Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/975273
32 WINES&VINES May 2018 HERE'S WHAT WORKS Duckhorn Wine Co. is experiencing rapid growth among its six wineries, creating man- agement challenges for planning. While Ras- muson notes that sometimes "harnessing winery data is just inventory management," collecting and organizing all the data each year is seldom as straightforward as he'd like. Combined, the six wineries produce 130 distinct wine SKUs. How does the staff know they will have the correct amount of fruit as- signed to each of them? How many new barrels do they need? What is the cost of each wine? To answer these questions, Duckhorn turned to Oztera, whose Teravina integrated data plat- form combines the "data silos" of production, lab analyses, finance, inventory, wholesale sales and DtC sales into one system. Now Rasmuson can easily see and address potential fruit shortages for a particular wine and know how many barrels to buy. "The bril- liance of Oztera is that it communicates well to finance and accounting, from cost of fruit and barrels to capital expenditures. It's a nice, nifty platform," he said. Trial blend platform Oztera was able to create a standardized trial blend platform for Duckhorn, which replaced the silo of each winemaker creating and using his/her own spreadsheet that resided on their personal computers instead of the company database. Ultimately, Rasmuson said that data collec- tion is often most valuable in the vineyard with their weather stations, soil monitors and other probes, and with their consumers. Data for winemaking decisions can only go so far, as the winemaker's skill is "to adapt to a current vintage in real time, especially in the first weeks after harvest." Rasmuson is intrigued by data that could be used for repeatable wine- making results, such as phenolics assays where winemakers fine-tune their palates to a phe- nolics reading, then try to match the phenolics from vintage to vintage. I interviewed Mike Stallman, Oztera's Chief Geek Juggler (yes, that's his job title). He ex- plained that Oztera, based in Silicon Valley with offices in Napa, Hawaii and Arizona, spe- cializes in solutions built on the Microsoft Dy- namics NAV platform to address the unique challenges faced by wine companies. Oztera's Teravina program leverages Microsoft's invest- ment and development of a robust system used by 140,000 other companies in a wide range of businesses. Stallman notes that a winery typically uses many separate data systems for winemaking, accounting, sales, etc., creating numerous busi- ness challenges. Data is transferred back and forth between systems periodically, a clumsy exercise that invites a "spider web of prob- lems." The Teravina system integrates all these systems into one. As an example, many wineries struggle with product costing. With a typical siloed account- ing program, wine costing becomes an exercise where the finance manager builds multiple Excel spreadsheets, bugs winemakers for their winemaking data, and then locks her/himself in a closet for two days to figure it out. Instead, Teravina integrates grape contracts into its winemaking and accounting programs. The system can compare contracts with weight tags and then follow the wine as it moves around the winery, adding in packaging costs and over- heads. By integrating the entire process, every- one knows the true cost of their wine. Stallman believes the Teravina system helps maintain quality consistency from year to year, by giving winemakers the ability to compare blending and tasting records, plus other histori- cal production data. "We provide winemakers the tools to let them do their job more easily." Ultimately, Stallman sees that an integrated system provides "one source of truth. With multiple systems, you can get more than one truth." (Or multiple sources of half-truths.) Once you have all the data in one system, "you can ask just about any question, and we can build something to answer it. You can see ev- erything from grapes to bottling projections, plus report on your KPIs within one site." Many clients use Oztera's system to plan their bot- tling runs over the year, and bring packaging vendors in on the process. Oztera claims its software platform is simple and cost-effective for small producers, who can realize the same benefits as the big guys. Their customers range from an Iowa boutique winery producing 15,000 cases to a big California operation making 3 million cases. Can you afford it? You may be reading this and thinking you can't afford it. I would reply with, can you afford not to? You should be able to find someone who can help, as tech research hubs are located near winegrowing regions. If the cost of hiring a data analysis service provider is too high, ask your local wine association to subscribe and get a group rate for its membership. Perhaps Dry Creek's Longerbeam summed it best. He would like to see the wine industry use data the way it is already used in high-tech and other consumer goods companies. "You're sending emails to your customers anyway, you might as well learn from it. Next time you make a decision, work data into it." Andy Starr, founder of StarrGreen (starrgreen.com), is an entrepreneur, marketing manager and winemaker who provides strategy, management and business develop- ment consulting services. A resident of Napa Valley, Calif., he holds a bachelor's degree in fermentation science from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from UCLA. 145 Jordan Street, San Rafael, CA 94901 415-457-3955 • www.boswellcompany.com he Premier Silicone Rubber Bung T 3435 Ocean Park Blvd, #107-511 ~ 10 rue François Appert – BP 90095 21703 Nuits Saint Georges Cedex France Now Zachary Rasmuson of Duckhorn Wine Co. can easily see and address potential fruit shortages for a particular wine and know how many barrels to buy.