|
May, 2003
We apologize for the lateness of this newsletter - we've been finishing up the POS features in Winery Pro! More exciting details later in June!
|
Contents
POS hardware and functionality coming in June
Just five months after the introduction of Winery Pro as a back office system for smaller wineries, we are thrilled to announce that our POS functionality will be available later in June. We have engineered a POS system that will allow you the ability to set up multiple cash drawers, enter multiple payment methods, balance drawer totals at day end and attach POS hardware. Now you will have a streamlined POS front end that still maintains the excellent core marketing and customer profiling functions of Winery Pro.
As a Winery Pro user you will have more than one option for purchasing hardware to attach to your existing computers and place in your public or private tasting facility. Check back with our next Newsletter to see more details and new screen shots showing Winery Pro and POS.
Winery Pro™ Features Re-Cap
Here's a recap of the key sales and administrative features of Winery Pro™:
- At a Glance - Customer Sales, Invoice History, Last Purchase and Sales Rank
- Computer(s) as ultra-smart cash register(s)
- Batch invoicing of Wine Club shipments or any group you define
- Full Wine Club membership reporting and evaluation
- Complete management of Futures sales and delivery
- Credit card charges processed from Winery Pro™
- Multi-level pricing, quantity and Wine Club discounting applied automatically
- Immediate inventory On Hand Amounts as you sell
Download a more detailed list of functions!
6 Winery Pro Users since Feb 2003
Thank you all for joing the Winery Pro family! We appreciate your support!
Amphora Winery
Anomaly Vineyards
GlenLyon Vineyards
Lemelson Winery
Porter Bass Winery
Maximum Value Marketing
|
|
Using Advanced Search
Have you thought about how to target special sales messages and promotions to your customer base? Do you send general messages about wine specials to every customer, or do you tailor the message to the customer based on their unique buying profile? Hopefully by now you have heard that targeted or preference-based marketing messages are much more effective.
Winery Pro's Advanced Search function provides a great way to see who your customers are and what they are buying. Traditional accounting software systems often hinder the management of targeted sales programs. Sales reports are usually very generic and you still need to manually calculate the most relevant sales figures, and then enter the customer's names into a spreadsheet, a word processor and a label maker program to create your marketing pieces.
Starting with that generic sales report, how much time does it take to create a list based on buyers who drink Syrah, and then send them a marketing message? How long does it take to pull all the targeted sales data together and combine into a list? How much time do you spend updating the list each time you would like to send a sales message or special invitation?
Winery Pro has the ability to create and search immediate subsets of customers who meet a certain criteria, allowing you to communicate with them. A look at our Advanced Search screen tells you more:
|
Advanced Search helps you select customers by any one of the criteria boxes alone, or in combinations to return a highly targeted set of records. Winery Pro's database functionality allows you to immediately create searches, view the data results, and bookmark the targeted customers on a special list. That makes it easy to send a personal email message or to print a custom letter with merged name and address information.
If you haven't worked with database search criteria you are missing the most valuable part of any software solution and Winery Pro offers a fast and easy way to find the right customers and to send the right message.
TCA Staff Member Profile - Teddie Pierce
In January we told you a little about the staff of TCA and why we saw a need to develop Winery Pro. Starting with the May 2003 issue we would like to introduce ourselves individually so you get a better idea of who we are and what we do.
I am Teddie Pierce and I own Technology Consulting Alliance. I moved to Sonoma County in 1986 and began working in the accounting department at Santa Rosa's ComputerLand franchise. I had moved to Santa Rosa from Grand Junction, Colorado where I was always aware of issues surrounding agriculture and farming. I worked as a public relations specialist for the Colorado Farmer's Union and spent a great deal of time traveling to many small farms speaking with folks about farm issues. The work I did in the agriculture industry left me with a strong feeling for farming and its related issues.
Since moving to Santa Rosa I have worked primarily with installations and support for computerized accounting systems. My experience is in working with Great Plains Accounting, MAS90 Accounting, QuickBooks, Cougar Mountain and TimeSlips Billing. I have seen how most small businesses suffer from a lack of effective, yet simple to use, business systems. My company began programming FileMaker Pro database systems five years ago with a special emphasis on reducing the time spent performing routine office tasks of all kinds.
We have been very successful using FileMaker Pro as a development tool to write special invoicing, purchase order, custom bids, contract management, donation tracking, stock photography inventories and much more. Our customers constantly tell us that using a custom system which manages their workflow has literally helped take their businesses to a new level.
My personal goal in designing Winery Pro was not only to provide small winery owners with a powerful way to process invoicing and wine clubs, but also to provide a tool promoting the "competitive advantage" in implementing and managing a winery's unique sales and marketing plans.
|
|
