They had the right software. Just not the right partner.
A $30 million wine and spirits distributor set out to modernize operations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, only to find themselves buried in customizations to make it fit their business. Every request required a new meeting. Every workaround led to new problems.
One executive said, “I feel more like a software developer than a business manager.”
That’s when they hit reset, with Western Computer and .
In this episode of One Fail, One Fix, of explains why the wine and spirits industry is unique and how an industry-specific ERP partner who truly understands the industry helped them go from endless development to real results.
Watch the video, or read the transcript to see how they streamlined order to delivery time, improved reporting, connected with a community and gave their sales team the tools they needed to succeed.
Video Transcription: Wine Distributor Fixes Dynamics 365 Customization Fail with 365WineTrade
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
This is One Fail, One Fix with Jim Harris from Western Computer.
Today we're talking about a $30 million wine and spirits wholesaler that chose the right ERP product that ended up with the wrong implementation partner, not because that partner didn't know Microsoft Dynamics 365, but because they didn't know the wine and spirits industry.
And without that knowledge, the project turned into a never-ending series of development meetings, trying to engineer solutions from scratch.
The general manager at one point said, "I feel more like a software developer than a business manager."
So, Jim Harris from Western Computer, tell us why this was such an issue.
Jim Harris, Western Computer:
Well, this is something we've seen before.
The product itself, (Micorsoft Dynamics 365) Business Central is a fantastic product, but it was the partner that struggled. They just didn't understand the wine and spirits business.
So every challenge became a new development project. And wine and spirits is unique on a number of levels. It's the only federally mandated three tier system.
So if you make a product like a wine or spirit product, you have to sell through distribution who sends to, sells to, retailers and restaurants. And so that opens up a lot of challenges.
A lot of wine spirit wholesalers, like the one that we're talking about, have thousands of customers that all have unique demands.
They have to make deliveries, they have salespeople in the field and they have a lot of products. They have thousands of products. Some are high volume, some are very unique or niche. And so they have to accommodate for all of that.
And some of the places where that shows up is in pricing. So there's a lot of volume discounts that go on. And with that, suppliers who make the product often provide incentives for the distributor to sell more.
So if I sell five cases, I might get a better price. If I sell 20 cases, I'll get even a better one for the retailer. Well, that's subsidized or helped out by the supplier.
So that distributor has to bill back the supplier and track all that, which is a lot of work, but it's really important for profitability for that distributor. So pricing, along with the depletion allowance bill backs is a big part of this.
There's also a lot of compliance.
You know, it's a product that the government has a lot of control over in terms of how you register for the product, how it's used, how you sell it, how you communicate those sales.
So there's a lot of that that goes on.
And then you also have a lot of sales reps in the field, and this company has 40 sales reps that are out there with mobile devices sending orders.
And doing that directly in Business Central is really a big challenge because it goes in as a sales order or excuse me, a quote that goes to a sales order.
And the challenge with that is someone has to touch every single order, which is really not sustainable, especially in the busiest times of the year.
So what we've been able to do for them is really help them with that process of just understanding that other people have done this and there's better ways to do it.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
So tell us a little bit more about the fix for this fail by Western Computer.
Jim Harris, Western Computer:
The fix was simple. They really just had to start over.
The partner they were using had built a lot of customizations and after a while they start to conflict with each other. And also one of the key developers that worked on the initial ones left, so there was a knowledge gap that had been created.
So instead of doing that, they went with Western Computer and our 365WineTrade and now they get a team of folks that really understand the business.
And we have 30 customers that are already on it and using it every day. So we've really built a stable platform for them.
And so our experience really helps over the last 15 years helping wine and spirits companies, both on the supplier and distributor side, but also getting down into that detail of managing inventory allocations, pricing, all those really interesting things that the wine and spirits industry has as part of its DNA.
We've built that into the software on top of the fabulous Microsoft Business Central platform.
So those two things together and, coming really fast, all the AI features that are coming with that make it a really great platform for anybody that's in wine and spirits.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
So tell us a little bit more about this company specifically. What benefits did they get after making this change and working with you?
Jim Harris, Western Computer:
Yeah, it starts with the order process.
We made it a lot easier for the reps with a mobile device to be able to place orders versus having to log in to the system to write the orders.
And that gives them everything they need. They get sales history, what the customer's been buying, what they've been paying. They can see an image of the item they can create sell sheets to give to the customer with the pricing in it. And then also the inventory that shows them what's on hand. So as they place orders, it's updating throughout the day.
So it has really streamlined the sales rep's experience.
And that's important because we really don't want the reps to have to call or email the office. Because that ties up the office staff and also takes more time for the sales rep who needs to be out with customers.
So once the order then comes in, we have exceptional reporting.
So if there's something that has been flagged for approval, it's easy for someone in the office or a manager to approve it and go through. But most orders go through without that approval and then get right to the warehouse.
Once in the warehouse, we've allowed them to set up bins, which they weren't using in Business Central, so they can find the locations products are in, which has really helped them with their picking process before they load the trucks.
And then when they're out making the deliveries, we've made it easier for the driver to come back at the end of the day. And anything that's been returned or any money they've collected, it goes right into the system and it's much easier.
We've taken a lot of steps out of that. So we've really streamlined their whole organization.
But what management really talks about is the reporting.
The reporting that they had before, even though they were using Microsoft's Power BI platform because of the way their development was done, they hadn't streamlined the data in a way that made it easy to get the data into one report.
So you could go to one report and get information, but you had to go another report to get another set.
We've been able to streamline that and make it all one set of reports for them, and it saves them a lot of time both on managing the sales reps commissions, seeing the velocity of sales for different brands across different customers.
And also from a financial standpoint, they really have a much better understanding of their cost of goods sold and how that's impacting their profitability and where their issues are so they can go out and solve them.
So the CFO is thrilled with that.
The general manager who runs the business is just spending much more time with customers and with training salespeople and building a team as opposed to managing a developer and trying to keep the system running.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
And how did you help them to feel more a part of the larger wine and spirits industry community?
Jim Harris, Western Computer:
That's a great question.
One of the things that we started four years ago was the ability for anybody on our 365WineTrade platform to join our three times a year meetings where we discuss what the roadmap is for Microsoft, with the product, as well as with 365WineTrade.
And then we allow them to vote on the features that they would find most interesting so we can prioritize our development to give them more benefit every year.
And it's been great on a number of levels.
One is, we're developing features with multiple customers in mind, so we build a better feature set.
It also allows those customers to have a voice in what we develop, and then they've also gotten to know each other.
We have a lot of customers that talk one-on-one with each other because they're in similar situations in terms of issues.
And so they can get together and talk about how they're collecting money or how they're managing a sales process, or maybe how they are billing back suppliers, or some of them have common suppliers that they deal with.
So it's been a fantastic networking event for those folks.
And then we keep expanding it and offering more value along the way.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
So in conclusion, what advice would you give to other companies in the wine and spirits industry to kind of avoid a fail like this?
Jim Harris, Western Computer:
The biggest thing is don't recreate the wheel. Right?
Because we've been able to build this out with multiple customers in mind, so we're just tweaking it to match your business or configuring it.
You're not having to do a whole change management. We already understand the industry. It's already been linked in there.
And so if you've already made the choice to go to a new ERP and you're in the wine and spirit business, definitely look at 365WineTrade because we've already done it and we understand the industry and how to make that scalable for you.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
Thank you very much for sharing that story, Jim.
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By Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog Editor, www.erpsoftwareblog.com