21 February 2018
Last Friday marked an important day for Forecaster clients as the maintenance and support of the product shifts to a new software provider. Forecaster is a forest planning and simulation software package developed by Scion over the past 10 years, with support from New Zealand’s forestry industry. It is a well-established tool for commercial forestry planning, and it will from 16 February be delivered by New Zealand software development company, Integral.
Over the years, Forecaster has helped New Zealand forest owners manage their forests by generating and testing scenarios across the whole spectrum of forestry activities, from forest planning through silviculture to harvesting and marketing. Licencing the software to Integral for delivery and support will allow Scion staff to focus on developing the detailed models that help companies/consultants manage forests, while ensuring users get great service and an improved software experience.
Forest Owners Association (FOA) Research and Development Manager Russell Dale says that this has been a decision made in consultation with the FOA on behalf of forest owners. “We’re working with Scion to ensure that the delivery of IT tools like Forecaster continues to improve for the end users.”
Bryan Graham, Science Leader at Scion says, “Integral was the ideal choice to provide the future support and development that forestry companies and consultants require from Forecaster. They have an excellent reputation for delivering user-friendly forestry software into the New Zealand market, and have continued to deliver benefit to the industry through the Atlas suite of forestry management software also developed by Scion.”
He says, “There shouldn’t be any disruption to customers through this change. If there are any questions or concerns, users can contact Integral on Tel: 0800 002 555 or Scion on +64 7 343 5899.” Scion will continue to own Forecaster and manage the licence of the software in the best interests of the sector, while still delivering the high-quality research that underpins Forecaster.
Source: Scion
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