Intelligent SME.tech Issue 20 | Page 45

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// END-USER INSIGHT //

Intelligent SME . tech speaks to Stuart Foster , Financial Controller and Investor , PURE The Winery , about the company and how Oracle NetSuite ’ s solutions have enabled the business to scale .
Can you tell us more about the challenges you were looking to address ahead of selecting this solution ?
Shortly after our launch in 2019 we had started to develop wholesale and retail channels for the international distribution of PURE zero sugar wine and were expecting to continue growing rapidly , but then circumstances quickly changed .
Early 2020 was a very difficult time for all wholesale distributors , with sales plummeting as hundreds of stores , bars and restaurants were forced to close due to the pandemic . We were forced to suspend plans for international expansion through resale channels and brickand-mortar retail . We had to pivot to online , to focus on direct-to-consumer sales of wine to get back on our path to growth .
This significant new sales channel highlighted the need for us to better align wine production with demand . A big challenge for running a wine production and international distribution business is effective forward planning , as we are often looking months ahead with our production partner in Italy , and now had more direct-to-consumer sales to consider too .
In addition , we had our ongoing operational requirements to consider . We needed a more effective way to monitor our wine bottle stocks in various locations around the world and to better navigate the latest regulations and complex tax requirements of cross-border alcohol trade .
We also needed to improve the speed and accuracy of our financial processes to save our team time . We were using QuickBooks to record accounting transactions , but our teams had to manually check everything from cash receipts to stock levels of our different wine varieties on a country-by-country basis , which wasn ’ t as efficient or sustainable .
We looked to Oracle NetSuite to adopt an integrated system that includes financials , Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP ), inventory management and omnichannel commerce , to help us grow and better adapt to change .
When did the implementation take place ?
Q1 2020 . Working alongside NetSuite partner Wipro , we implemented NetSuite in three months across our core markets : currently Europe , US , Asia and Australia .
Did you encounter any challenges during implementation and how were these overcome ?
The biggest challenge to our implementation of NetSuite was working out the best way to build the various manufacturing stages and nuances of our wine production into the system . We don ’ t control the different processes such as crop yield and fermentation as we only take ownership of the finished product , but we needed to bring together this data alongside our e-commerce channels and in-country demand and compliance requirements .
Centralising all this in one place was crucial to managing our wine inventory , helping production and delivery to meet demand in time , in each country e . g ., to fulfil trends such as a greater desire for red wine from our German webstore .
How did the NetSuite team ( and / or partners ) ensure a seamless integration ?
The rollout of NetSuite was made seamless through Wipro ’ s global network of NetSuite experts and the fact that the NetSuite system offers personalisation and customisation , so we can easily integrate with other applications , such as our webstore : WooCommerce .
How have your end users benefited from this ?
Now we have complete insight into expected
Previous page : Stuart Foster , Financial Controller and Investor , PURE The Winery

IT ’ S ALSO NOW MUCH EASIER TO MANAGE THE DEMAND- RELATED INTRICACIES AND NEEDS OF OUR DIFFERENT MARKETS .
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