Following a successful partnership announced in January of 2018 Process2Wine has announced the acquisition of Wine Management Systems. Sean Murphy of SKMurphy, Inc. assisted Wine Management Systems in preparing for the partnership and acquisition negotiations.
Acquisition of Wine Management Systems by Process2Wine
San Rafael, Calif. – Process2Wine, the newest best in class Wine Production and Vineyard Management solution, is pleased to announce today the acquisition of Wine Management Systems (WMS), the leading U.S. provider of end-to-end Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that track all winery activities from Weigh tag through Production & Bottling.
The collaboration between Wine Management Systems and Process2Wine started in January 2018, when Process2Wine was dealing with solicitations from American wineries that wanted to bring their vineyard and winery management to the next level. Process2Wine team, mostly based in France and Canada at that time, was looking for an expert team located in the USA. That’s what they found with the team at WMS, the precursor of cloud-based winery software in the USA. Their expertise on the American wine industry combined with their prestigious background in IT made the collaboration with Process2Wine a success. After receiving positive feedback from several WMS clients that they loved the new functionality provided by Process2Wine the collaboration evolved into an acquisition.
Alain Sutre Chief Executive Officer of Process2Wine, sees on this French-American collaboration “a good way to revolutionize the information system in the wine industry with a combined visions of the old and new world. We are extremely happy to announce the merger with WMS team who are enthusiastic about the collaboration and working with us. Our SaaS solutions will be very complimentary, and we will be dedicated to the US market for the benefit of WMS customers as well. It is a great opportunity for us to be part of WMS business” Sutre says.
By merging with Wine Management Sysetems, Process2Wine is making it possible for American wineries and custom crush facilities to afford and leverage the same robust best in class Vineyard and Wine Production capabilities that have long been in use by larger wineries. The web-based solution delivers all of the robust functionality offered by other systems at lower total cost of ownership, based on significantly reduced IT, license, and upgrade costs associated with traditional Wine Production and Vineyard Management software investments.
Says WMS Chief Executive Officer Patrick Oates, “Process2Wine is leveling the playing field from mid-sized to larger wineries with an ERP software. These companies cannot only manage their Winemaking and Vineyard processes with Process2Wine they can also afford and access the best-in-class, web-based capabilities offered through state of the art Cloud Based Technology for improved, end-to-end business management.”
According to Oates, “For a modest monthly fee, Process2Wine is providing business Wine Production management capabilities that have historically been out of reach from a pricing perspective for wineries. Clearly, this change is revolutionizing business for many wineries that would not otherwise have access to such things as GPS Tracking of Vineyard information as well as managing barcoding. Their Smartphone data entry capabilities are truly game changing. That is why of all the Wine Production solutions in the winery space we chose Process2Wine”.
Now the two companies have already big plans for the future. Process2Wine intends to become the heart of a digital ecosystem that will include predictive decision making tools with the goal of facilitating viticulture in response to the environment, and delivering efficiencies throughout the winemaking process.
About Process2Wine
Process2wine is the well-established software arm of Ertus Group, founded by Alain Sutre in France. As a famous consulting winemaker in Bordeaux, and President of the company, Alain Sutre has been instrumental in the software’s development, working with a team of dedicated developers to build the software directly from the vision of someone that knows the intricacies of the winemaking process. This allows the software to solve real problems that winemakers and vineyard managers face, while also providing the complete traceability results that they’re looking for. Process2Wine is the only solution that integrates full traceability from the vineyard to the cellar, and encompasses major innovations such as the automatic GPS tracking of viticulture operations. The simplicity and power of this software solution is appreciated by more than 250 properties in Europe and North America.
For more information see www.process2wine.ca
About Wine Management Systems
WMS was founded in 2007 to address the glaring needs of the small to mid size wine producer. At the time there were no affordable software applications available that could assist in tracking every critical activity that occurs in the winery business cycle. Patrick Oates, a former IT executive, recognized the opportunity to leverage the latest technology and software trends to offer smaller wineries the same set of solutions that were only affordable to large wine companies at that time. By partnering with leading software companies in addition to working closely with wine industry leaders in production, and DTC delivery WMS was created and a new benchmark was set for management technology in the wine industry.
For more information see www.winemanagementsystems.com
WMS was founded in 2007 to address the glaring needs of the small to mid size wine producer. At the time there were no affordable software applications available that could assist in tracking every critical activity that occurs in the winery business cycle. Patrick Oates, a former IT executive, recognized the opportunity to leverage the latest technology and software trends to offer smaller wineries the same set of solutions that were only affordable to large wine companies at that time. By partnering with leading software companies in addition to working closely with wine industry leaders in production, and DTC delivery WMS was created and a new benchmark was set for management technology in the wine industry.Source: WineBusiness.com “Acquisition of Wine Management Systems by Process2Wine” (Oct-3-2018)
Pat Oates on SKMurphy’s Advisory Role
“Sean Murphy at SKMurphy, Inc. has helped us to understand how Process2Wine was looking at the acquisition and gave us good suggestions for how to present the synergies Wine Management Systems would offer them. This was a good deal for our customers who can benefit from the vineyard management module Process2Wine offers, and allowed Process2Wine to leverage Wine Management Systems expertise and established business relationships in their expansion into the United States.”
Pat Oates, Founder and CEO at Wine Management Systems
SKMurphy Take
This is a good deal for both parties. Wine Management Systems was founded in 2007 and launched in 2008 with the first cloud based system for winery management. They acquired a number of small wineries as customers and had experienced very little churn when Process2Wine approached them. The two systems had complementary features, and the acquisition allowed ProcessWine to gain a significant presence and satisfied customers in the US market. Pat Oates, the CEO, is naturally modest and self-deprecating, but he and his team have been both technology and capability innovators in a niche market. He was accustomed to presenting the benefits that Wine Management software offered wineries. We helped him to re-work his basic presentation into one that was a better fit for a potential acquirer to understand the synergies in a deal.
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