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| Key
features & functionality used
by Carolina Wine Company: |
| E-commerce |
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Running web store
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operations |
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• Real-time
integration |
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with
back-end
accounting
and
business
operations |
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• A-Z listing |
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Managing Shoppers |
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• Secured account
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management
(SSL) |
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• Credit card
security |
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Taking orders online |
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• Real-time
order |
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creation
in the back
-end |
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• Real-time
order status |
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| Accounting |
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General ledger |
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Accounts receivable |
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Accounts payable |
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| Sales |
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Sales order/back
order |
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Promotional pricing |
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| Point-of-Sale |
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Cash register |
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| Inventory
control |
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Serial number tracking |
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Graph inventory
levels |
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Item kits |
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| Marketing |
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Customer tracking/
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profiling |
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Target email campaigns |
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| Purchasing |
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Purchase orders |
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Generate/assign
serial |
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numbers on purchase
orders |
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Check vendor payment
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history |
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Multi-currency purchase
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orders |
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| Shipping
& Receiving |
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Record package tracking
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numbers |
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StarShip shipping
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manifest support |
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Address labels |
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Customization/
Configuration |
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Configure selectable
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choices per custom
field |
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Custom crystal reports |
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Company
Background |
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Winegrape Crush
Located in Raleigh, NC, Carolina Wine
Company (CWC) represents a unique concept
in retail wine service and offers the
best quality bottled wines from all
over the world. Founded in 1995 by Chrish
Peel, today CWC is anything but a typical
wine shop: a 10,000 sq. ft. dedicated
shop space with a climate-controlled
warehouse, it carries thousands of unique,
top-quality wines that range from $5
everyday wines to $1000 collectibles.
Recognized by Food and Wine Magazine
and International Wine Cellar,
CWC continues to be a wine shop with
a difference.
Carolina Wine Company runs on Everest ERP Software. |
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The
Challenge |
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CWC started out as a two-person operation,
and upgraded from using a calculator
for five years to a DOS-based system
with eighteen employees.
Now heading order technology at CWC,
Vincent Voci started working part-time
in the warehouse and shipping department.
Then a computer science student, Voci
started realizing some of the company’s
technology needs and offered to help
find a solution.
Using QuickBooks supplemented with numerous
Excel spreadsheets, CWC moved onto Control
Plus, a system made specifically for
wine and beverage businesses. “The
biggest problem was with invoicing;
it was completely inflexible and that
is what we found out from using it,”
recalled Voci. Often, there would be
mix-ups while ordering wine by the unit
from the vendors, not knowing the number
of bottles the case consisted. “While
taking an order, the sales person would
have to fill out an order form by hand,
mark the shipping information on that
order, manually label it as received
and put it in the filing cabinet.”
Out of its 18 employed staff, the company
had 3 of them just filing paper work.
CWC contemplated devising a custom solution
with a team of programmers but quickly
gave up on the idea because the cost
ran way beyond what it could possibly
afford. It looked at Mail Order Manager,
Executron, Everest, and PIMS Sigma Controller
Plus. Though the latter was an integrated
solution, it was completely out of CWC’s
price range. “I even ordered an
evaluation copy from Mail Order Manager
and I contacted a couple of other companies
that never responded,” said Voci.
“I moved over to Everest before
looking into anything else.” |
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The
Solution |
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CWC has been running on a fifteen-user
license of Everest Advanced Edition
since August 2003, and has reduced its
employees to fourteen, bringing down
operating costs. “Once we got onto
Everest we didn’t need the extra
people to just file work and organize
stuff,” said Voci.
Today CWC does more than 1,500 orders
a month as compared to its previous
average of about 1,100. And now CWC
uses purchase orders to order wine by
the exact unit. “That was something
that Everest solved. We are able to
use the kit features for mix case specials
and sales quantities by the sales measure.”
For Voci, the selling point of Everest
was the integration of the e-commerce,
sales, and purchasing, along with the
custom fields. “We can add custom
fields and other attributes, which is
something we don’t get with other
systems,” noted Voci. “We
were kind of locked in to putting everything
in the description.”
Working with Everest has fundamentally
changed the business: it has reduced
on the manual paper work with access
to real-time digital information rather
than pieces of paper filed away in a
cabinet. “We process orders more
quickly. All order information is in
one place now and that’s the biggest
thing,” noted Voci. |
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CWC has also improved
customer satisfaction as it has saved the
customers the pain of waiting for information
on order status. “Our customers appreciate
us because we are able to reconcile their
accounts much more quickly with a push of
a button and even email them outstanding orders,
past shipments and things of that nature.”
CWC mails out daily specials and updates customers
about items of interest such as wine launches,
stock on sale, wine reviews, and company news
releases. “Our email list has grown to
about 5,000 subscribers; we post a special
email offer almost daily – from the hardest-to-get
wines, special deals, tastings, and other
events,” said Voci.
From an operations standpoint, CWC has increased
its daily shipments during peak season from
75 to 500 and ships out a case of wine in
two minutes rather than the twenty minutes
previously required. Before, it would hand-type
address labels using the online interface
of Airborne FedEx, and today with Everest
it can print out a dozen labels in a minute.
“We would use five different programs
to get a case of wine out and now, with StarShip
integrated into Everest, we can track the
order status and our customer gets an email
with a shipment tracking number and that is
associated back to Everest. That’s been
a big help right there,” said store manager,
Dave McKnight.
With Everest’s just-in-time inventory,
CWC now keeps its inventory levels to a minimal.
“Three years ago we would close for a
week to do inventory, now we can inventory
this place in three hours.”
CWC plans on taking on a whole new generation
of customers with its Everest e-commerce operations,
and tapping into a newer segment for a customer
base that will grow exponentially. |
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The
Result |
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27% increase in order volume |
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25% decrease in overhead, thereby
bringing down operating costs |
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Eliminated manual paper work with
access to real-time information |
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Six-fold increase in shipments |
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Cut down on shipping time by 90% |
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Improved customer service |
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