In 2006, vintrace launched into the SaaS space (Software as a Service) with a tech solution developed specifically for winemakers and wineries. The sector was ripe for disruption, with significant players using outdated technology and unchanged business practices in many small to medium-sized wineries. The digital age was in full swing and had already revolutionised operational efficiencies across many other industries; however, modern winemaking software was severely lacking. Since launching, vintrace has contributed significantly to the global wine industry, helping winemakers gain more time to focus on wine quality, reduce costs, improve data integrity and gain complete visibility over their winemaking. 

Our focus on innovation

Innovative businesses are born out of creativity and hard work. Today, vintrace supports thousands of winemakers from around the world. Josh Abra, CEO and Co-Founder, is proud of vintrace’s achievements, saying:

“We’ve always strived to set an example with a creative and innovative approach to wine production software. After 15 years, and the vital contribution of over 30 staff with wine, agriculture and technology backgrounds, we’ve built a robust solution that solves many known winemaking issues such as inventory inefficiencies, arduous reporting processes, lack of visibility and limited or no off-site access.”   

vintrace challenges the status quo to improve the way winemakers accomplish their work. Over the years, we have released over 7950 new features and innovations and achieved a 98% user satisfaction rating. Our customers frequently recommend vintrace to their peers, so if you’re in the market for a new software solution, we’ve gathered some of their commentaries to show you how vintrace has improved their day-to-day lives. 

Efficient processes save businesses time and money

Our innovative tech solution simplifies business operations and gives winemakers back the elusive commodity of time. vintrace enables customers to get more out of their resources by improving productivity and strengthening collaboration.”vintrace has given me more time to be a winemaker, to walk the vineyards, and to taste the ferments,” said Keith Emerson, Head Winemaker at Vineyard 29 in St. Helena, California. 

The logistics of running a winery can be complicated – especially around harvest. vintrace’s market-leading software optimises day-to-day operations, streamlining the winemaking process from grape to bottle.“vintrace’s lab and winemaking tools make those hand-written lab journal entries obsolete; why do everything twice?” said Marcus Rafanelli, Winemaker at L’Ecole 41 in Walla Walla, Washington.

vintrace’s cloud-based winery production software is available on desktop, tablet, or mobile for the optimal solution to eliminating unnecessary steps, saving time, reducing errors and avoiding duplicate work.

Easy recordkeeping and governance

For hundreds of years, wineries got by with little more than pen and paper to track operations. But in today’s highly governed wine industry, winemakers can waste hours rifling through paper records to complete audits and compliance reports. vintrace’s easy-to-use software simplifies data entry and strengthens governance. “I estimate that since installing vintrace, my team spends half as much time on the annual LCBO audit and VQA submissions, with the time saved being refocused on wine quality,” said Allison Christ, Head Winemaker at Colio Estate Wines in Ontario, Canada.

Wineries must comply with many rules and regulations. vintrace helps to reduce their business risk and keep up with important deadlines. “Before adopting vintrace, government compliance was an arduous task. We wrote it all down on ledgers. It was one person’s job for an entire week. From around 40-hours, now it takes five minutes,” said Joy Merrilees, Vice President of Production for the Shannon Family of Wines in Lake County, California.

There is also a growing emphasis on data-driven decision-making to sharpen process effectiveness. Winemakers can leverage accumulated data in vintrace to improve harvest performance. “Being vintrace users since 2012, we have gathered substantial reportable data about grape conditions, Brix changes, and tonnages, allowing us to plan for harvest with more accurate estimates,” said Chase Vienneau, Winemaker at Arrington Vineyards in Tennessee.

Improved inventory management

Inventory management is a tedious job for most businesses. vintrace helps customers track inventory stock levels of finished goods, packaging materials and manage stock movements across multiple locations. Because inventory data is stored in the cloud, it is accessible by the whole business. “Our local team enters barrel, tank, and packaging inventory into vintrace, which is managed across several buildings in our village in Italy. The team in Scotland can access the data remotely to manage finished goods,” said Cesidio di Ciacca, Head Winemaker at I Ciacca in Italy. 

By combining the power of vintrace’s inventory management solution with the benefit of real-time adjustments straight from the vintrace app, our customers have dramatically reduced the risk of costly discrepancies and inaccuracies in stock management. Winemakers can easily make inventory-level corrections, track relocations and have complete visibility over purchase orders, committed stock, and current stock on hand, across multiple locations. “From the finance side, it is desperately important that we track the costs of every item and every operation to know where we are falling short on recovery. If you can measure it, you can manage it. vintrace is our tool by which we are measuring and managing that cost recovery, identifying waste and opportunities to improve efficiency,” said Malcolm Walker and Tony Wilkins, Co-Founders at Itasca Wines in England.

Software Integrations

vintrace features a powerful API, allowing customers to integrate with their existing business intelligence (BI) tools. “Integration functionality allowed us to compare data against previous years by vineyard, grower, and varietal, improving our overall visibility of vintage performance,” said Shane, Management Accountant at Giesen in New Zealand. vintrace integrates with best-in-class partners, allowing your data to flow between systems.

By connecting existing reporting tools with winery data in vintrace, customers save hours of manual reporting while enabling better planning and critical decision-making. “A single hub of consolidated data not only gives us a live view of performance but allows us to make faster, data-based decisions. Over harvest, the integration has saved us an hour per day,” said Greg, Drylands Winery Site Leader at Constellation Brands. 

Data integration means wine businesses can say goodbye to double-entry forever. vintrace connects seamlessly with many platform partners. Synchronizing customers’ data to other applications has proven to improve business performance. “vintrace integrations save many hours of data entry and correspondence with growers. We saved 25 hours of work alone between adding sample data and new blocks!” said Melissa from Shaw + Smith in South Australia.

Sustainability

Businesses need to take a holistic approach towards improving their environmental impact. By adopting vintrace, wineries can leverage their data to identify sustainable solutions. “vintrace makes it easier to measure our environmental impact and carbon footprint. We log organic certificate numbers and dates into vintrace, which then alerts the vineyard team not to use non-compliant materials,” said Joy Merrilees, Vice President of Production for the Shannon Family of Wines in Lake County, California.

By its very nature, vintrace supports the transition to a paperless model, empowering winemakers to be more sustainable and efficient with their resources. The additional benefits far outweigh a paper system, such as;

• Better accessibility as files are stored digitally on the cloud
• Digital files don’t get lost like loose pieces of paper or require time-consuming filing
• Going paperless reduces the costs of paper, ink, toner, storage space and postage
• Documents are more secure in the cloud than being physically accessible in an office

The vintrace app helped businesses tackle the acute challenges posed by Covid-19

The economic impact caused by the pandemic presented a serious threat to the global wine industry. Wineries also faced operational challenges with regulations put in place to ensure the health and safety of staff.  

The vintrace app helped customers comply with new Covid-19 requirements. Staff could complete tasks on their mobile device and save time by reducing the need to sanitize clipboards, pens, and paper shared across the cellar crew. Remote access of vintrace meant that lockdowns and capacity limits posed less of a threat. “I usually would commute between South Australia and the winery in New Zealand; however, restrictions on international travel brought about by Covid-19 meant that it was no longer an option. vintrace enabled me to log in from anywhere, anytime, to find out what’s happening at the winery. I could track tasks and actions like a cellar note, an analysis request, or any balances that need sorting out,” said Chris Darling of New Zealand-based Darling Wines.

For more information check out our plans or book a time to discuss your software requirements with our expert sales team.

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