Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/580744
{ SOMMjournal.com } 7 Mauro Cirilli, a 20-year industry veteran, is Beverage Director at Press Club, an expansive, upscale wine bar in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood. He first heard about BinWise by word of mouth from friends in the industry. "Before BinWise, I had to compile notes, prices, contacts, inventories and in so many different documents in my computer—inevitably there were little mistakes here and there that would have an impact on my bottom line," admits Cirilli. "With BinWise it's no longer like that—all my information is organized and easy to reach, keeping me in control of my perpetual inventory on a daily basis and saving me time to better focus on my job." Tara Patrick is Lead Sommelier at San Francisco's two star Michelin and haute cuisine favorite Quince, as well as at Cotogna, a more casual establishment offering rustic Italian cuisine. Patrick manages both restaurants program out of one 4,000-bottle wine cellar and says, "BinWise's corked bottle feature has made my job a lot easier." "Corked bottles appear more often than you might think and trying to follow up with your sales rep on one bottle here and there becomes a bit of nightmare." says Patrick. With BinWise, that's no longer an issue. Corked bottles are flagged as "corked" and the system then does the work of following up, by alerting the appropriate sales representative and sending notifications on behalf of the beverage director, so that time and energy can be spent focusing on other things. In Patrick's case, another benefit is the ability to maintain a constant snapshot of which bottles in her cellar belong to Quince and which belong to Cotogna. Before BinWise, it was a challenge, but now it has become as easy as checking a bar code on a bottle. According to Hong, "BinWise exists to transform the bever - age industry and we are relentlessly focused on bringing value to our customers." As part of the bundle of services, BinWise also offers staff training and technical support. While BinWise relies on internal expertise from its sommelier co-founder, it is feedback from their customers that allows them to continu - ously improve and offer best-in-class features for the industr y. Hong says "as industry leaders and influencers, sommeliers are the tip of the spear for BinWise and some of our big- gest supporters. When you have customers with as complex programs as these using your platform, you know you're doing something right." Tara Patrick is Lead Sommelier at Quince in San Francisco. BinWise helps restaurants with the dreaded task of periodic inventory with a proprietary barcoding system, scan sheets and a scanner app, available via iTunes. Traditional inventory usually involves two people, counting and recording bottles, but with BinWise, a single sommelier equipped with a scanner goes through and scans physical bar codes affixed to bottles, bins or unbroken cases, maximizing accuracy and efficiency resulting in an approximately 85% time savings. "Sommeliers are the tip of the spear for BinWise and some of our biggest supporters." — BinWise President and CEO Isabelle Hong