June 27, 2008

Submerce Readies Release of Submerce v5.1 Codename ‘Whitehorse’

Submerce announced today that their development team is on time for the release of Submerce v5.1 which has been running under the development title ‘Whitehorse’. Set the release on time in mid-July, ‘Whitehorse’ is designed to push Submerce to another level of web-based technology. Included in the release is the long anticipated availability of Submerce’s Customer Targeting and Preferences Expansion Module which allows users to quickly develop targeted email campaigns in minutes based on demographics, purchase trends, geography relationships and more. Other features will include an additional 150 reports added to the Advanced Reports Expansion Module, bringing the total available analytics and reports to over 600. New standard features will be part of the release that will expand upon many of the existing features while including new ones such as new content management tools, over 20 new additional features to the Submerce Order Manager and many new enhancements to both the Submerce Point of Sale and Order Management Systems.

“We continue to grow our install base at a sustainable rate so that we can keep to our philosophy of working with each of our customers closely”, says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer for Submerce. “By throttling our sales, we keep our commitments with our customers intact and on target, while our customers continue to benefit from our quick customer service response times while also keeping development going full steam ahead” continues Elliman. “The next release continues to build upon the foundation of v5 in many ways, while adding new tools way ahead of schedule which is tough to say with any software development company.”

The next generation of Submerce has already been in the hands of many existing of Submerce’s customers and the feedback has been very good. One of those customers is Foster’s Wine Estates which is due to launch on the Submerce platform for eight of their largest brands over the summer. In the Foster’s instance, Submerce is replacing three disparate systems that will allow their data warehouse team to focus on analyzing data, rather than spending all their team keeping the systems running.

The next release will also include enhancements to the Submerce Wine Club Management system by offering new batching tools, reports, cancellation tracking and a deeper integration with ShipCompliant across all sales channels. Additional Will Call options and reports are also part of the release which will help wine club managers better manage their wine club members that enjoy picking up their wine club shipment at the winery.

“Submerce has always been the market leader when it comes to tracking Will Call customers by offering some of the most sophisticated inventory depletion tools available for the wine industry”, says Nick Billings, Submerce QA Engineer. “Our customers are continually amazed about how easy Submerce is to use on both the back office and the eCommerce side”, continues Billings. “It’s a major compliment to our development team as they take extra steps necessary to ensure that complex tasks are easily done without potential confusion or missed steps. They also like to know that there’s a Submerce User Manual and Knowledgebase available 24/7 in case they want to learn more about some of the tips and tricks software the software has to offer”, says Nick.

 The Submerce OMS and POS systems are continually being recognized for being groundbreaking interface that allows wineries to identify their customers and club members quickly, automatically apply their club discounts while also providing the CRM tools necessary to provide valuable customer service”, says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer at Submerce. “With more and more companies understanding the benefits of one system managing all of your company’s sales channels, Submerce stands alone in the marketplace. There is no other system for any price that offers the level of performance, scalability, integration options and easy of use”, continues Holtermann.

The Submerce platform offers customers a wide range of sales channel management opportunities as well as sophisticated inventory management tools that are not available in any other wine industry-related eBusiness application. We encourage anyone that would like to see Submerce first hand to contact us for an in depth demonstration by calling Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or at www.submerce.com.

June 11, 2008

Blicker Pierce Wagner Wine Merchants Upgrades to Submerce v5

Submerce announced today that Blicker Pierce Wagner Wine Merchant’s (BPWWM) renewed their commitment to the Submerce platform by upgrading to latest release of Submerce v5 which includes a completely overhauled Order Management System (OMS). BPWWM has been utilizing the Submerce platform since 2006 to manage their eCommerce, phone sales, inventory and large amounts of customer data with one single application. Their decision to upgrade was based on the facts behind the new features and tools available in the latest release. One of recently introduced features is the completely redesigned Submerce OMS which offers a streamlined interface and sophisticated CRM tools that allow the user to increase sales while providing better customer service in a short amount of time.

“BPWWM has been a long time user of the Submerce platform and a good success story considering they started with two people and now they have ten times the employees and a healthy sales growth track record”, says Sarah Elliman, Director of Sales and Marketing for Submerce. “They were one of the early adopters of our original Sales Order Manager and over the course two and half years have watched Submerce grow from a very simple eCommerce and OMS platform to what it offers today”, continues Elliman.

“Our development team has been hard at work and Submerce v5 is only the beginning. Just in the past 3 months, we have added six highly skilled and trained developers so that we can handle new customer requests while readying the next release of our software which is due in mid July”, says Sarah. “Submerce’s goal is to continue a sustainable development plan that meets the needs of our client’s growing demands of the platform and be sure to stay ahead of it wherever possible”, says Tim Holtermann who is Submerce Senior Programmer. “We are still looking for qualified individuals as we have bigger plans in store for Submerce in the second half of the year and we know to be a successful company in any industry, you need the right people in place”, continues Holtermann.

The next release of Submerce, which has been codenamed ‘Whitehorse’ will be focusing on the expansion on the existing CRM and Club Management features that will offers more standard tools that are not available in any other wine related system. Working closely with some of the largest wineries in the business like Foster’s Wine Estates, the Submerce development team has been hard at work by setting their sites on delivering tools that streamline some of the daily duties for wine club managers and customer service teams. “We have already released a good portion of ‘Whitehorse’ to some of our existing customers and the reaction is that they are speechless when it comes to working with some of the tools”, says Jonathan Elliman who is the Chief Technology Officer for Submerce.

“We have had a very successful year since the wine industry has now recognized Submerce as the eBusiness platform of choice”, says Elliman. “Our long term development plan has allowed us to gain that recognition and wineries are realizing that while the other wine-related eCommerce platforms have been busy selling, they haven’t been busy developing, nor supporting their customers very well. This makes our job both easy and hard since once they see the level of features available in Submerce, they are hooked”, continues Jonathan. “Not only is our platform far superior, our customer service rivals the rest as we’re committed to offering service that is second to none.”

“Submerce has always had the philosophy of pooling the ideas from our customer base to steer the future development of the Submerce platform”, says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer at Submerce. “By combining the ideas from all of our clients, we can continue deliver tools that our customer base needs to manage their businesses while maintaining our competitive advantage- it’s a win-win for both teams”, says Holtermann.

The Submerce platform offers customers a wide range of sales channel management opportunities, from Point of Sale to eCommerce, as well as sophisticated inventory management tools that are not available in any other wine industry-related eBusiness application. We encourage anyone that would like to see Submerce first hand to contact us for an in depth demonstration by calling Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or at www.submerce.com.

May 30, 2008

Copia Food and Wine Center Makes the Switch to Submerce

Submerce announced today that the prestigious Copia Food and Wine Center located in Napa Valley will be switching to the Submerce eBusiness platform to power their eCommerce and Wine Club Management starting in late July. As part of the switch, Submerce will also be powering the sign up for online courses that Copia will be offering in the near future, a service that Submerce has been offering as a standard feature since 1997.

“We are pleased to hear that Copia has identified Submerce as the platform of choice when it comes to managing online sales, wine clubs and inventory”, says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer for Submerce. “Submerce continues to excel at exceeding the technical requirements that companies need in order to succeed in online sales”, continues Elliman. “My fifteen years of streaming media production and development experience proves to be very valuable as more companies are starting to see the benefits of video on the web. We’ve been working with the Culinary Institute at Greystone for over 5 years now and just in the past 2 years have made the investment of acquiring the latest high definition equipment to incorporate the highest quality and most flexible delivery options- from broadcast to mobile phone our team has the experience and international awards to prove it”, says Jonathan.

“While others play catch up, we’re turning putting the hammer down on development by expanding our platform to new areas which Submerce will encompass”, says Time Holtermann. Not releasing much more information than that, Submerce will be releasing v5.1 in July, which has been codenamed ‘Whitehorse’, which will be focusing on the expansion on the existing CRM and Club Management features. The force behind the next release is to continue to expand upon our existing tools while introducing new ones that are not available in any other wine related eBusiness system. Working closely with some of the largest wineries in the business like Foster’s Wine Estates, the Submerce development team has been hard at work by setting their sites on delivering tools that streamline some of the daily duties for wine club managers and customer service teams. “But we’re not going to be releasing all the details as there’s a lot more part of the next release and we’re going to remain tight-lipped on that one until we release it to the general public”, says Holtermann. “It’s hard for us to be quiet about it, since our entire team is so proud of their efforts on the latest release, but we do need to maintain our competitive advantage.”

“Submerce has always had the philosophy of pooling the ideas from our customer base to steer the future development of the Submerce platform”, says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer at Submerce. “Our sustainable development schedule includes combining the ideas from all of our clients, while developing tools never thought of before. By doing so we can maintain our competitive advantage while staying ahead of our customer’s needs to manage their businesses - it’s a win-win for both teams”, says Holtermann.

The Submerce platform offers customers a wide range of sales channel management opportunities as well as sophisticated inventory management tools that are not available in any other wine industry-related eBusiness application. We encourage anyone that would like to see Submerce first hand to contact us for an in depth demonstration by calling Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or at www.submerce.com.

May 28, 2008

Evergreen Vineyards Opens McMinnville Air and Space Museum on Submerce Platform

Evergreen Vineyards announced last week the successful opening of their Air and Space Museum located in McMinnville, Oregon that depends on the Submerce Platform to manage the sales of multiple tasting stations, IMAX theater, museum, cafeteria, merchandise and more. Submerce managed to work closely with the Evergreen management team to develop a quick start program that got their Point of Sale and Order Management System up and accepting orders in less than 24 days, a turn around time that is not offered by many companies. 

“We love the challenge that the client posed to the Submerce team of launching a large installation of Submerce in less than 30 days”, says Jonathan Elliman, Submerce Chief Technology Officer. “Our launch team has a clear startup plan that outlines the responsibilities for both companies so that in the end, there’s not left behind or incomplete”, continues Elliman. “This was a very large system to startup that needed to be ready before the opening of the museum- a time frame that included system startup, data migration and training on our POS, OMS, eCommerce, Wine Club and Content Management”, says Jonathan. “We would have never been able to do this without the flexibility and the data migration tools that Submerce offers.”

The Submerce platform offers customers a wide range of sales channel management opportunities as well as sophisticated inventory management tools that are not available in any other wine industry-related eBusiness application. We encourage anyone that would like to see Submerce first hand, to contact us for an in depth demonstration by calling Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or at www.submerce.com.

May 12, 2008

Terlato Wine Group Selects Submerce for Sanford Winery

Terlato Wine Group announced today that they have selected Submerce to power Sanford Winery’s eCommerce, Wine Club and website as part of their Submerce pilot program. The Submerce pilot program is being used to determine the final technical requirements needed in order to confirm that the Submerce platform is a viable solution to power the rest of their brands.

“We have no doubt that Submerce will meet or exceed any winery’s technical requirements and if we can’t, we’ll build it”, says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer for Submerce. “There is no other company that delivers the level of tools and features that Submerce has to offer and the next generation of Submerce is already in development”, continues Elliman.

“As Submerce gains momentum in the wine industry of providing sophisticated POS, OMS, eCommerce, inventory management and CRM tools, we will continue to grow our team so that we can continue to meet our customer service commitment of offering the best customer service in the eCommerce industry”, says Elliman. “We excel at working with wineries and wine merchants of all sizes and is the reason why companies like Foster’s Wine Estates turn to Submerce to delivering on their commitment of technology that works, keeping within budget and maintaining an on-time schedule.”

Sanford Winery’s new website will be launching the third week of June and is just one of the many success stories that Submerce has to tell. You owe it to yourself and your company to see how the Submerce platform offers customers a wide range of sales channel management opportunities as well as sophisticated inventory management tools. We encourage anyone that would like to see Submerce first hand, to contact us for an in depth demonstration by calling Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or at www.submerce.com.

May 5, 2008

Pop the Cork Launches on Submerce Point of Sale

New Los Angeles wine bar, Pop the Cork, announced today their successful launch of their wine bar on the Submerce Point of Sale platform. As part of the launch, Submerce will also manage their wine club, eCommerce and website.

“Submerce powers some of the large wine merchants in California and decades of combined experience allows Submerce to continue to develop new tools and features that help manage daily sales for multiple sales channels through one application”, says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer for Submerce. “No other web-based system offers this for any price”, continues Elliman.

Pop the Cork is just one of the many success stories that Submerce has to tell. You owe it to yourself and your company to see how the Submerce platform offers customers a wide range of sales channel management opportunities as well as sophisticated inventory management tools. We encourage anyone that would like to see Submerce first hand, to contact us for an in depth demonstration by calling Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or at www.submerce.com.

April 28, 2008

Submerce Unveils Software Giveaway at Direct to Consumer Symposium

Submerce has just announced a spring promotion and software giveaway program targeted to attendees of the Direct to Consumer Symposium which will be held at the Meritage Resort in Napa, California May 1^st through May 2nd. Submerce will be raffling off a free copy of their flagship Submerce Winery Edition to one lucky winner selected by random drawing at the end of the event. The winner will receive at no charge, a Submerce powered website* which will feature their powerful, all-in-one, eCommerce, Wine Club Management and Content Management Solution. The spring promotion which ends June 1st offers any customer that switches to Submerce a 25% discount off their startup fees.

The Submerce platform is used to power some of the most sophisticated wine brokers in the United States as well as supporting one of the largest wine companies in the world. Each company selected Submerce based on its ease of use, scalability, performance and unparalleled level of service and support by industry-leading professionals. Submerce was recently selected by Foster’s Wine Estates to power their eCommerce, Wine Club Management, Content Management and Order Management for wineries such as Beringer Vineyards, Stags’ Leap, Chateau St. Jean, Souverain, Meridian Vineyards and more.

"By offering our current promotion while giving a copy away at the tradeshow, we are giving wineries and wine retailers the opportunity to switch to a better platform without incurring a large, unforeseen expense,” says Jonathan Elliman, founder and CTO of Submerce. “Not only is Submerce the most affordable and scaleable eBusiness solution available on the market today, it’s also backed by a 30 day startup guarantee,” continues Elliman. “No other company can offer that kind of pledge because only Submerce offers an easily configurable and stable system from day one,” says Elliman.

Submerce offers the most powerful and user friendly web-based application to manage your sales, clubs and customers from a single interface:

• Complete and manage sales from Web, Wine Club batch processing, Point of Sale, Phone and wholesale orders.
• Create and manage unlimited products, customers, clubs, product allocation while targeting your customers with available our list builder based on your customer’s browsing and purchasing trends.
• Manage your corporate and brand identity with easy-to-use embedded HTML writing tools which eliminates the need to ever know or write HTML
• Create and offer sophisticated sales and discounts including volume, storewide, by category, single product, promo codes, pricing levels and much, much more.

Company History

First released in 1996, the Submerce™ eBusiness platform continues to be designed by a team of industry-leading professionals with expertise in sales, marketing, shipping, and compliance for companies with extensive experience building websites for the food and wine, specialty retail, manufacturing and engineering markets. Affordable, easy to use, and free of transaction and commission fees, Submerce™ is the first and only web-based application that manages all your sales channels through a single interface with nothing to download, nothing to install and requires no proprietary hardware to purchase or servers to manage saving your company tens of thousands of dollars.

April 10, 2008

Merchant eSolutions Certifies Submerce Platform

Napa, California. Submerce announced today that their Submerce platform has received certification for use with the Merchant eSolutions Trident gateway which offers unprecedented transaction processing power. The certification will allow Submerce to offer a simplified merchant account configuration which will save customers money while providing one account to manage transactions through Point of Sale, Order Management, eCommerce, Wine Club and more. The Trident gateway will be one of the payment gateway options that Submerce has to offer that supports the capacity to process 5000-6000 transactions per hour.

“We’ve been working on this partnership and the integration of their services with Submerce for a couple of months and the hard work will now pay off to our customers who will now be able to simplify their banking arrangements”, says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer at Submerce. “With this capability, all transactions processed through Submerce will be identified based on whether it was a card present or card not present and be stamped by where the transaction took place”, continues Holtermann. “When it comes to processing power, nothing comes close to Submerce’s capability of batch processing 5000-6000 transactions per hour and companies like Merchant eSolutions helps Submerce to continue to achieve those results.”

The integration of the MeS gateway is available to all current Submerce customers to all customers who are using Submerce v5. Customers who are not on the latest version are encouraged to contact their account manager and discuss their upgrade options. For a free online demonstration or more detailed information regarding the Submerce platform, contact Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or www.submerce.com.

April 8, 2008

Madonna Estate Powered Winery with Submerce eBusiness Platform

Napa, California. Madonna Estate, one of the oldest family-owned wineries in the Napa Valley, officially launched their new website powered be the Submerce platform that offers their management team new tools that will streamline their daily work life. Submerce will be powering more than just Madonna Estate’s eCommerce site, they will also be utilizing the Submerce Wine Club Management and Point of Sale solutions.

“We’re glad to see that their launch was a smooth and successful one and that’s reflective on a well-oiled launch strategy that leaves no details behind”, says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer. “Every project receives attention and support from our entire team from initial design to follow-ups”, continues Elliman. “Our Cephrus design team was able to flex their creative muscle on this website and the design has already received some positive comments on it’s simplicity, yet elegant design”, says Elliman.

The Submerce eBusiness platform which offers a truly integrated Point of Sale system offers real-time connectivity and synchronization with your eCommerce and CRM data. Since Submerce is powered by a single database, any information changed for a customer record online or through the POS will be immediately reflected in either interface, something that very few other systems offer.

“We are aware of how loosely the term “integrated” is used these with Point of Sale and eCommerce solutions these days, but we’re here to change that by providing an “all-in-one” solution rather than an integrated on”, continues Elliman. “We’re not selling an integrated solution because Submerce is not multiple pieces of software from multiple vendors- we’re selling one piece of software that covers eCommerce, POS, OMS, OMS and so much more where there are no issues with integration. We built Submerce in-house from the ground up, so we own and understand the entire system and don’t have to rely on 3^rd party companies to support any piece of it- that gives us the opportunity to take Submerce in any direction we want without any limitations in place”, says Elliman.

The Madonna Estate is just one of the many examples of how a winery can save time and money by going with an all-in-one solution like Submerce which offers eCommerce, CRM, Order Management, Point of Sale, CMS and much, much more. For a free online demonstration or more detailed information regarding the Submerce platform, contact Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or www.submerce.com.

April 9, 2008

Trapezy Software Launches Submerce-Powered Website

Corvalis, Oregon. Trapezy Software, a startup that is focused on developing plug-ins for the Acrobat software, recently launched their new Submerce-powered website offering their company the ability to offer their products for sale with immediate download capability.

“Trapezy is a lot like Submerce where they have identified a need in the software industry that will set their application from the rest”, says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer. “This was a great project team to work with another display of putting the right teams in place to launch a website quickly without a very large budget”, continues Elliman. “Their internal team got the initial design worked out, while the Submerce team moved it into the CSS and Content Management System that will then allow their internal group with very little experience, design and manage their website on a daily basis without the further need of a webmaster.”

The Trapezy website is a great example of how the Submerce platform can offer a variety of industries a powerful web-based application that includes a very easy-to-use content management system that allows anyone that can use Microsoft Word, to build and maintain webpage in just mies. For a free online demonstration or more detailed information regarding the Submerce platform, contact Submerce at (707) 255-4393 or www.submerce.com.