The Giesen story

Giesen Wines was founded in Christchurch over 30 years ago by three German brothers, Theo, Alex and Marcel Giesen.

As Giesen’s reputation expanded so, too, did its growth across all aspects of its business – from sales volumes, to territories to staff numbers.

Today Giesen Wines is considered one of New Zealand’s Top 10 wineries and is one of the largest 100% family owned and operated wine producers in New Zealand. With a sales force across Australasia, Giesen now produces 8.5 million bottles of wine a year and exports to more than 30 countries.

The business case for the technology change

With aspirations to continue its strong growth trajectory, Giesen found itself in a position where the pace of business was outstepping the technologies that supported it. Coupled with this, a desire to better understand and serve its customers was also a key driver for the business, and Giesen saw the role technology could play in helping achieve this.

Kyle Skene, Giesen’s General Manager says, “We saw an overall need for business change. We had grown in people and in the last five years, sales by volume and value had doubled for us, but we didn’t have the systems in place to deal with this growth. We needed our business technology and our back-of-house processes to keep up with us and provide a platform for our continued future growth.”

There was also the problem of disparate information and geographically dispersed staff. Systems were separate, with Excel spreadsheets and Word documents relied on for reporting and information sharing. “Pulling so much data from all different places and trying to make it match up and report on it was inaccurate and time consuming,” Kyle says.

Additionally, with  numerous  office  and vineyard locations across New Zealand, and reps out on the road throughout New Zealand and internationally, an integrated system was needed, one that would ultimately provide a single point of truth and greater insight into the business for all Giesen’s staff, wherever they may be. And given the itinerant nature of much of Giesen’s workforce, mobility was also key. 

The engagement

Giesen engaged with Intergen to create a two-year roadmap of outcome-focused improvements, looking at how technology could add value to, and remove constraints from, Giesen’s value chain.

Together Giesen and Intergen then embarked on a technology journey, bringing together Microsoft Dynamics AX, CRM, Power BI, Office 365 and mobility app, Resco, into one integrated, end-to-end solution.

The equation for success: an outcome-driven approach, a sensible roadmap, buy-in and engagement from Giesen’s people, and – last but not least – the support of a good partner (no in-house IT department required). 

The solution

Key elements of the solution include:

• Dynamics AX for core finance and planning, with sales analytics displaying product, customer and regional sales outcomes at a transactional level, and Management Reporter for reporting requirements
• Dynamics CRM for customer management, support, call planning and result-tracking
• Office 365 provides online communication and business intelligence, with Yammer allowing sales reps to collaborate, sharing insights and experiences
• The Resco mobile app provides CRM data on phones and shows appointments on maps, working in online and offline modes
• PowerBI surfaces relevant information, showing key results in a graphical dashboard format
• The technology is backed up by Intergen’s Lifecycle Services (ILS) support model, a methodology for implementing many small changes or improvements quickly, allowing large gains in productivity and business effectiveness in a short time

The gain

Giesen now has a robust and scalable technology platform to take it into its future, giving competitive advantage in a competitive market and the ability to embrace future growth opportunities without fear of growth pains.

Gains have been experienced right across the business – from insights to reporting, from ability to communicate and collaborate to the ability to access up-to-date, accurate information from anywhere. But the technology plans don’t end here: next stop on the roadmap is improvements to the viticulture and wine-making components of the value chain; and with Intergen’s Lifecycle Services improvements will be made continuously and incrementally across all aspects of the solution, keeping it current and maximising the full capability of the solution’s technology stack, now and in the future.

The business case

With a strong track record of growth and success, Giesen needed a robust, integrated, end-to-end technology platform to underpin the company’s future growth, providing a single source of truth, an unprecedented level of insight into key business drivers and access to information from anywhere, at any time, online or offline.

The business value

• Visibility of information and traceability of product
• Better analysis, more informed decision making, optimised planning processes and improved reporting
• Timely access to critical business information and a “single source of truth” across the business
• Data analytics provide powerful business insights at a glance
• Reduced organisational risk through integration of all systems
• Time saving through reduction of paperwork and administrative tasks – for example saving 15-30 per sales appointment
• Improved communication and collaboration across a geographically diverse staff base, with the ability to work and access information from anywhere