Submerce Q2/09





Submerce News | Q2 2009

GO TO Q1 2009

June 24, 2009

Top 5 Tips on Becoming a Champion Managing Website Budgets and Timelines

We're often asked "how long does it take to build an Ecommerce-enabled website?" Well the answer is a tricky one, but is easily answered by looking at your own team and the solution provider you go with. After 15 years of building websites, it's very rare that we've come across two clients that have requested the same project. Sure, the basics are all there such as the need for a powerful Ecommerce solution, maybe some web design and training, but from there, the project can have several different paths towards success.

Our 15 years of success with small 1-person companies to several Fortune-500 companies have taught us a lot, so we're going to spell out some of our trade secrets to help your next project be a successful one.

1. You will get what you pay for
With the advent of the shopping cart, there has been many interations of programming languages, best practices and a lot of  "freebie" or open source apps. This has been a terrific value to companies such as Submerce as it allows small companies to test the waters, but also presents a lot of risk for those small companies that may not have access or experience with the level of support or lack of support that comes along with going this route. If you do need to start off small and keep costs low, we recommend shopping carts such as Nexternal and Yahoo. Both of these providers have low startup fees and provide ample support and wide range of customers and industries. Lastly, be sure that both your short term goals and long term goals are going to be met with the solution of your choosing. What you need today is easy to list, but also take into account your company's growth projections. Will you quickly outgrow the system or worry about system reliability or integrations with 3rd party systems and services?

2. Select a solution provider that has experience in your industry.
There's no doubt that there are thousands of "shopping cart" software solutions out there, but one note we will caution is to select a provider that has experience in your industry. Just as Submerce has had great experience in the wine industry, it also continues to push the envelope in others. "We find that it's equally benefical for our staff to gain experience in a variety of industries so that we can be sure that we continue to seek out improvements in both our toolset and our technology" says Jonathan Elliman, CTO for Submerce. Submerce has worked with a variety of clients such as specialty retail, automotive, banking, software and much more.

3. Preparing for a website project
Preparation is key for any project, but pay extra close attention on website projects as they tend to change over the course of the project. The more you prepare before you meet with web designers, solution providers and consultants will save you a lot of time, lost weekends, long nights and in the end a bundle of money. If you need a site design, be sure to provide at least 8-10 examples of sites from companies that are in your immediate industry or area that you like and ones that you don't like. And be detailed about what you don't like as the more info you provide, the better the web designer will have an idea for your own website. Do you like the colors, the pictures, the font, the background, the buttons, etc.

If you are planning on migrating your site, be sure to outline all the assets and data that you would like to include in your new site. Do you want your orders to be moved into the new system? Your customers? Your products? Your content. There are all very important factors when determining a budget and if it's at all possible as many systems do not provide export capability. If you can export your data, what format is it in? Do you need to do some datascrubbing such as cleaning up addresses, phone numbers, de-dupe customers, etc. There's some great services out there such as Peach Tree that provide this service. They can even find missing information to complete your database such as a work phone, email address or delivery address.

4. Be realistic with your budget and timelines
As we mentioned earlier, there's plenty of solutions that cost virtually nothing, but be sure to understand the total cost of ownership or TCO. As with many of these freebie apps cost you nothing with regards to the software, but be sure to factor in the cost of hosting, support, maintenance and upgrades. Before you know it, you'll soon start to realize that hosting your own application will quickly become an overwhelming feat let alone another set of skills that may not be worth your time. Submerce offers unbelievable Ecommerce solutions for as little as $2499 and monthly hosting fee of $250. These are very competitive and include access to more than just the software. You get access to a professional-grade user manual, knowledgebase, tech support and so much more. Just remember as the old adage says "you get what you pay for" and software is no different.

Timelines are one of the most controversial subjects for projects such as websites since they are typically never an "evergreen" project- meaning that once it's built, the project should continue long after the "launch." Getting companies up on Submerce can take as little as a couple of days, where other complex projects can take months while being refinded over a course of the year. We always like to plot out a 2-3 phase approach when launching a new customer. This can cover what you expect to have at launch time and 6-12 months out. These are especially important to cite when you are in a crunch to get a new solution or switch to another solution provider. Just be sure to cleary outline what your immediate needs are and what your long term goals are and make sure that your long term goals are achievable with your available time and budget.

5. Training, Training and more Training
The last and most of the time, the most important tip towards becoming a champion is making sure you know your system up and down so you can get the most out of it. This can come from a couple of different avenues. From hands-on training, webinars, user manuals, knowledgebases, blogs and more. Submerce offers some of the most comprehensive opportunities when it comes to switching to Submerce. Our team of experience professionals can offer a myirad of levels of support. From turn-key site migration and startup to reviewing business data and workflow for areas of duplication and opportunity for efficiency. Each week we send out our Submerce Tip of the Week that provides not only helpful Submerce-related information on how to get the most out of your solution, but also industry insights and ways to make your company more efficient and boosting profitability. From small to complex megabrand projects, Submerce will lead your team to success without breaking the bank.

So back to our original subject of how long? Well we typically project small projects to be anywhere from 30-45 days which would include site design, migration and training. For more complex projects where more training or customizations are required, we recommend at least 4-6 months at a steady pace.

This article was written by Jonathan Elliman who is the founder and CTO for Submerce. Jonathan has hundreds, if not thousands of projects under his belt from working all over the globe. Jonathan has a passion for technology and working closely with clients to deliver the best solution. You can follow him and experience his adventures by following him on Facebook.
     
  June 23, 2009  
  New Real-time QuickBooks Data Synchronization Tools Released
  
 

Par for the course, Submerce continues to set the industry standard for streamlining business workflow by releasing seamless data synchronization with QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premiere and QuickBooks Enterprise. Now any business that tracks their accounting utlizing QuickBooks can have their Submerce orders be transferred with just a click of a button. "We've had this capability for some time, but in my perspective, I was never satisfied with how QuickBooks accomplished this in the past until they released their Web Connector webservice", says Jonathan Elliman, founder and CTO for Submerce. "It was definitely a convenience in the past for customers to export orders from Submerce and import them into QuickBooks, but it was a bit of a manual process. Now, Submerce installations can trigger a synchronization event or schedule it to take place at anytime, making the synchronization a snap via a click of a button from within QuickBooks itself", continues Elliman.

With the release of this new Submerce Expansion Module, whether your accounting is managed in house our by an external firm, Submerce provides total data security by adding multiple layers of data encryption that is restricted to a finite set of users. If your company uses QuickBooks and are looking to streamline your data workflow from your website to your books, there's no better time to make a switch to Submerce. For a limited time, Submerce will be offering this add-on module for $999 which is a savings of $600 off the regular price now and until 9/30/09.

This module works with QuickBooks Pro 2008, QuickBooks Premiere and Enterprise 2008 and later.

 
     
  June 7, 2009  
  Submerce Continues to Record Steady Growth for 2009
  
   

Despite the economic slow down which has forced many of Submerce's competitors to make drastic cuts to staff and ebbing development, Submerce has continued to increase development resources to meet the demands of their new client portfolio.

Submerce has recently seen a spike in the demand for customized solutions, specifically in the wine industry. "We are seeing that many medium to mega brands are no longer seeking "off-the-shelf" solutions or ones that do no provide a significant level of either configuration or customization", says Jonathan Elliman, CTO for Submerce. "We have gained the reputation for building some amazing customized solutions, but our solution 'right out of the box' still offers more features and configurability than an other solution- period." The CTO who also founded the company has been working in the industry for over 15 years and has never seen such a spike in application personalization. "We believe the trend will continue to lean towards a solution that can be custom tailored for each client without a large investment and long start up schedule. I think many companies have tried one or many of the solutions that are in our space, but time after time, they find in the end they were oversold and and the solution under delivered- Submerce doesn't want to do that."

Submerce is committed to solution excellence before the project begins and through the entire relationship. This is done by acquiring individuals with experience, a committment to quality and rising up to any challenge. "Our first quarter was slower than we all expected no doubt, but we took that slow time to really push our solution to the next level by introducing some new features that is catching the attention of prospective clients as well as existing ones", continues Elliman. "I've dubbed 2009 as the year 'to get to know your clients or someone else will', so we poured a lot of our resources into developing tools that help our clients provide superior customer service as well as data mining tools for customer targeting and online marketing initiatives."

With the introduction of the Customer Preferences module late last year, Submerce was able to insert some foundational pieces so the data can begin to get stored well in advance of the final solution. "While customers started to store the information and our development team hard at work on building the tools to mine the information, we continued to work with our customers to get ideas and feedback", says Tim Holtermann, Submerce Senior Developer. "We received some great ideas and implemented a pilot program very quickly and over the course of the past  6 months, we have continued to put more and more in every month." The Submerce Customer Preferences and Targeting system is like no other data mining tool available in any solution. By utilizing the system, marketing initiatives can be developed, tested and re-tested so that they are refined before they are even sent or deployed to the public.

Submerce doesn't stop there. The development team has also made significant changes to their over 450 reports and customized queries that set the industry benchmark for capability and flexibility. "We've added at least 10-15 reports every quarter, but we took a different approach this quarter with the introduction of the 'Favorite Queries' function which allows you to build your own data mining reports and save them for later use", says Nick Billings, Submerce Specialist. "We thought the feature was pretty cool, but we didn't think it had enough wow power, so we actually made the reports to be tied to a user account. This allows a certain user to build their own queries and only they have access to them", contiunes Billings. "This allows CEOs, CFOs and COOs to make their own and privatize them for their eyes only while also building reports that general admins have access to", says Billings. "Now, that's wow factor."

Submerce's continues to set the wine industry benchmark when it comes to service and solutions and is committed to retaining that edge. For those that are interested in receiving a demonstration of the Submerce platform or would like to attend the WITS conference, please give us a call at (707) 255-4393 or save a seat in the next webinar by making a reservation.
  
   
  		  


May 20, 2009

Submerce Set to Showcase Next Release Codenamed "Devine Wind" at WITS

Submerce announced today that they will be showcasing the next release of their web-based application at the upcoming Wine Industry Technology Symposium July 16th-July 17th in Napa, California. The next release is currently being beta tested and readied for final release and is packed with brand new features and as always, there are some major surprises in store.

"By having a large development staff, we can push the envelope when it comes to improving our solution and in the time in which we can get it done without sacraficing quality or delivering unstable solutions," says Jonathan Elliman, CTO for Submerce. "We're keeping pretty tight-lipped with what we are working on as these are fairly sophisticated features that we are adding and will no doubt catch some people by suprise", continues Elliman. "Our focus is clear and simple- we design, develop and deliver the most comprehensive suite of tools designed for the wine industry by wine-industry professionals that are affordable and set the standards when it comes to ease of use and reliability. We're core business philosophy has always been about quality and not quantity. By building long term relationships and ignoring the need for short term gains, our company will continue to be successful."

Further details regarding the new features will be announced at the WITS event. Submerce encourages anyone that is in the wine industry should attend the event. Attendees are broad based as every function in a winery is touched by this conference.  Expert panels will discuss specific technology examples and case studies involving winemaking, vineyard management, sustainable business practices, consumer direct programs, web 2.0, trade sales and distribution, channel management, national accounts, operations, finance and technology leadership. To make sure someone from your company attends, Submerce is offering a 10% discount on tickets. To make it even more affordable, Submerce will be giving away tickets to this event to one lucky attendee who attends one of our upcoming webinars.

Submerce's continues to set the wine industry benchmark when it comes to service and solutions and is committed to retaining that edge. For those that are interested in receiving a demonstration of the Submerce platform or would like to attend the WITS conference, please give us a call at (707) 255-4393 or save a seat in the next webinar by making a reservation.






May 5, 2009

Submerce Releases Customizable Batch Processing Capability

After weeks of development, Submerce is set to release new functionality to their system that allows order administrators to create customized queries and batch processing settings and save them as "favorites"- even privatized ones so each user can have their own unique configurations. By utilizing this new feature, administrators can further streamline and expedite order management in many ways, while also providing prompt customer service which is paramount in this economy.

"We're very excited to offer this capability that is very unique to the industry", says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology for Submerce. "These features are just one of the many items that we're working on for the next release and we'll continue to work closely with our clients to ensure that Submerce is committed to providing the most sophisticated, yet easy-to-use platform available to any market, at any price", continues Elliman.

This feature will be available to all Submerce SUP subscribers in mid-May. Anyone who is interested in seeing a demonstration, we recommend calling our support department for an online demonstration.


  




May 1, 2009

Keenan Winery Recognizes Submerce as the Premiere Point of Sale Solution

When Keenan Winery went searching for their Point of Sale solution over a year ago, the solutions available on the market specifically targeting the wine industry were sparse, until they were introduced to Submerce. Not only did Submerce exceed their expectations, it didn't break the bank either.

"So many people think that an all-in-one solution that provides not just Point of Sale, but eCommerce and club management as well is out of reach for most small companies", saya Sarah Elliman, Director of Sales and Marketing for Submerce. "It's not only affordable to switch, it actually will save you thousands of dollars in subsequent years by eliminating the need to work with multiple vendors", says Elliman. "Not only will you streamline your order processing, you'll also have the ability to do ad hoc data mining to keep in touch with your customers about your products which is key in these economic times."

Submerce is well known for working with very large customers, but Submerce can provide many benefits to the small company by not only providing the best eBusiness platform available on the market, but with it's 15 years of wine industry experience, it can also help you identify areas that can streamline your business and boost your bottomline.

We recommend anyone that is looking for ways to make their business more efficient and save money by attending one of our online webinars where our team will demonstrate the Submerce Total Value Proposition. We also recommend reading our Top 10 Ways to Save by Switching to Submerce article written by Submerce Chief Technology Officer, Jonathan Elliman.