IT OPERATIONS
Balancing Money and Time
People Helping People
In our experience, winery people are wonderful people. Passionate about creating great experiences for wine lovers, passionate about their region, and of course passionate
about their product. We've also found that winery people are businesspeople. We've seen the industry go through a number of interesting shifts over the past decade, and we've seen, more often than not, resilient wineries adapt.
We're proud to say we have helped our clients adapt. Year over year many organizations find they are facing the same challenges and not making substantive progress on fundamentals like increasing productivity, boosting staff morale, increasing functionality, lowering overall technology costs, reaching better profit margins, and most importantly finding peace of mind. ​
In the end it's about finding the right balance between time and money. Spending money on IT as strategically as possible such that staff are free to make great wine and engage consumers while keeping operational costs to a minimum.
​
We know how to help.
​
Healthy IT Operations depend on a set of expert human beings (our Grape Squad) leveraging a proven set of optimized solutions to help another set of human beings (winery staff). These solutions are what we call our "TCP Core" which the Grape Squad uses to take care of clients under our Total Care Plan.​​​
​
Total Care Plan Core
Our TCP Core consists of the following solutions for each of our three critical areas of capability:​​​
-
IT Leadership
-
Humanize IT​
-
-
Technology Build & Support
-
Squad Pack - Complete On-Site Tech Toolkit
-
MSP Operations - Ticket management, equipment ordering, documentation management
-
-
Always-On Protection
IT Leadership
Strategic Business/Technology Alignment​
It is surprisingly easy to spend far more than is necessary on technology and still not achieve business objectives. Technology evolves constantly (and more and more quickly) and wineries, more than many businesses, are constantly looking for new ways to enhance consumer experiences and establish new competitive advantages.
​
The thing that's most needed is someone who understands technology intimately and who also understands the challenges wineries face as they grow. The goal is to be able to methodically create balanced IT roadmaps over time (quarter over quarter and year over year) which are absolutely focused on individual winery business objectives while leveraging lessons learned from across the industry. This is where our biggest strength lies. To learn more, see IT Leadership.
​
The TCP Core technology we have chosen to help us in our efforts here is Humanize IT, a platform which facilitates an ongoing set of highest-level business/technology conversations (Quarterly Business Reviews or QBRs) with clients. These discussions drive ongoing updates to a formal IT roadmap, the goal of which is to assist in management decision making and budgeting. Our TCP Evaluation page includes links to video clips of an interview with the CEO and co-founder of Humanize IT about our path to becoming a Bespoke Winery MSP.
Technology Build & Support: The Squad-Pack
Solid from the Ground Up
Once a good IT roadmap is established, the most critical need is for people who can deliver on the objectives defined and who, most critically, can fully support winery staff in leveraging the solutions implemented. ​​Our Grape Squad has been helping wineries with technology for over a decade​. We physically install systems (firewalls, managed switches, secure VLANs, backup systems, POS, eCommerce, CRM, production control, etc.), proactively maintain them, and attentively and responsively handle staff issues on a day-to-day basis.
To make sure our installs are solid, and that maintenance is just as solid, every Grape Squad tech who does on-site work comes equipped with a Squad-Pack containing high-end tools and supplies. This includes everything needed to make and test network connections, handle a wide range of cable management situations, and so on.​​
​​​
One particularly useful tool is a "LanMap Kit" which enables our techs to quickly discover which jacks are connected to what ports in the server room patch panel so we can update network floor plans to be accurate and label everything appropriately.
​
Beyond basic networking and systems management, our techs have installed multiple outdoor Wi-Fi bridges to connect remote buildings to the main network, installed audio systems, and in general can do whatever is required.
​
The TCP Core technology we've chosen for our internal operations is Kaseya 365 Ops (K365 Ops). This includes Autotask, the primary system we use to communicate with winery staff about issues they face and to optimize and automate our internal operations, CooperBot (Kaseya's AI helper for technicians), IT Glue and MyGlue, covering a range of IT documentation needs, and more.
​​​​
Autotask supports converting trouble tickets into hardware and software orders with client approval. In addition, because Autotask is owned by Kaseya, it is tightly integrated with two additional critical parts of our IT Operations: Kaseya 365 Endpoint and Kaseya 365 User. ​This means that our techs have a seamless ability to respond to tickets by remotely managing client infrastructure all within the same "pane of glass."
Technology Build & Support: AI Enabled MSP Operations
​​​​
K365 Ops also includes the Kaseya Quote manager through which we process client orders for hardware, software, and other tech related items. We go through Ingram Micro for most hardware, and we have a variety of other distributors and partners we work with which is growing all the time. For example, several clients expressed interest in being able to legally stream music in their tasting rooms, so we became Pandora CloudCover resellers to be able to help. As resellers, we enjoy reseller discounts which we share with our TCP clients.
​
For more detail, see Kaseya 365 Ops: IT Operations and Business Management.
Always-On Protection: Network
Network Management & Monitoring
The TCP Core technology we've chosen to help us with networks is Auvik. Auvik is an innovative platform which enables MSPs to dynamically map client networks and then use that map as a window into the network, supporting a range of capabilities to manage and backup key network device configurations (firewalls, managed switches, and so on), along with as a robust set of monitoring and alerting features.
​ Auvik includes a particularly useful feature called a "Northstar" diagram which enables the Grape Squad to isolate the network path between any given device (for instance a critical POS terminal) and the Internet, and to dynamically see any issues in that path.
For more detail, watch the great 30 second video here: Best Network Management Software Solution - Auvik Networks
Always-On Protection: Endpoint
Endpoint Management & Monitoring
An "Endpoint" is a device used by winery staff in their day-to-day lives. Desktop computers, laptops, servers, and mobile devices are typical Endpoints. The TCP Core solution we've adopted here is Kaseya 365 Endpoint (or K365 Endpoint) is a suite of solutions which enable the Grape Squad to secure, backup, manage, and automate maintenance of these devices.
​
A few key K365 Endpoint capabilities:
-
Ransomware attack behavior monitoring (system or network)
-
Windows operating system patch management
-
Antivirus deployment and updates
-
Remote Endpoint control (for maintenance, training, and direct staff support)
​
For more detail, see Kaseya 365 Endpoint: Endpoint Management, Security & Backup
Always-On Protection: User
User Protection & Security Training
A "User" is a winery staff member (who may or may not have an Endpoint device). The final TCP Core component we've chosen is Kaseya 365 User (K365 User) which includes a range of features to prevent threats, respond to them, and recover from them. Winery staff are protected both when using Endpoint devices and when using "cloud" business platforms like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Dropbox, SalesForce, and so on (Software as a Service or SaaS business systems).
​​​
A few key K365 User capabilities:
-
Automatic backup of all corporate email into a searchable archive along with other corporate data (calendars, address books, chat sessions, and so on)
-
AI email anti-phishing defense
-
Dark web monitoring for user data breaches
-
User awareness training, threat simulation and testing
​
For more detail, see Kaseya 365 User: User-Targeted Threat Prevention & Recovery
Always-On Protection: Third-party RMM Portals
Advanced, vendor-specific Capabilities
Beyond our TCP Core solutions, the Grape Squad regularly learns how to navigate third-party RMM portals as our clients introduce us to systems which work best for them. These include portals to Manage & Monitor infrastructure (like RevelGuard) as well as, for instance, portals like SaferPayments where we can use to help our clients maintain their PCI compliance.
