Active Club Forum: Comparing Regulatory Compliance Solutions

Wineries can choose to track and prepare the compliance reports themselves or send the required sales information to a secondary source and outsource the reporting

Comparing Regulatory Compliance Options and Prices:

1) If you sign on with a company and decide to change, can you export all your data?

2) Do you have to sign a term contract or can you get their service month-to-month. This way, you can make sure their services and prices fit the business needs of the winery.

3) Proprietary Information: Sales revenues and customer information is shared in the compliance reports. Any company with which a winery shares this information must understand how the information will be stored, secured and used. This needs to be in writing and signed by both parties.

4) How long is the proprietary information stored on the compliance company’s server?

5) Will the compliance company use the winery’s information to target their own sales efforts of their own internal sales team?

6) Will the compliance company share the information with anyone, internally or externally?

7) How is the information secured?

8) Is the information backed-up?

9) What are the real costs? Purchase cost, after annual fees, support fees, upgrade, fees, etc.

10) How much are their services marked up to cover the "free" compliance?

11) How current are the reports, tax rates and jurisdiction codes and calculations?

12) How will the rules stay up to date on dynamic compliance law and rules?

13) Will the service provide complete compliance reporting for a winery who ships through other channels?

14) Do they offer permits, renewals, and all the other components of compliance?

15) Do they offer ship limits compliance checking?

16) Do they offer compliance support and consulting?

17) Does the solution integrate with solutions from multiple companies for accounting, POS, Shopping cart and club solutions?

This provides a partial list of questions and concerns when wineries look for compliance support. The bottom line is that there are several solutions on the market that streamline the management of compliance. They are not all the same and shopping for the best service can make a significant impact.

I would question all providers (especially those offering solutions for free or low cost) with security issues and use of proprietary information.

More to come….

Theresa Dorr
Active Club Management
925-447-CLUB (2582)
www.activeclubmanagement.com
www.acmwineclubsoftware.com
www.wineclubsoftware.net