ABOUT US
Winery focused tech support. Pure and simple.
OUR STORY
I've lived my whole life in the Finger Lakes region, and when I focused my tech startup (Quantum Loop Solutions) on the winery vertical in 2013 I gained a deep appreciation for what a wonderful part of the wine world I live in. In the process I came to realize that American Viticultural Areas are not only extremely interesting demarcations of wine character (and regional culture), but they are also extremely useful as a lens to bring the power of technology to bear in substantively helping real people.
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- Sam Weiner, WineryConnect Founder
WineryConnect is differentiated in four key dimensions:
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Winery Focus
One of the most frustrating dynamics we've observed over a decade working with wineries is that technology solution providers have again and again focused on the winery vertical to get traction, only to shift focus, once they have their legs under them, to restaurants or retail or some much larger market. What we realized over time was that no one was consistently helping wineries leverage the range of technology solutions available (and required by their complex and varied operations), let alone helping growing wineries leverage new solutions as their needs change. This is now our primary mission.
More fundamentally, we have come to realize clearly that our best chance at building significant value into Quantum Loop Solutions is not to build any particular technology solution, but to forge lifelong relationships with wineries where we continually help leverage technology available on the market. Given how many systems wineries use, and how critical it is for them to have centralized control and visibility across these systems, we have recognized a fundamental challenge here. In response we have developed a proprietary commerce data fabric, the CommerceConnect Fabric (CCF), to help maintain mission critical business information (in particular customer records) as cleanly as possible across all the systems wineries use while at the same time progressively distilling that data into business intelligence and industry-specific regulatory reporting.
In short, we are constitutionally committed to the winery vertical both in the near term and for the duration.
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Experience
Hosmer Winery was our first winery customer in 2013, and they are still a happy customer. As their needs have changed over the years, we've helped Hosmer migrate between two different Point Of Sale systems, three different online stores, several different excise tax tracking mechanisms, and much more. This is while at the same time helping them transition several times between key staff people coming and going and different service providers for bookkeeping, insurance, and other business functions. You can hear more from Tunker Hosmer himself by watching the first video on our Support page under Data Mastery. The Hosmer story is just one of dozens of similar stories we have been privileged to be part of.
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Attentive and Responsive Support
We have learned a ton over the years about the logistical challenges winery staff face on a day-to-day basis, the regulatory reporting challenges management faces on a quarterly and annual basis, and more. We continue to learn from all our clients how to best support the industry.
Still, it wasn't until we focused the lens inward and picked the best systems to support our internal operations, and in particular our Service Desk, that we put ourselves in a place where we can measure and optimize our most important capability - the capacity to continually improve how well we listen to our clients' needs, respond promptly, and make sure issues are managed to resolution.
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Proactive Planning
Taking time and spending resources on long-term planning can be difficult when it always feels like there are immediate fires to put out. The great irony is that long-term planning has a profound effect on reducing fires and getting rid of distractions by clarifying purpose and laying out roadmaps. With our IT Leadership capabilities, we go beyond being a break/fix kind of support organization and help our clients achieve positive business outcomes.
We've worked with larger wineries, we've worked with small wineries, and a number of times we've worked with wineries growing from small to large over years and changing what they need as they grew. In the process we have continually refined our ability to work with clients to lay out technology roadmaps to help them meet business objectives. Going beyond that, we strive to identify enterprise architecture patterns - winery roadmap templates - which make it easier and easier for our clients to grow comfortably and profitably.
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The short story is that WineryConnect is unique as a Bespoke Winery MSP. Read more under Overview.
OUR TEAM
OUR TEAM
FRED WICKHAM
Chief Executive Officer
Fred brings over 30 years' experience in wine and beverage to WineryConnect. Primarily a creative, Fred has created over 100 unique wine brands (e.g. Hazlitt Red Cat) and been Creative Consultant to over 50 wineries.
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Beyond the above, Fred is a seasoned businessperson. He owns and runs Wickham's Tango Oaks Farms where he grows wine grapes for a number of local producers, is an active board member of a large hospital conglomerate, has worked as a high-level marketing and strategy consultant (to the military, NASCAR/auto racing, and others). Fred has also worked with WineryConnect as an advisor for almost all of the company's existence.
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In taking on the CEO role, Fred has been particularly instrumental in driving WineryConnect to simplify and focus exclusively on supporting wineries broadly with technology.
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OUR TEAM
SAM WEINER
Founder
Sam is a 30+ year veteran of the software industry. As a principal or key player in multiple start-ups, Sam has learned how critically important it is for technology to be driven by clear business objectives.
For over a decade, Sam has focused on supporting wineries and craft beverage producers, and in the process has discovered common approaches to growing winery businesses. Most significantly, Sam has learned that technology alone cannot produce positive business outcomes and that the People side of the equation is critical.
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