Wineries have been forced to continually adapt to keep business going despite risks like a pandemic, natural disasters, or cyberattacks.
Wineries face risks across their entire supply chain, from field to production to consumers’ hands. Some risks, such as the growing threats of fire and drought, have grown. The stakes are high. The 2020 fires in California cost the wine industry $3.7 billion in losses. Other risks, including cyberattacks, pests, labor concerns, and changing market conditions, are prevalent.
Using the same business management systems as generations ago will no longer be enough to survive. Pen, paper and a filing cabinet, or spreadsheets on one computer without a backup, is a recipe for disaster.
We understand the hesitancy to let someone else protect your information. Rest assured that a Cloud technology offering such as Enavation Cloud: VinPoint Wine Management gives you complete control over your data with advanced security.
“VinPoint marries Microsoft’s state-of-the-art Business Central with the tools necessary to track and manage data points unique to the wine industry. For instance, every inventory movement is tracked against the appropriate excise tax class and code for easy reporting. Financials and critical reporting can be done by brand, varietal and vintage to keep your finger on the pulse of your business.” – Diane Fox, Beverage Industry Program Leader, Enavate
Here are some ways to protect your business from the unknown and how a Cloud technology offering can help wineries thrive rather than survive.
Wineries rely on a good growing season to cultivate their grapes in the vineyards. Unfortunately, due to climate change, their relationship with the environment is complicated. The environment is both a winemaker’s biggest asset and largest risk.
Wildfires have destroyed numerous wineries or their crop over the years, as California can attest after experiencing the fires in 2020. In these circumstances, there is little to do to save your crops or your stored vintage from years prior, but you can still protect your data to ensure business continuity.
If you are still operating with a clipboard, saving the paperwork may be difficult, if not impossible. If you have an on-premises server or computer, it may be possible to grab the hardware and transfer it to a safe zone if you can safely reach the office in time. Migrating to the Cloud is your best bet to eliminate roadblocks to getting to your data and keeping it safe in the event of a natural disaster.
When you migrate to a technology offering such as Enavation Cloud: VinPoint Wine Management, you getDisaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) as part of the package. That secures your mission-critical data in the Cloud. When your wine business faces fires or any other risks, your business is secure.
Microsoft reports “over 13 billion malicious and suspicious emails, out of which more than 1 billion were URLs set up for the explicit purpose of launching a phishing credential attack” in 2019.
Since then, the numbers have increased every quarter; the most common occurrences are “reconnaissance, credential harvesting, malware and Virtual Private Network (VPN) exploits.”
Small wineries often don’t consider themselves on anyone’s radar for these attacks, but they are front and center. People who launch these attacks are more likely to target small businesses, like family-run wineries, who likely do not have the technology to protect themselves but may have the capital to pay a ransom to get their data back. Most wineries probably don’t have cybersecurity experts on the team.
When you migrate to the Cloud, you hire a team of experts to protect your data from threat actors. That gives you peace of mind over something you had little control over and more energy for running your business.
VinPoint Wine Management protects against cyberattacks that will compromise your data as well as cost you thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars to fix – something a small or midsized business can’t always afford to sustain.
A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance encourages vintners and grape growers to prioritize sustainable practices to mitigate risks. The goal of adopting sustainable practices is to “drive continuous improvement … to enhance the long-term viability of vineyards and wineries.”
For example, a significant risk in California is water scarcity, which can be mitigated with water conservation and efficiency practices. Other examples included capturing data from equipment, soil and other critical parts of operations via the Internet of Things (IoT) and tracking the right metrics to ensure you’re operating efficiently and minimizing environmental impacts.
Enavate knows that digitally transforming your company is a major decision. It’s important to remember that migrating to the Cloud does not have to be all or nothing. Often, businesses that are hesitant to move their entire business to the Cloud start with DRaaS and add on from there. VinPoint Wine Management can be tailored to fit your winery’s needs, so there is no need to worry about “buying too much” or outgrowing your system on the Cloud.
Another tip for winemakers is to make sure you choose the right partner to guide you. We consider ourselves an extension of your team to ensure your data is always accessible and working for your business needs.
If you’d like to learn more about how our Enavation Cloud: VinPoint Wine Management offering can enhance your wine business with the most-mature wine management system built on Dynamics 365 Business Central in the Cloud, reach out to our wine industry experts to request a consultation.