Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Why aren’t beverage executives online?
I loved Richard Branson’s recent article, “Why aren’t more business leaders online?” While he is mostly referring to executives aversion to social media (only 16% of executives are using social media), he also indicates the lack of ambition by these executives to utilize technology in general. There is a “surprising lethargy about using the online tools already available”. In his opinion, and mine, this is a big mistake. If your answer to the question “How am I using the latest technology to improve my business?” is, “I check my email on my iPhone”, then you are missing the boat. State of the art cloud computing systems and mobile business applications can make your business much more efficient, collaborative and productive. And, the tools are here NOW. As Branson says, “Anyone who thinks new technology isn’t going to keep changing the world has got their head in the sand”. Don’t be late to the game.
GreatVines Customer Success Manager (Job)
The Success Manager role is a client-facing resource for GreatVines Customers, delivering support account management. The role encompasses ongoing support/guidance, business strategy and transformation advice, and account oversight. As a customer advocate, the Success Manager is the client’s Primary Point of Contact responsible for orchestrating all support activity within GreatVines to deliver a superior client experience. This role focuses on ongoing relationship-building and proactive account management activities, promoting overall customer satisfaction, product adoption and renewals.
High Level Duties:
- Provide support to customer admin resources to resolve questions and issues related to the GreatVines platform.
- Act as trusted adviser and own the overall customer satisfaction of named customer accounts. Take proactive action in a number of areas to detect or avoid system issues.
- Provide training and mentoring to clients.
- Technical Configuration: Configure GreatVines product to meet customer needs, document and communicate any functional gaps.
- Documentation: Contribute regularly to knowledge base of implementation, support and best practice materials.
- Teamwork: Collaborate with team members. Share knowledge, provide visibility into personal accomplishments and follow direction when provided.
- Participate in after hours support call rotation.
- Perform thorough analysis of customer data and lead remediation of issues.
Requirements
2+ years recent Salesforce.com admin experience mandatory, certification desirable.
You are: a quick and motivated study in all things technology.
We’re an agile company using leading edge cloud tools for process management alongside enterprise software integration with our global clients – for you mastering new technology isn’t a burden, it’s just another day at the office.
You possess: strong communication, organization, business analysis, and project management skills.
Your ability to effectively communicate with clients/peers and avoid misunderstandings as regard requirements, deadlines, testing and delivery is uncanny! This includes communicating changes in timeline, training non tech users on new software, and translating complex business concepts to our dev team.
Your other skills might include:
- experience with Beverage Alcohol depletion data and reporting. An Ideal candidate will have knowledge of BDN, VIP or competitive data and at least one reporting solution using same.
- experience with collecting/managing/reporting-on large data stores of some other nature – we deal with a lot of data, and our ability to be well versed and facile with this information is a strong part of what makes us an asset to clients.
- Advanced skills in Microsoft Excel, Access, PowerPoint, SQL, BI tools
About GreatVines:
We are an established startup tech company providing beverage selling solutions for wine, spirits and craft beer. As a salesforce.com technology partner our cloud-based solution set utilizes the force.com platform, GoodData.com for business analytics and Amazon Web Services for infrastructure and data management.
Our customers include a range of marquee alcoholic beverage brands from niche producers to global behemoths. We enthusiastically deliver custom configured solutions to meet their sales automation needs.
Submission Instructions
Please respond via email only to with some information about yourself, your background and why you feel you are a good fit for the position.
Include your resume and any desired cover letter or references saved as a single document with the following filename structure:
2012.mm.dd-LastName-CustomerSuccess.pdf
Role works from home, must have suitable work environment and internet connection. Must live in CA, OR, WA, no exceptions.
Do not call, no recruitment professionals please.
Welcome to the first in a new series of website posts dedicated to cutting-edge new features of GreatVines and Force.com in 2012. Hopefully by now you are already aware of and utilizing our new “Account Call” capability, affectionately referred to as the “Mega Call”. This significant upgrade in 2011 allowed GreatVines users and managers to log visits, tasks, update objectives plus log any relevant brand activation and visibility data gathered during the visit, such as Tastings, Events, Wine and Cocktail Menu Placements, Off-Premise Displays and much more. This new single page reduced unnecessary clicks and page loading by 200 to 300% per visit.
Up next in our first Spring 2012 release is the much anticipated National Account Authorizations module. Building upon the flexibility and configurability of “Mega Call” this new feature lets Key Account users who focus at the National, Regional and Chain level to log product “Authorizations”. In most Suppliers, these take on many forms and names such as “Distribution”, “Mandates” or even simply “Programs”. We use the example internally of selling in a “Drink Feature” at a chain like TGI Fridays. Each customer can drive the data they wish to gather including Authorization or Mandate type, approval status, start and end date, plus very specific data about each “Placement” type such as Backbar, Menu or Limited Time Offer.
Example Distribution Grid
This feature is typically enabled only on “Chain HQ” pages within GreatVines, although it can support any valid Account Type including Distributors and Retailers. Support is included for Chain “Objectives” which result in new Authorizations, combining current, expiring and targeted placements into a single report or grid. Once these multiple authorizations are logged across all of the Chain accounts, users can quickly generate a grid, export into Excel or Email a summary of the data to selected Contacts.
This powerful new module of GreatVines will require your team to perform a quick review and update of your applicable Labels and Items, as most customers may want to limit the “Products” available to the Authorization module. And as previously mentioned, your Administrator can rename virtually all the descriptors on the Authorization pages and emails into terms that you choose!
Please work with your System Administrator to review whether this new Module should be activated in your GreatVines Account, and let us know what you think of this great new capability!
GreatVines Job Opening
Senior Consultant and Business Analyst
GreatVines, LLC (new.greatvines.com) is an ISV partner of Salesforce.com and VAR partner of Nielsen with a laser focus on the alcoholic beverage industry – wine, spirits and beer. Our customers are both suppliers (producers) and wholesalers (distributors) with business challenges unique to the “three-tier system” on an enterprise scale. Beyond basic CRM account management, our Force.com applications are focused on three key functions: sales productivity, trade marketing and analytics.
GreatVines is looking for a self-motivated and dynamic consultant (contract to full) to guide customers through implementation, customization, training and ongoing success management. The ideal candidate would be a certified Salesforce consultant or admin, plus a Force.com platform evangelist who is extremely familar with the mechanics of custom applications and a master of reports and analytics with Force.com and MS excel. Our application is both deep and wide and requires a broad understanding of data relationships, loading and storage requirements.
This individual will be required to analyze the client’s business (company structure, sales methodologies, multi-tier goals, wholesaler relationships, trade marketing) and map the proper configuration of the GreatVines application set. This includes standard setup and user training as well as data loading and an intensive amount of configuration and customization, working with GreatVines principals. The individual may also be required to manage partnerships with 3rd party organizations focused on data migration and integration such as ERP accounting and inventory data. Knowledge of popular ETL tools is a major plus. The Senior Consultant will also be the lead resource during a customer implementation making basic project management skills a must have.
Other responsibilities may include:
- Sales Engineering (demos and trial orgs)
- Product Support, Development and Documentation
- Coordination of multiple consulting resources (internal and external)
- Keeping current with Salesforce new release features and roadmap
- Logging implementation hours and billable costs
Other qualifications include:
- Excellent communication and service skills
- Ability to collaborate, give and receive constructive criticism
- Ability to convey technical information to non-technical customers
- Prior consulting experience preferred not required
- Must be able to thrive in a small business environment
This position is extremely hands-on, both fast-paced and exciting. This individual will participate in shaping an entire industry by helping build and support the most cutting-edge application in this space. The position reports to the company principals and/or other senior management in the future.
The ideal candidate would live in Oregon, Washington, California (Portland, Seattle, LA, San Francisco Bay Area prefered) or New York. Telecommuting is expected and applicants outside of these areas are encouraged to apply. You must live in North America and be able to travel anywhere in the Continental US and Canada. Offshore is not an option for this position, sorry.
Compensation:
- Hourly to start (30 hour per week minimum)
- Competitive base salary, benefits and bonus upon becoming full-time
Please email .com with your resume (word, web, linkedin, text, other). You MUST include some description of yourself and why you feel you are perfect for this job. Blank emails with attachments will not be taken very seriously.
No Recruiters Please!
New Website!
Welcome to our new website for GreatVines. We will post continual updates on our progress as this innovative new product evolves over time. We welcome your thoughts and comments, particularly on the items you see posted here. Our aim is to create the most flexible, scalable and meaningful software for managing sales, marketing and related aspects of the modern Wine and Spirits industry.
Cheers!
Jim Thompson
Founder/Principal
GreatVines for Force.com
.com
