A growing agency with a bright future
Watermill Wines is an independent wine agency that specialises in connecting wine producers with retailers. The team of 16 works closely with growers and producers, facilitating sales of wine to large UK supermarkets. They are responsible for some of the best own-label wines as well as working with premium name brands.
With a wealth of experience and over a decade in business, Watermill Wines is a growing agency with a bright future.
A lot of documents to organise
Watermill Wines had moved their files and data from a physical server at their office to Microsoft SharePoint (an online document management and storage system), but it wasn’t a good fit for them. The large number of files used in the business caused issues with the local synchronisation of documents. Files seemed to take forever to process and simple tasks became frustratingly slow.
Helga Hale, Senior Operations Manager at Watermill Wines, explains, “It was a disaster. We had too many files, so it slowed all of our internet down. It made working almost impossible”
They tried deleting unnecessary files, but were understandably reluctant to get rid of documents that might be needed later.
With their internet speed slowing down and their work impacted, they tried a dedicated leased line. They hoped that the increased bandwidth would solve their problems.
“We got our own leased line, which helped, but it was still slow and cumbersome. We felt that we needed to completely change (again) how all of our documents and work are stored.”
“HBTech were recommended to us. We told them about our frustrations with SharePoint and that it wasn’t working for us.”
Finding the right cloud platform
Although SharePoint didn’t meet their needs, a different cloud platform could give Watermill Wines the flexibility and performance they desired.
HBTech advised that the Microsoft Azure platform would enable them to store their files safely and securely, with quick and easy access from anywhere.
“We were led by HBTech, if I’m completely honest, because we’re not the IT experts, and they are.”
“With the help of HBTech we put everything onto a cloud server. HBTech did as much as they could remotely, then for the actual switchover they came into the office. Obviously the switchover took a bit of time, but it was nowhere near as disruptive as when we moved to SharePoint.”
“We were all very pleased with the move to the cloud server because it meant that all of our documents could be stored. It was back to a very good speed, obviously helped by our leased line. It worked a lot better.”
The new system made working much more efficient and less stressful.
“The move from SharePoint to the cloud server saved a lot of time and frustration within the business.”
Helga Hale jokes that, after the move to the Azure cloud server, “I didn’t have people shouting at me all day because the system was too slow.”
Fortunately, there wasn’t a steep learning curve. The new system was easy to get to grips with because of the similarities with their old physical server.
“It wasn’t such a new way of working because previously, when we were on a physical server, we had a shared drive. So now on the cloud server, again we have a shared drive. We have a confidential drive for HR and finance. In essence, the way of working is very similar to when we had the physical server, so it wasn’t too much of a big step change for people.”
John Clough, Commercial Director of HBTech comments; “SharePoint is an excellent data store, but in some circumstances, especially with large data volumes, there are more appropriate technologies. We saw the daily struggles at Watermill and implemented a service better suited to them”.
In good shape to work more flexibly
Moving to a cloud server had an added advantage – it made it possible to work remotely. Although working from home hadn’t been a priority for Watermill Wines, it would soon become crucial when the country went into lockdown in 2020.
“When the first rumblings started about lockdown and having to work from home, HBTech were very good and installed a VPN on everybody’s computers.”
When lockdown started, “everybody took their computer and files home. From a systems point of view, it was like you were in the office, you had access to all the files. I think without HBTech we probably would have had a very different experience of working in the pandemic because the actual systems part of it was all very smooth.”
It was vital that Watermill Wines could continue to operate throughout the pandemic. Their supermarket clients saw a rise in wine sales and Watermill Wines needed to be able to meet their customer’s growing needs.
“We were extremely busy throughout the two years of the pandemic, but we could carry on working relatively normally. As much as it pains me to say it, the business thrived in the pandemic, but we couldn’t have done COVID without HBTech.”
“They’re always on our side, they’re always helpful, and you never get the impression that you’re asking a silly question.”
Working post-pandemic and looking to the future
Working from home started out as a pandemic-driven necessity for Watermill Wines, but now hybrid working has become part of their normal practice.
With an established system that supports efficient remote working, Watermill Wines can offer the flexibility that many employees value.
“Pre Pandemic, everybody was working in the office. Then during the pandemic everybody moved to working from home. When restrictions lifted, we moved to hybrid working where people work three days in the office and two days at home. We had to find the middle ground.”
The UK has been referred to as the working from home capital of Europe, so it is important to have a robust IT system that can serve employees wherever they log in, and provide a seamless working experience.
“Now when we employ new people, we advertise that one of the things we offer is hybrid working.”
From strength to strength
Watermill Wines has been celebrated in the industry press, with its wines winning multiple awards. The business has been praised for its commitment to ethical and sustainable practices, while remaining focused on delivering quality.
It’s easy to see why more and more brands want to work with them.
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