open application integration capabilities through Tencia Connect, its support for third-party application developers, its potential for future mobile and web solutions, electronic data interchange, multicurrency capabilities, workflow and reporting functionality.
More than a decade later, those decisions look remarkably important.
Because Tencia is still here.
And more importantly, it is still being developed.
More Than a Decade After Consensus
Today, Tencia remains Arrow Research Corporation's flagship ERP product.
Arrow remains 100% Australian owned, with its software developed locally in Australia. Tencia continues to serve organisations across industries including manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, professional services, technology and not-for-profit organisations.
Arrow now reports that more than 50,000 users worldwide rely on its software solutions, with thousands of organisations using Arrow technology and a Business Partner network extending across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
And Tencia hasn't simply survived by maintaining the software people were using in 2012.
It has continued adapting to the world around it.
In 2024, Arrow partnered with SISS Data Services to integrate secure bank data feeds into Tencia, including access to Open Banking through Australia's Consumer Data Right.
The platform today includes capabilities spanning financial management, business intelligence, payroll, fixed assets, third-party integrations, real-time data and bank feeds.
That continued evolution is arguably the most interesting part of the Tencia story.
There was no spectacular billion-dollar acquisition.
No Silicon Valley takeover.
No disappearance of the original Australian brand beneath the logo of a multinational.
Instead, there is something much rarer in technology:
longevity.
Sometimes Success Is Still Owning What You Built
Arrow Research Corporation was established in Melbourne in 1989.
More than three decades later, it remains an Australian technology business building Australian-developed enterprise software.
And the product recognised by Consensus in 2012 remains at the centre of it.
For founders, there is an important lesson in that journey.
Technology companies are often taught to think of success as an exit.
Build. Scale. Raise. Sell.
But that's only one version of success.
Another is building intellectual property that customers continue to need, retaining ownership of it, continually reinvesting in it and allowing the product to evolve as the world changes around it.
In 2012, Consensus judges recognised Tencia partly because they could see its potential for future development and expansion.
More than a decade later, the software is still evolving.
Tencia didn't become legacy software.
It kept becoming the next version of itself.