As Western Computer developed 365WineTrade, our all-in-one cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for the wine and spirits industry, we saw a growing need for more advanced budgeting and forecasting capabilities. As distributors and wineries kept getting hit with wildfires and other disasters—not to mention a global pandemic—they needed a tool that could help them consolidate data, use it to make real-time decisions, and better pivot as needs and customer demand changed. Out of this need, our joint solution with Solver was born.
We’d been working with Solver for years prior to launching our solution for the wine and spirits industry, and we had always noticed, admired, and been impressed by their use of Microsoft Azure as their platform as well as their commitment to the corporate performance management (CPM) sector. As a leader in CPM, Solver specializes in budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidations, and dashboards for mid-market ERP systems, and we knew a partnership with 365WineTrade would bring meaningful change to the wine and spirits industry.
What Do Wine and Spirits Distributors and Wineries Get from Solver and 365WineTrade?
The joint solution solves critical pain points of financial teams in the wine and spirits industry:
Data Consolidation and Automation for Accurate Reporting and Time Savings
Distributors and wineries have historically been bogged down with the manual financial reporting burdens of spreadsheets. With no way to marry changes among versions of data, financial departments have had to manually reconcile data to make decisions, which can have long-lasting impacts on growth. Our solution automates the reporting process so you’ll no longer lose productivity on manual reporting or make decisions using missing or outdated data.
Solver offers a cloud-based reporting solution for financial and operational reports. Coupled with 365WineTrade’s ERP solution, the technology enables wine and spirits distributors and wineries to consolidate data from multiple warehouses, locations, sources, and people into one platform. With this capability, you can not only save significant time writing reports, but your financial team can make smarter decisions based on real-time information.
One of our customers has discovered time savings of two hours per week using this solution. That’s 104 hours per year. Imagine what your staff could do with that time back—or better yet, imagine using it to get some rest-and-recharge time.
Ease of Use for Rapid ROI
Our joint solution leverages Solver’s Excel-like look and feel, making the transition to using this technology seamless and painless for financial controllers and chief financial officers (CFOs). You’ll begin seeing return on investment (ROI) right away as your financial team gets access to your consolidated data.
Forecasting
One of the sharpest thorns in the side of any winery is the ability to forecast yield. Our solution makes forecasting easier in any dimension your business prefers. You can run item-based forecasting as well as pricing and cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) planning. You’ll be able to adjust for factors like cold spells using data in order to determine budgeting for numbers of pickers or glass bottles, for example. However you’d like to create budgets and reports—whether that’s by region, brand, varietal, or other—you have that flexibility.
For example, one of our customers leverages the solution to build annual forecasts at the item level with the functionality to adjust discounts at the item or monthly level to account for campaigns, mid-year pricing changes, and more. They can control this functionality by dimensions, including cost center code, brand code, and even region or state code.
Revolutionize Your Reporting Today
If you’re curious about how 365WineTrade and Solver can transform your financial forecasting and budgeting, the experts at Western Computer are here to answer any questions. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our technology, get a free demo, and set your business up for real growth.
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