As most people in the wine industry are aware, this year’s London Wine Fair was a hybrid event. The live event took place in early June, followed by two days of digital sessions on 20-21 June. Bevica had the great pleasure of hosting a technology-themed panel discussion during the digital event.
The topic of the panel was How to compete in a rapidly changing business landscape – Using Bevica technology. Bevica team members, Claudio Martell (Bevica Product Director) and Danusia Jolliffe (TVision’s Marketing Director) were joined by experts from both the wine industry and the wider technology sector. These were
- Will McIntee, an IT veteran that started Companial UK with a view to helping Microsoft partners get the most of their investments in the Microsoft Dynamics suite of products.
- Celine Comyn, a Wine technology consultant with 20 years’ experience in the wine sector.
- David Gee, Business Development Director at HG Technology, a UK-based consultancy specialising in cloud-based solutions and Microsoft 365 applications.
Using technology to prepare for changes in the business landscape
The main focus of the session was the massive changes the wine sector has undergone over the last two years, ranging from Brexit to Covid-19, impending duty modifications to the Plastic Packaging Tax. The panel discussion covered effective ways the wine industry has used, and continues to use, technology to prepare for the knowns and the unknowns in this ever-changing business landscape.
Key points made during the session included:
- Data has a vital role to play in how the wine sector can cope with legislation changes such as the Government’s proposed Alcohol Duty Review and the introduction of the Plastic Packaging Tax.
- Cloud-first is the way forward. The panel agreed the rise of cloud-first applications has revolutionised the way organisations do business over the last 2-3 years. Cloud-based applications can be updated regularly to reflect any changes happening and this affords businesses the ability to respond more quickly to the changes in the business landscape.
- Don’t think about the technology, think about the pain point you need to resolve. And then business can find the right technology to help them resolve this problem.
- The power of industry specific solutions in the cloud-first technology landscape – the panel agreed that the move to cloud-first business management solutions meant that the days of bespoke and highly customised software were over. Instead, businesses are turning towards strong and trusted, standard solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and then adding their industry-specific requirements through vertical business solutions such as Bevica.
- Ecommerce is now vital to the wine industry. Like many other sectors, most businesses within the wine industry needed to pivot their business models in early 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The forced change of focus from B2B to B2C has led to a fundamental shift in how way businesses approach ecommerce. Two years later, wine businesses are now thinking ecommerce first, with many moving all their order processing to via their web channels.
Don’t forget about cybersecurity!
As a final point, all the panelists agreed that cybersecurity is critical when moving forward in the changing business landscape. With organisations adopting both a cloud and ecommerce first approach to doing business, any long-term strategic approach needs to take cybersecurity risks and threats if the business wants to achieve long-term success. Cyber Essentials is one way of ensuring this is maintained.
Bevica Select: an agile and cost-effective deployment approach
As part of the panel discussion, Bevica Product Director, Claudio Martell also highlighted how the move to SaaS-based solutions has allowed the Bevica product team to develop a more agile version of its best-in-class business management solution. This new product offering, Bevica Select, has been created especially for ambitious businesses that want to get up and running with Bevica quickly and cost-effectively but also want a cloud-based installation that is done properly and successfully.
Bevica Select features include:
- A defined project plan will allow businesses to achieve a rapid go-live (on average within three months)
- An online training portal with a full training environment
- A production environment with packaged drinks industry features and setup
- Easy to use data migration templates
- Pre-configured go-live ready company
- Standard go-live configuration.
With Bevica Select, there are no large, upfront implementation costs. Businesses pay easy monthly subscription costs and will benefit from a rapid installation time.
Find out more about Bevica
Developed over the last 20 years and powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Bevica is a powerful best practice ERP software solution that has been designed specifically for the drinks industry. For more information about Bevica and how it can help your business, click here.
