Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/81015
MANAGEMENT a new winery and tasting room, they sat down with the develop- ment team at OrderPort and helped determine the winery's sales pro- cess and design the reports that became the company's state-of- the-art winery commerce software. "Most of the inventory manage- ment and POS systems that we looked at were too cost-prohibitive for the scale of our operation," said Busch, who after participating in development and beta testing of the program, went live with Order- Port at the winery in January 2012. Busch said that he can keep bet- ter track of samples and donations in the tasting room and is saving money on compliance with the new reporting system. Managing inven- tory between three warehouses has also been simplified. "This has streamlined every aspect of inven- tory, sales and marketing for the winery. Even time-consuming tasks like individually printing UPS stick- ers for wine club shipments are a thing of the past because they can now be generated directly from the POS system." CAPTURING CLUB MEMBERS The system can also help win- eries track wine club members. "We're working with the natural flow of information that begins the moment a guest walks through the tasting room door," Ratzlaff said. "Winery staff members can now use an iPad to check guests in as AT A GLANCE Tablet-based POS systems are helping tasting room wine sales go mobile. Integrated systems collect winery sales data from different sources to automate and streamline reporting. Using mobile card readers, wineries can capture new revenue streams and improve customer service. Small to medium-sized wineries can migrate their existing data to an integrated POS system in as little as two weeks. WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM SEPT - OCT 2012 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 53 Keith Johnson, tasting room manager at Sleight of Hand Cellars in Walla Walla, Wash., runs OrderPort on a mounted iPad. they enter the winery and collect a tasting fee at the same time, per- sonalize the record with a photo, note preferences and, when it's time to check out, eliminate the need to wait in line." Anyone who's made a purchase in an Apple store has experienced the convenience of paying with a credit card via iPad from anywhere in the store. "Technology is driving our indus- try forward and this level of integra- tion is a game changer," said Neil Cooper, a Washington winegrower who spent three years evaluating POS systems for his new winery, Cooper Wine Company, in Red Mountain. Cooper didn't initially want to invest in a POS system until he knew where the majority of his sales were going to be coming from. After he participated in beta testing with OrderPort, his final decision was guided by a business plan that had social media market- ing in mind. Cooper opened his Red Moun- tain tasting room in January. "Com-