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30 W i n e s & V i n e s J U LY 2 0 1 4 O ver the years, software devel- opers have created many tools for solving problems in the wine industry. As the first part of an ongoing series, this arti- cle will provide an overview of the scope of program types, the goals of the software and a synopsis of the major players in this arena. Subsequent articles will look at the workings of dif- ferent aspects of winery software and provide insights into the solutions that these businesses have developed for the industry. The goal is to describe the soft- ware available in detail so that grape- growers, winemakers and winery owners can find the appropriate software to help their businesses grow. Software for the wine industry can be broken down into three types: account- ing, production and sales/marketing. Accounting software is certainly impor- tant, but this type of software does not need as much special programming for the wine industry as the other types. A company in the wine industry can potentially be in the grape- or fruit-grow- ing business, the wine production busi- ness and the wine- and/or fruit-selling business. The wine- and fruit-selling busi- nesses can be further expanded into both retail and wholesale sales, on-premise and off-premise sales, the entertainment busi- ness and (in many places) the restaurant and event business. Finding one set of software tools that can handle all of these niches is a rather daunt- ing task, which is one reason there are so many software providers for the wine industry. The Wines & Vines Buyer's Guide contains 277 providers of information technology for the wine business. Some winery software is intended for data collection and management of win- ery and vineyard operations, while another type offers the legal forms neces- sary to comply with regulatory require- ments and the transfer of production assets into the business side for tracking sales and marketing of wine products produced. Business software developers often provide data hook procedures that include a way to import financial infor- mation in an orderly manner. The labora- tory data collection similarly provides data hooks to populate the winery- or vineyard-specific software. Software suites There are 24 different software programs containing a variety of modules listed in the Wines & Vines' Buyer's Guide. Of the 24, nine are not wine-industry centric. They are suites of programs that cover financial duties, general marketing or cus- tomer relationship management (CRM). These programs can provide value to the winery, but don't expect them to under- stand particulars about the industry. You can usually identify those that have a wine industry emphasis by the name of the software or their URL. The Winemaker's Database is one of the longest running suites of wine-production software in our industry. It is a robust pro- gram that has stood the test of time and provided much guidance to those that have Data Management and the Wine Industry The first part in a series provides an overview of software solutions for wineries and growers By Richard Carey Highlights • It can be difficult to find one set of software tools to cover all aspects of the wine business, from growing grapes to selling wine. • A series of articles about software for the wine industry will focus on data collection and management for vineyard and winery operations. • This overview describes the program types, the goals of the software and gives a synopsis of the major players in this arena. Software can collect and track wine data from crush pad to cellar to consumer. c o v e r s t o r y