Customer Solution Case Study
Winery takes control of stock with new ERP system
Overview
Country or Region: New Zealand
Industry: Wine Making
Customer Profile
Sacred Hill is recognized as one of New Zealand's leading, multi award winning wineries.
Business Situation
The winery began as a family business in the Hawkes Bay more than twenty five years ago and has since grown to an international company exporting wines all over the world.
Solution
Eclipse worked with Sacred Hill to implement VinPoint, an application designed to cater for the specifics of the wine industry which runs on top of a Microsoft Dynamics Nav platform.
Benefits
n Tighter stock management
n Complete visibility of the company
n Increased productivity
n Easy to use GUI
n Drill down functionality / “There is no comparison from the old system to what we have now. It really is a world away from what we had before and no one here would go back, that’s for sure.”
Stephen Wolland, Commercial Manager Sacred Hill
The legacy system at Sacred Hill Wines did not allow for easy access to find the information necessary to effectively run the business. Reporting was restricted and the system, although specifically designed for the wine industry, had limited functionality. The staff at this busy award winning winery needed a flexible system to provide easy access to company data and streamline business processes. Sacred Hill chose to implement Dynamics Nav with a special adaptation for the wine industry called Vinpoint, designed by Eclipse. Sacred Hill now has a sophisticated, future-proof solution that is easy to navigate, allows instant access to company data and has the benefit of sophisticated functionality.
Situation
Sacred Hill is a multi-award winning winery, focusing on the production of premium handcrafted wine. The winery began as a family business in the Hawkes Bay more than twenty five years ago and has since grown to an international company exporting wines all over the world. Sacred Hill is one of New Zealand’s most recognized wineries and produces four different ranges of wine.
In an increasingly competitive business environment, it became more important than ever that Sacred Hill staff have full access to company data and complete visibility of the status of the company at any point in time.
In order to stay competitive, stock and costs must be tightly controlled. This was proving increasingly difficult with the limited functionality and restricted reporting of the legacy system. There was also no capability to handle lot codes, as a result each lot of wine produced had to be entered into the system as a different product code, creating numerous issues when it came to reporting.
“We had to select the separate product codes for each batch of the wine and this made it very slow and easy to miss some out, which could make the numbers completely inaccurate,” says Stephen Wolland, Commercial Manager at Sacred Hill Wines.
The legacy system had also reached capacity and could not accommodate future expansion for growth of the business. The team at this busy award winning winery needed quick access to company information, the flexibility to easily design and create their own reports, and time saving functionality such as the ability to drill down on a field for further information.
“The wine industry has faced some serious challenges over the past few years, many good wineries are struggling. You really need to closely monitor everything on a daily basis – with Microsoft Dynamics we can do that now,” says Stephen.
Solution
Eclipse worked with Sacred Hill to implement VinPoint, an application designed to cater for the specifics of the wine industry which runs on top of a Microsoft Dynamics Nav platform. The implementation began in August 2009 with Finance, Sales and Logistics going live in January 2010, the Winery and Viticulture followed a few weeks later. The winery went for a big bang approach, and although initially it was a big change for staff and there was a lot to take in, everyone was quickly up to speed and working well in the new system.
“The previous system was very old and basic, Microsoft Dynamics Nav looks completely different in comparison, and it just took some time for people to get used to it. Once they realized how much easier it was going to make things they were all very keen to use it,” says Frank Freitag, Solution Manager NZ & Fiji, Eclipse Computing.
Staff adapted well and as the system has an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) it makes it very easy to learn. Having a system with embedded Windows functionality was a major paradigm shift for the team at Sacred Hill. Being able to export data to Excel directly from the system is a real advantage for the team.
“We are still getting used to it now and discovering better ways to do things all the time,” says Stephen.
Benefits
Sacred Hill realised the benefits of the new system almost immediately. With an intuitive interface, embedded Windows functionality and flexible reporting options, the team at Sacred Hill Wines has a far more effective solution to run the business. Some of the benefits include:
• Tighter stock management
• Complete visibility of the company
• Increased productivity
• Easy to use GUI
• Drill down functionality
• Accurate reporting
Managing stock is now easier and far more accurate for the winery.
“We now have complete visibility into exactly what stock we have and what it is worth,” says Stephen.
With Microsoft Dynamics Nav the winery can have a complete snapshot of the business at any point in time. This allows the company to make better decisions and react faster to a volatile market.
“Sacred Hill can be confident in the decisions they make now – it removes any element of doubt,” says Frank.
Flexible reporting options and the ability to extract data to Excel means considerable time savings and provides the tools for effective future planning.
“The real productivity gains for us are in planning and forecasting,” says Stephen.
The new system has increased business productivity in general, as processes are streamlined, such as creating sales invoices. These can now be generated as PDF files and emailed directly to customers. Reports that were previously prepared manually, such as GST and specific wine industry reports, are now available at the push of a button, saving the team days of work every month.
Dynamics Nav has a GUI which makes it much easier to navigate and more efficient to use day–to-day. The team at Sacred Hill adapted quickly to the new interface, and are enjoying the extra functionality Microsoft Dynamics Nav provides.
“There is no comparison from the old system to what we have now. It really is a world away from what we had before and no one here would go back, that’s for sure,” says Stephen.
The ability to drill down makes it so much easier to do enquiries in Microsoft Dynamics Nav. Users can highlight a field, instantly see what figures make up the total and then drill all the way through to the original source documents. The team no longer need to spend time searching through physical documents to find the information they need.
Sacred Hill now has a modern, future-proofed solution that allows the winery to tightly control stock, react rapidly to market changes, and stay competitive in this challenging business environment.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systemsthat your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics