Pictured above: Priya Shankar.
When your company has been around for more than a century, change doesn’t come easily. For Barfoot & Thompson, one of New Zealand’s most iconic real estate brands, modernising its finance systems after two decades on a custom-built legacy platform was more than a technical upgrade, it was a cultural shift.
For CFO Priya Shankar, who has been with the company for 19 years, the catalyst was simple: Risk and scalability.
NZBusiness caught up with Shankar on the sidelines of SuiteWorld 2025 in Las Vegas, where she shared the story behind Barfoot & Thompson’s digital transformation. Speaking against the backdrop of Oracle NetSuite’s annual global conference, she reflected on what it took to modernise the 102-year-old company’s finance systems, and how that change is reshaping one of New Zealand’s most recognised real estate brands.
“We’d been running a legacy system for over 20 years. There was only one person in the business who knew how to support it, and he was in his 70s. That’s a huge risk for any company. At the same time, we were growing fast. When I started, we had around 60 branches. Today we have 88 and counting. We needed a finance system that could keep up,” Shankar says.
With 2,750 staff, including a change to 1,800 licensees, and operations spanning residential, commercial, property management, and body corporate divisions, the Auckland-headquartered business had outgrown its ageing financial backbone. The legacy system couldn’t scale, lacked transparency, and required heavy manual input, right down to handwritten receipts for customer deposits.
“It sounds old-fashioned now,” laughs Shankar.
“We were literally handwriting receipts, sending them to head office, and reconciling everything manually. It worked, but it wasn’t efficient, and it wasn’t sustainable for the future.”
Choosing the right partner
When the finance team began exploring alternatives, they reviewed up to nine ERP platforms before narrowing the shortlist to two.
“NetSuite stood out immediately. It was more intuitive, and user-friendly. The screens were clean, modern and easy to navigate, which was really important for us. We were moving people from PDFs and static reports to an interactive system. The look and feel mattered.”
That simplicity proved crucial for buy-in. “If your system is great to use, half your change management work is already done.”
Another factor in NetSuite’s favour was flexibility. Barfoot & Thompson’s operations are unique, the company manages over 150 trust accounts and runs thousands of commission transactions monthly. The team needed a system capable of handling high-volume, industry-specific processes while remaining secure, compliant, and auditable.
“We wanted something mature, proven, and adaptable. NetSuite ticked every box. We also built our own commission payment platform and trust accounting functionality on top of it, which now processes hundreds of thousands of transactions every month.”
The implementation, led by Fusion5, took around nine months, longer than planned, but for good reason. “Replacing a 20-year-old system is no small feat,” Shankar says.
“It was a big risk for the company, but the business case was strong: scalability, compliance, and continuity.”
Transforming efficiency
Barfoot & Thompson went live on NetSuite in October 2023, halfway through its financial year. The first few weeks were intense.
“We worked until 2am getting everyone paid. But we did it, and we did it right.”
Since then, the transformation has been dramatic. What once took two months now takes two weeks. Monthly financial cutoffs have halved, commission payments have doubled in frequency, and branch managers now have real-time visibility of their performance.
“Branch managers used to wait two months for their P&L. Now they can log in, see their numbers in real time, and raise any issues immediately. That’s improved accuracy, transparency, and cashflow.”
With NetSuite integrated into the company’s other core systems, efficiency gains have rippled across the organisation. Handwritten receipts and couriered paperwork are gone. So are the days of reconciling hundreds of separate branch ledgers.
“We used to have a balance sheet for each branch and couldn’t even produce a trial balance,” Shankar explains. “Now, everything is unified. The visibility has been a game-changer.”
Scaling without adding headcount
Despite significant growth in business volume and branch numbers, Barfoot & Thompson’s finance team has remained lean with just 12 people supporting an organisation of thousands.
“We’ve been able to absorb growth without adding headcount, and that’s purely because of efficiency. The system has removed so many manual processes. Even things like branch onboarding, which used to take half a day, now take minutes.”
The shift has also elevated the finance function’s profile within the business.
“Before, we were seen as a data-entry team. Now, we’re seen as enablers, the people who provide insight, transparency, and accountability. The finance team has become strategic partners to the business.”
That change has also reshaped her own role.
“I was very operational before. Now I focus on strategy, growth and business development. The system runs the day-to-day, and my team owns it. That’s been liberating and empowering for them, and me.”
Beyond efficiency, the move to NetSuite has strengthened Barfoot & Thompson’s compliance posture, a critical factor in a regulated industry.
“Under our old system, we weren’t fully compliant with certain reporting. It made the audit process painful. Now, it’s seamless. Auditors can access what they need directly from the system.”
The new platform also ensures data integrity, reduces risk, and supports regulatory obligations such as IRD compliance.
“You want to welcome the auditors with a cup of tea, not a panic attack,” she jokes.
“That’s where we are now.”
Embracing AI and the future
With NetSuite Next the AI-infused evolution of the platform announced at SuiteWorld 2025, Shankar sees even greater potential ahead.
“AI will be a game-changer for us. We already use it in accounts payable and compliance, but embedding AI into the finance system will take things to the next level, from detecting anomalies to improving forecasting.”
She acknowledges that with a large user base, adopting new features takes planning and training. “We evolve over time with our systems and processes. The great thing about cloud software is that it keeps improving, and so do we.”
For other New Zealand companies still relying on legacy systems or spreadsheets, Shankar says “take the leap”.
“Technology is there for every type of business. People worry about risk, but the bigger risk is doing nothing. If we’d stayed with our old system, we would have been left behind.”
That message resonates strongly in New Zealand, where many businesses maintain a “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mindset.
“We were comfortable,” Shankar admits. “The system wasn’t broken, but it was holding us back. Once we made the change, it transformed how we work. It even changed how people see the finance team. But most importantly it’s made us more efficient, more compliant, and more strategic.”
NZBusiness is in Las Vegas at SuiteWorld 2025 courtesy of Oracle NetSuite.
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