North Queensland Cranes has already signed up for a A$300,000 (US$216,000) spend which includes implementation of a Navision ERP system.

According to the vendor, there is no upper limit for the loan, but there is a minimum amount of A$15,000.

Stephen Goodson, IT systems administrator for North Queensland Cranes, expects to save around A$60,000 a year by using ERP software designed and implemented by Microsoft partners such as Tectura.

He said the company couldn't realistically look at a full ERP system without such leasing arrangements, because initial costs were too prohibitive.

"The rough figures are looking at around A$160,000 for the software licensing, a further A$160,000-odd for the full implementation, plus an additional A$20,000 for hardware," Goodson said.