New program will help wineries tap into the cloud
VinSuite, a joint venture between Australian company VINx2 and Napa Valley-based eWinery Solutions, aims to use cloud computing to streamline the process of getting wine from the vine to the table - and put more money in the pocket of primary producers in the process.
Online wine sales are ubiquitous across the wine trade but account for only about 10 per cent of all transactions that pass through wineries.
According to Richard Kline, CEO of eWinery Solutions, wineries have to use separate pieces of software for all the other facets of their industry.
"The whole software landscape for wineries has really been one-off small companies that take on one little niche of the industry," Mr Kline said.
"There are a lot of moving parts and for every moving part there is a separate piece of software. We are now taking all those moving parts and putting them on a single platform."
Mr Kline said he started eWinery Solutions a decade ago focused on direct-to-consumer sales for local wineries from tasting rooms, websites, and telemarketing.
But Mr Kline discovered wineries also needed to manage production as well as sales to retail, wholesale and restaurants and in addition run accounting products and deal with customer relations.
Enter VinSuite, to be launched later this year, built on NetSuite cloud architecture and combining an eWinery Solutions customer sales product with a business and production platform created by VinX2. eWinery Solutions in effect becomes a sales agent for five-year old VinX2 in the US.
"Currently, there is a lot of clutter for wineries," Mr Kline said. "Now, it will be all internet based. Every aspect of the business."
Wine industry statistics show the US is the world's leading consumer of wine, drinking almost 3 million litres in 2010.
Australia ranks 10th, consuming 530,000 litres.
The US industry alone is valued at $34.6 billion while Australia's domestic market is valued at approximately $2.8 billion.
Russia, Spain, China and Argentina also ranked as top-10 consumers nations according to a study conducted by The Wine Institute, a US industry advocacy group.
NetSuite's chief executive Zach Nelson said software companies had previously been reluctant to address the needs of small to medium-sized industries such as the wine trade because - by its very nature - it consists of many small dispersed businesses.
"Nobody really made software for the wine industry," Mr Nelson said.
"They would say 'Oh my god, it's 10,000 tiny little wineries; I'll never be able to go and install software at them all'.
"Well, now with cloud, it is 10,000 wineries that you don't have to install software at. They open a browser and come to you. Suddenly, that market becomes real enough to invest in. And suddenly a global market becomes available."
Mr Kline said eWinery Solutions has up to 600 customers across the US, Australia, Canada, South America and Europe with plans to expand those markets.
"We're already working to bring the product to Australia," he said.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
VinSuite is a cloud-based wine industry platform created as a joint venture between Australian company VINx2 and Napa Valley-based eWinery Solutions. It’s built on NetSuite cloud architecture and combines eWinery’s customer sales product with VINx2’s business and production platform.
VinSuite aims to put many of a winery’s moving parts on a single internet-based platform—combining production management, direct-to-consumer sales, retail/wholesale/restaurant sales, accounting and customer relations—so wineries don’t need separate niche software for each function.
As NetSuite’s CEO Zach Nelson explained, cloud delivery removes the need to install software at thousands of small, dispersed wineries. Wineries can simply open a browser to access the software, making the global market of small wineries viable for software providers.
The partnership involves VINx2 (providing the business and production platform), eWinery Solutions (providing customer sales tools and acting as a sales agent for VINx2 in the US), and NetSuite (supplying the cloud architecture on which VinSuite is built).
According to the article, VinSuite is scheduled to be launched later this year.
The article notes the US is the world’s leading consumer (about 3 million litres in 2010) with the US wine industry valued at around $34.6 billion, while Australia consumed 530,000 litres and its domestic market is valued at approximately $2.8 billion—figures that highlight the scale of potential markets for wine-focused cloud software.
eWinery Solutions has up to 600 customers across the US, Australia, Canada, South America and Europe, and the company plans to expand those markets.
VinSuite illustrates how cloud computing can unlock niche, fragmented industries—like small and medium wineries—by making software easy to deploy globally. For investors, the project highlights a potential SaaS growth opportunity in wine-tech supported by partnerships (VINx2, eWinery Solutions, NetSuite) and anchored to sizable wine markets in the US and Australia.
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