#improving winery workflow

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5 Tips for Winery Renovations: Boost Your Vineyard’s Success

Introduction to Winery Renovations Why Renovate? Winery renovations are a great way to keep your vineyard fresh and appealing. Renovations can attract more visitors, make wine production smoother, and even boost your sales. Whether you want to update old equipment, redesign your tasting room, or make your winery more eco-friendly, renovating can bring new life to your business. Planning Your…

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Integrate Unified Communication (UC) System with Business Processes to Get More Bang for Your Buck

When it comes to UC platforms, generally the features and functionality that get the most attention are the flashier ones. Vonage, for example, offers an application called IceBreaker, where sales teams can send automated messages to prospective clients and sync it with their cloud-based calendar app and contact info. These capabilities give organizations an automated and streamlined way to send a quick intro message to customers to ‘break the ice.’ Whether you’re a contact center, an SMB, or an enterprise, these are the features that generally get business users excited. These ‘cool factor’ UC features are made possible by integrations that tie unified communication systems to business-grade applications like CRM, collaboration, and business productivity applications. By integrating UC platforms with critical everyday business processes, teams can automate and streamline workflows to work smarter and improve customer experiences at all levels. Let’s take a closer look at how integrations built between UC platforms and business applications can be a game-changer.

• Customer relationship management (CRM) systems – When a sales professional can immediately know who’s calling and why they can make better decisions and have more meaningful conversations with customers right off the bat. By integrating a cloud-based phone system with a CRM application like Salesforce or Zoho, sales or customer service reps can see who's calling, automatically log incoming and outgoing calls into the CRM application, create contacts and cases, capture call notes, and tag them directly to the caller or lead. This integration also allows for a handy click-to-call feature, keeping sales rep in their CRM software even when making calls. These features can also be used in conjunction with interactive voice response (IVR) systems, where callers ‘touch or say 1 for payments,’ for example. These systems transfer calls if needed directly to an agent, providing better service and giving the representative the information they need to support the caller. By streamlining how customer service or sales teams interact with their CRM and communication tools, they’ll spend less time clicking through different applications and updating disparate systems, leaving more time to deliver excellent service.

• Business productivity and collaboration tools – Business productivity tools like Office 365 or Google’s G Suite are fundamental to most business operations today. They drive efficient communication and coordination with email, chat, document and spreadsheet sharing, and calendar functions. Integrations between UC platforms and productivity tools like these can help organizations create a very user-friendly and productive always-on ‘workstations’ for employees. For instance, a sales rep traveling could use Google Apps for Work on their smartphone and a CRM application like Zoho to easily capture client interactions on the road. Using an integrated cloud-hosted UC platform they can also make and log all calls directly from a smartphone, either running on a cellular voice connection or data plan.

• New UC APIs extend the functionality of business applications too – Several UC and UcaaS providers are also enabling partners to incorporate useful UC communication features into their products through Application Programming Interface (API) platforms. Innovative APIs like Vonage’s Nexmo API Platform allows businesses to connect to different business apps for marketing, sales, customer service, customer engagement or back-office automation. These APIs are valuable because they allow businesses to establish customized business automation workflows, without having to build and manage code from scratch. This functionality might enable a customer to tie SMS capabilities into their eCommerce platform like Magento. Using an API a business can set up a workflow where a customer receives an automatic SMS order notification once an order is placed, for example. Other examples might include notifying a sales representative when a new opportunity is created within the Microsoft Dynamics platform. These APIs are innovative because they allow even non-technical business, like a flower shop, winery, or local pizza joint, to adopt high-tech communication and marketing strategies. In doing so, these businesses can engage with customers in more innovative and customized ways to drive sales and develop deeper relationships.

While unified communications platforms are valuable on their own, those that integrate tightly with business-class applications have the biggest potential to drive productivity and ROI. Pre-built integrations take much of the development burden off customers and internal teams, allowing companies to zero-in on business goals and enhance communications and marketing efforts.

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State of California Tackles Drought with IoT & Blockchain

The Freshwater Trust, IBM Research and SweetSense Inc. aim to make groundwater usage sustainable

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The Freshwater Trust (TFT), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems, is partnering with IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) and SweetSense Inc., a provider of low-cost satellite connected sensors, to pilot technologies which can accurately monitor and track groundwater use in one of the largest and most at risk aquifers in North America. Additional research support will be provided by the University of Colorado Boulder.

Jointly funded by the Water Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the project’s scientists and engineers will demonstrate how the blockchain and remote IoT sensors can accurately measure groundwater usage transparently, and in real-time in California’s Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta.

The sensors will transmit water extraction data to orbiting satellites and then to the IBM Blockchain Platform hosted in the IBM Cloud. The blockchain will record of all data exchanges or transactions made in an append-only, immutable ledger. The blockchain also uses “smart contracts,” whereby transactions are automatically executed when the conditions are matched.

Through a web-based dashboard, water consumers, including farmers; financers and regulators will all be able to monitor and track the use of groundwater to demonstrate how sustainable pumping levels can be achieved through the trading of groundwater use shares in the State of California. Individual users who require groundwater amounts beyond their share cap will be able to “purchase” groundwater shares from users who do not require all of their supply at a market-regulated rate.

For example:

A strawberry farmer is planning to take the season off to prepare for an organic crop the following harvest. The farmer can trade or sell her water credits on the blockchain to another farmer.

Due to a particularly dry season a winery realizes it will need additional ground water to avoid losing the vintage. The vintner can purchase additional water shares, without negatively impacting the aquifer.

“The future success of these sustainability plans hinges on being able to track and report groundwater use, and likely will also require a robust way to trade groundwater shares as well,” said Alex Johnson, Freshwater Fund Director with TFT. “Our strategic intent is to harness new technologies to develop a system that makes getting groundwater more sustainable, collaborative, accurate and transparent process, which is why we are using the blockchain. We now have the project team and funding to do it, and a strong network of partners in the region that are open to an initial testing and building phase.”

“Based on a research project in Kenya with USAID, the Millennium Water Alliance and other partners we are now applying our expertise in building decision support systems for water management for surface and groundwater data aggregation, workflow optimization and analytics to address similar challenges in California. With the addition of the blockchain we can bridge critical trust and transparency gaps making it possible to build a robust, scalable and cost-efficient platform for managing precious groundwater supplies anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Solomon Assefa, Vice President, Emerging Market Solutions and Director, IBM Research – Africa.  

The group will pilot the system in northern California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an area often referred to as the “nexus of California’s statewide water system.” The river delta covers 1,100 square miles and provides water to the San Francisco Bay Area and coastal and southern California and supports dozens of legally protected fish, plant and animal species. In addition, nearly 75% of this land is used for agriculture.

The sensor technology is provided by SweetSense Inc, which is currently monitoring the groundwater supplies for over a million people in Kenya and Ethiopia, with plans to scale to 5 million by the end of the year. The sensor data are transmitted over satellite networks to an online data analytics platform.

“By remotely monitoring groundwater use using our sensors, we’re able to help improve and maintain sustainable access to water supplies for people, farmers, and livestock. The work we’re doing in Africa is directly translatable to California,” said Evan Thomas, CEO of SweetSense and Mortenson Chair of Global Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Our research team at the University of Colorado will assist in modeling groundwater use through the sensor data and satellite detected rainfall and weather correlations.”  

Story continues

The collaboration began in response to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which was signed into California law in 2014. SGMA mandated the creation of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs), local groups that are responsible for ensuring regional groundwater supplies are sustainably managed. The GSAs are charged with developing and implementing a plan to make their local groundwater usage sustainable by 2040.

Haley Walker, Communications Director, haley@thefreshwatertrust.org, 503-222-9091 X30 Leesa DAlto, IBM, Leesa.DAlto@ibm.com,  +1 212 671 9806 Chris Sciacca, IBM Research, cia@zurich.ibm.com, +41 44 724 8443

About The Freshwater Trust Since 2016, TFT has built multiple programs in the basin. In response to another bill, Senate Bill 88, TFT developed a measurement method for surface water diversion that addresses the unique qualities of the Northern Delta region. In 2017, 148 surface water diversions covering more than 29,000 farmed acres in the region — including wine grapes, pears, corn, alfalfa, safflower, tomatoes and wheat — had enrolled in our five-year study. For groundwater concerns in the same area, TFT helped support the formation of the Northern Delta Groundwater Sustainability Agency. This means 17 local agencies formed into one integrated agency and have begun work on a unified plan for sustainably managing groundwater use. These agencies are understaffed, so TFT provides the capacity to gather and analyze data and develop effective sustainability measures.

About IBM Research For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information about IBM Research, visit www.ibm.com/research.

About Sweet Sense SweetSense Inc.’s mission is to improve transparency, accountability, and cost-effectiveness of remote water, energy, and infrastructure projects to improve health and quality of life. Daily, SweetSense is monitoring millions of people’s water supplies across Africa and North America. We fix the Internet of Broken Things®.

The University of Colorado Boulder Mortenson Center in Global Engineering combines education, research, and partnerships to positively impact vulnerable people and their environment by improving development tools and practice. Our vision is a world where everyone has safe water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure.

  Left, Stephanie Tatge, Ecosystem Services Analyst for The Freshwater Trust and Nathan B Wangusi, Technical Lead for Water Research, IBM Research – Africa, holding a low-cost satellite sensor from SweetSense Inc.

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8 ways to improve wine quality and stay organized over harvest

Whether your winery brings in 5 tons or 5,000 tons, getting ready for harvest takes time, sufficient planning, and financial investment (enter harvest intern expense). However, all that work could be compromised if there isn’t proper organization throughout the entire process. Without it, you might end up burning yourself out. That is when mistakes start to happen, details fall through the cracks, and your level-headed state of mind becomes threatened. Although not all wineries share the same workflow procedures or winemaking styles, there are some shared ways to avoid many operational headaches. We spoke with some of our boutique producers, as well as some of our larger clients, on their secrets to maintaining, if not increasing, wine quality and preserving their sanity during this chaotic time of year. Here are some of common themes among successful wineries: 1) Strong vineyard tracking

Having the ability to record and access fruit maturity and phenologic data from anywhere, including right in the middle of your vineyard. And being able to access historical data when identifying problem blocks, as it can help you craft proactive strategies to ensure quality this year and for years to come. 2)  Plan out your picks

Don’t get caught without a home for your fruit! Using real-time vineyard data, estimate your pick dates in advance, especially for your largest lots. This helps to ensure that you don’t have to hold fruit in the cold room (if you’re lucky enough to have one) until space frees up which could compromise quality. 3)  Digital fermentation tracking

Get your Brix and Temperature readings recorded into your software the second it’s taken by your team, thereby giving you instant access to any problem spots that may arise. We all know how critical catching those temperature spikes can be and how a slight slip-up could affect quality. 4)  Get external lab results immediately

Get notified of your external lab results the minute they’re posted. Making sure your production software enables automating analytic uploads allows you take instant action on the results. You won’t have to wait for an email and manually enter the results into your database or spreadsheet to make those time-sensitive decisions. 5)   Label vessels with valuable information

Wandering around barrel rows wondering what they contain? There’s an easy solution for that. Label them with pre-populated stickers containing lot and barrel information so you know exactly what it is, all the treatments the lot has had, and recent analytics. A QR code takes it a step further, allowing you to quickly scan the barrel with your mobile device to access all that information digitally. And hey, while you’re at it, why don’t you send out a work order right there on the spot using your tablet! 6)   Digitize Work Orders

Imagine this - when harvest is over, you’re actually done! You don’t have to spend days or weeks at your desk updating your records from those piles of paper work orders. Software has come a long way in the past decade to allow for mobile entry of daily harvest information and cellar workflow. With a digital work order system, it’s quick and easy to assign tasks to your team, monitor their progress, and validate their work before it’s recorded. Say hello to your future! You can now focus all those wasted data entry hours spending time with your wines. 7)    Understand your COGS

Who knows, maybe you’ll find a little extra room in your budget to invest in that special project to take your wines to the next level! You won’t know until you start tracking costs, and over time you can use historical data to make better, more informed decisions that increase profitability. 8)   Automate compliance reporting

Stop spending time each month, quarter or year shuffling through all that paperwork to reconcile your gains and losses - look for ways to automate and simplify the process. We know you’d prefer to spend your time in the cellar focusing on your wines, and that’s how it should be! Finding a solution that knocks out all 8 of these stressors is not a challenge. InnoVint’s intuitive and powerful winemaking system hits the mark on all of them and ensures that you have the tools to create the best wine possible, without all the headaches.  We’ve worked hard to develop a software that allows you to improve overall wine quality, and your business -- that’s a winning combination you can’t ignore. There's still plenty of time to get started with InnoVint prior to harvest! Our winemakers on staff are ready to cater our product to your needs. Tell us a little about yourself at info@innovint.us or give us a ring at 707-418-0119. 

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The Benefits of Digital Menus and iPad Wine Lists for Restaurants

Digital menus are much more than a novelty or passing trend. With the proper program, a digital menu system can be your beverage program’s central management hub. It gives you more control over your program, increases sales, provides financial insights, and improves the overall health of your beverage program. All while saving you hours on daily tasks each week. Let’s dive into the immediate and long term benefits of iPad menus.

Immediate Benefits of Digital Menus

Adopting digital menus in your restaurant can seem like a giant leap into the future. But it’s a simple transition. Especially if you’re using a high quality digital menu program. One factor that eases the transition from paper menus to tablets or iPad menus, is that restaurants see immediate benefits.

Real-Time Menu Management

One of the first things restaurant operators notice when they begin using Uncorkd digital menus is how easy it is to edit menus and make updates. One of the biggest service disruptors is inaccurate menus that disappoint guests who order a wine or beer, only to be told: “Sorry, we’re out of that.”

Making menu updates with a digital menu is so easy and the updates are reflected on all menus immediately. Simple updates like removing an out-of-stock item can be done in seconds. This keeps service running smooth, customers happy, and management less stressed.

 Just think how nice it would be to never have to reformat menus, print them, and then replace all the outdated pages when you add an item or 86 a wine during service.

Increased Beverage Sales

A top shelf benefit of digital beverage menus is increased beverage sales. This effect can be seen immediately, though it’s full impact is realized after a few months of growing sales.

A well designed digital menu will help guests find new drinks to order. The tasting notes provided for wines, beers, and spirits, or the photos accompanying house-made cocktails will entice guests to step out of their ordering routine and try something new.

This often means guests order a more expensive drink. Customers experience a higher level of service because tasting notes give them the confidence to order higher priced wines that they might not take a chance on with less information. This results in more money spent per drink order and increased check averages, which means your staff earns more money per guest. One Uncorkd customer saw a $9,000 increase in monthly wine sales. Increased sales continue to build month after month, resulting in a more profitable beverage program.

A More Valuable Guest Experience

One idea that constantly surrounds dining out is that your customers are looking for more than a meal; they’re looking for a new and exciting experience. Digital menus provide a unique experience for guests. Especially with a smooth and simple to use menu. From the tasting notes we touched on above, to the opportunity for restaurants to promote events to diners, the guest experience rises to a new level with digital menus.

Long Term Benefits

Menu analytics provide valuable information to our customers.

Using the right digital menu service can change how you manage your program in the long term. As you familiarize yourself with the new tools available, you can take advantage of the time you save on administrative tasks by spending it in ways that are more impactful to your bottom line.

Menu Analytics and Customer Insights

The top iPad menu providers, like Uncorkd, will track customer behavior on your menus and provide insights on how different menu items are performing. This helps restaurant operators build menus that sell better.

One valuable feature of digital menus is menu analytics. With Uncorkd, every time a customer clicks on and views an item, that view is recorded. This provides great insight into which items customers are interested in.

For example, you can see the percentage of clicks for all merlots on your menu versus red blends. If red blends show increasing interest from customers, then you might add a premium priced red blend by the bottle to cash in on that growing interest.

The longer you use the menus, the more useful and insightful the menu data becomes, and the better you’ll be at spotting trends to capitalize on.

Connecting Your Front and Back-of-House

Some digital menu providers also offer liquor inventory and ordering services. These services work in tandem to create a seamless workflow between customer-facing menus and the ongoing work behind-the-scenes.

Adding something like bottle counts to the menu helps you keep track of inventory and also increases urgency in guests who may want to purchase that last bottle you have in house.

Streamlining your inventory into product ordering helps you maintain better liquor costs by eliminating unnecessary purchases and keeping you on budget.

Eliminating Costs

The effect that digital menus have on your bottom line isn’t restricted to increased sales. They can also lower the cost of managing your program. We touched on instant menu updates that reduce the need for menu reprinting. It’s not just time that is saved, but also the money spent on paper, ink cartridges, table tent printouts and more. That cost adds up over time. And it’s also a big reason that so many Wine Spectator Award winning restaurants, with robust and ever changing wine selections, use Uncorkd. One winner, Copper Door, saved $16,000 in printing costs in its first year using Uncorkd.

In addition to material costs, digital menus make it easier to manage your program on a daily basis. This reduces the cost of labor significantly.

Digital Menu Service Providers

Full beverage management from Uncorkd digital menus.

If you’re shopping around for digital menu providers, then you may be familiar with some of the following companies. We’ll give you a quick overview of the services they provide.

CORKGURU

Its provided digital menus since 2014, and is focused on guest loyalty programs. corkguru menus only host wines, so if you’re looking to add beers, spirits, or cocktails to your menu, then corkguru won’t meet all of your needs. When adding wines, you’ll have to manually enter all of the wine information because the service doesn’t include a drink database. This can increase the workload involved in managing your menus.

The guest loyalty program is a good way to practice guest outreach and establish repeat business. But it’s true impact has yet to be realized because full-service restaurants haven’t seen customers adopt restaurant specific apps in the way that coffee chains or quick-service restaurants have.

VINU

VINU differentiates itself from competitors through it’s Wine Guru feature. This is a neat tool that personalizes wine recommendation for guests. However, the recommendations rely on diners to fill out a survey at the table, which some guests may find to be an unwanted disruption to the dining experience. Like corkguru, VINU is wine only, and doesn’t offer a drink database, so it relies on you to do more work than with other services.

Tastevin

Run through Jordan Wineries, it offers a digital menu service that handles full beverage programs. They provide a lot of good services, but one drawback that is they limit the control you have over your own menus. While they do provide an online platform to manage the menus, Tastevin requires that customers submit item additions to customer support in order to make updates to the menu. This can handicap restaurant operators who need to make changes on the fly in order to keep service running smoothly.

Additionally, while they do allow some custom design work that other services don’t, the depth of this customization is limited, which can create a disconnect in keeping your branding consistent across all platforms.

  What Makes Uncorkd The Leading Digital Beverage Menu

Uncorkd has been providing digital menus to restaurants for over six years. That experience has led to developing the top iPad wine and beverage menu. Working with venues in every sector of the hospitality industry from wine bars to country clubs and multi-location corporate restaurants, Uncorkd understands what restaurant operators need in a digital menu.

Take a look at why Uncorkd edges out other services:

Can Handle Every Drink in Your Beverage Program

Unlike many other digital menu providers, Uncorkd can host wine, beer, spirits, cocktails, and even food. We know that alcohol drives the bulk of restaurant profits, so we don’t neglect any opportunity to increase your profits.

Robust Beverage Database

Digital menus are supposed to reduce your workload, not increase it. Uncorkd’s beverage database of over 175,000 wines, beers, and spirits comes loaded with tasting notes, photos, and producer information. This let’s you update your menu in seconds without the hassle of manual drink entry.

Easy to Use

Our design philosophy is to keep things simple. The menus mimic traditional menu organization so the transition from paper to digital is seamless for guests.

Inventory Management System

More than just a menu, Uncorkd is a beverage management tool that includes services for mobile inventory and POS integration. This saves you time and helps you drive down liquor costs by providing a better way to manage inventory. With easily generated inventory reports, you know where you’re making money and losing it, and have more information to make decisions that strengthen your beverage program.

Custom Designs 

Uncorkd works with you to build a menu that captures the atmosphere and aesthetic of your restaurant. Add custom photos, fonts, color palettes, and more to maintain your brand.

Customer Support

Your dedicated account manager is available to handle any issues that pop up. No need to submit support tickets, you have a direct line to a solution.

Menu Autonomy

Uncorkd trains you on all aspects of menu management, so you never have to wait on us to update your menu. We’ll provide help if you want it, but you have the power to edit and control your menus.

Marketing and Promotions

Sync your menu to your website and always have an up-to-date list online. You can also embed an events calendar from your website into the menu, or have guests RSVP for wine dinners before they leave your restaurant.

If you’re interesting learn more about Uncorkd, or scheduling a time to see a demo, then contact us here.

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