Windsor Vineyards

Vineyard Cultivates Improved Communications

About Windsor Vineyards

Founded in 1959, Windsor Vineyards is the largest consumer-direct winery in the U.S. The only way to purchase a Windsor Vineyards award-winning estate wine is to order from its catalog, telephone wine consultants or tasting rooms. Reliable communications equipment and service in this scenario are imperative.

Customer Situation

After more than four decades in business, Windsor Vineyards continues to expand at a rapid clip. To keep up with growing demand, Windsor Vineyards built a new 42,500 square-foot office building for its administration, inbound and outbound telemarketing, catalog operations, information systems, graphics groups and fulfillment. The new facility consolidated office operations from two locations: one at the winery itself and its outbound telemarketing group located 15 miles away.

A System 75 supported the winery, and the outbound telemarketing center used a Siemens Saturn IIe system. The Siemens Saturn IIe system wasn't Year 2000 compliant, used analog phones and provided no ACD functionality. The System 75 stayed at the winery, but the Saturn IIe could not meet the growing requirements of outbound telemarketing. This meant the new office location needed a communications system.

S1 Solution

S1, Inc., had worked with Windsor Vineyards for eight years, and had a solid understanding of the company's situation and future goals. S1 first helped Windsor Vineyards assess its growing communications needs. Based upon this assessment, S1 then shaped a technology solution centering on an Avaya DEFINITY G3SI system with the capability to handle as many as 150 call agents.

In addition to the telecom solution, S1 also upgraded the existing IBM RS6000 server and provided overall project management for wiring the new building.

Windsor Vineyards Benefits

Bill Hackel, Information Systems vice president for Windsor Vineyards, understands business and technology. We couldn't afford downtime while we moved, he said. We knew that S1 and Avaya Technologies wouldn't let us down.

The DEFINITY G3SI system supports all telecommunications needs for the new building, delivering a fully functional call center that provides features well beyond previous capabilities. Call center agents can utilize screen pops to better serve customers, and an Intuity Audix voice messaging system completes the fully integrated call center.

In a consumer-direct operation, communications are vital to success. The main benefit to Windsor Vineyards? The company now is able to present a far better interface to customers, which, when separated from technospeak, simply means it's doing a better job of serving customers and building long-term relationships.

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