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Cephrus to Offer Submerce Multi-Brand Edition to Manage Multiple Brands in One App
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NAPA, Calif. – As an ongoing effort to set their Submerce™ eBusiness application apart from the rest, Cephrus announced today the upcoming release of their Submerce™ Multi-Brand Edition solution which is scheduled to be available in June 2007. Designed exclusively for medium to large-scale wine companies that manage a portfolio of brands, Cephrus’ new Submerce™ Multi-brand Edition offers the ability to create, maintain, and manage orders from one database through several order source points such as SOM, POS, eCommerce, and Wine Club while offering microsites for each wine brand to maintain their own unique identity and customer experience.
“We’ve been working on this for some time and it has been difficult to keep this a secret among our beta testers since it is going to change the way medium to large-sized wineries will manage their websites in the near future,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “No longer will a wine company with a large portfolio need to manage multiple databases for their customer service and inventory management,” continues Elliman. “Our new application will streamline customer service calls, order management, and multiple promotions across (or tied to) multiple websites.”
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Foster’s Wine Estates Launches Annual Sales Conference Webcast
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NAPA, Calif. – Foster’s Wine Estates officially released their annual sales conference webcast on Monday which was greatly received by their employees. The webcast, shot and produced by Cephrus, offered cost savings by eliminating the expenses of duplicating CDs and DVDs and mailing them all over the country. Now, within minutes, any sales member can access the PPT presentations and videos for review or redistribution to their distributors and wholesalers.
Cephrus offers many varied options for your Webcasting and Podcasting needs.
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Submerce Expands Wine Club Management and Integrated CRM Tools
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus released information today regarding the recent update to the Wine Club Management module of their Submerce eBusiness platform. After a year of research and development, Cephrus will be releasing the latest version mid-April.
“We have been partnering with some of the largest wine merchants and wineries to build the most robust and seamlessly integrated solution which encompasses POS, eCommerce, Sales Order Management and Wine Club in order to simplify and streamline data to and from all order sources that we currently support,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “Over the course of the past 3 years, we have focused on developing the best tools available. Based on the feedback from our customers, there is nothing else available that is as easy to use, as bullet-proof, and most importantly, as affordable,” states Elliman. “We have many other tools under development as we continue to add to the tools and features currently available through our Submerce platform. With our philosophy of personalization, Cephrus will work with any client to further refine an installation to tailor the software to their individual requirements,” says Jonathan.
New discounting and segmented batch processing tools empower Wine Club managers through features that streamline the correcting and completing of problem orders and ‘one-off’ shipments. Expanded CRM tools such as customer interface logging, (both account and order level) vacation status, and delayed shipment tools help with customer retention by offering online tools directly to the customer so that they are able to manage their own shipments which in turn further reduces customer call volume.
Cephrus is one of the few solution providers in the wine merchant and wine industry that offers customized solutions since each Submerce installation is not a shared application like most other providers. “With affordable, unique installations, your application can easily be changed to follow your company’s work processes instead of your company having to adapt in order to follow a programmer’s idea of how your company should function,” says Elliman.
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Submerce POS Offers New Features to Identify Customer Faster and Easier
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus recently announced that Submerce POS users can quickly identify customers and wine club members simply by swiping their driver’s license via the credit card swipe interface to verify address, age, and club memberships. This process eliminates the need to distribute wine club identification cards or use other age verification systems.
“There are very few wineries that send out club identification cards since the cost is prohibitive and most customers lose the card or simply do not carry it with them,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “We found that the most cost effective and easily identifiable method is through the use of a customer’s driver’s license. Submerce POS users can also use this method to quickly create accounts for new wine club customers. Before, wineries used to require a form be filled out and either mailed or faxed in,” says Jonathan. “Now, the sign up process can be completed either online or through the use of the driver’s license information and takes just a few seconds without having to re-enter the data later on thereby eliminates the risk of potential data entry errors.”
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Cephrus Launches New Submerce Demo Site
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus, a Napa Valley-based creative services company, announced today the launch of their new Submerce eCommerce demonstration website to allow potential clients the opportunity to demo some of the unique features that the Submerce platform has to offer-many of which are not available in any other wine-related eCommerce solution.
To visit the Submerce eCommerce demonstration site, please click here.
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Submerce Platform New Published Ratings Feature
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus has released details about the new Published Ratings feature which has been added to their Submerce™ eCommerce platform. The new feature offers administrators the ability to easily add product ratings and reviews which in turn allow their customers the opportunity to view other customer ratings and comments about their products along with ratings listed in trade-related publications.
“We have found that web visitors read and trust reviews from both other customers and critics and believe that adding this feature would benefit our customers and theirs,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “The process is quick and easy and can be configured by individual product or as a mass-import process,” continues Jonathan. “We are currently researching the further advancement of this feature by offering a web-crawler or RSS feature that would dynamically bring the date in automatically.”
You may view the new feature by visiting our test site here.
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Cephrus Releases New Versions of Submerce Sales Order Manager and Point of Sale Modules
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus announced today their plans to officially release two new Submerce Sales Order Manager and Point of Sale modules that offer new interfaces designed to optimize sales transactions in both wholesale and retail environments while providing in-depth customer data and CRM tools. New features such as user-definable hot keys and refined product pickers and product information have all been revised based on user feedback and new technologies recently made available.
“The new interface allows users to add touch screens as an alternative method for entering product data along with hot keys that allow users to process commonly purchased products more efficiently- especially for products that may not have barcodes,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “Our customers are starting to see the benefit of having a single system run eCommerce, POS, Sales, Compliance, and Wine Club which requires no daily importing and exporting to keep the data synchronized, ” says Sarah Elliman, Director of Marketing and Sales.
Cephrus encourages anyone looking for a better Point of Sale solution and Sales Order Manager software to give Cephrus a call at (707) 255-4390.
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Cephrus Expands Webcasting and Podcasting Services
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NAPA, Calif. – In response to the increasing demand for Podcasting and Webcasting services, Cephrus has announced a revitalized effort to inform customers of their 10 plus years of streaming media services. Companies including Microsoft, Bechtel, Foster’s Wine Estates and many more have relied on Cephrus to deliver affordable solutions for the webcasting, podcasting and eLearning applications.
“Cephrus was one of the few companies that offered webcasting more than ten years ago and podcasting is no different,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “We see that many other industries are starting to recognize the benefit of using these technologies to inform their customers about their brands and products,” continues Jonathan. “Our new office will help expand our capabilities by offering on-site videotaping and audio recording for these types of requests.”
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Cephrus Plans to Release Updated Submerce Sales Order Manager Module
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus announced today the release of their newest version of the popular Sales Order Manager (SOM) module for the Submerce™ suite of products. The latest release offers new features based on feedback received from existing SOM users. New features include the ability to save multiple credit cards, keep multiple addresses on file, update customer and product search capability, maintain account notes, and more.
“For the last six months, we have worked with some of the largest wine merchants in the industry to refine our software platform and to develop new tools and features in order to ring up sales more quickly,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “We have added more robust CRM features, customer notification, and package tracking,” continues Jonathan. “Because we were concurrently developing our retail POS platform, we found ways to streamline the SOM system by taking advantage of parts of the same code and technologies we developed in house,” says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer.
The new Submerce™ Sales Order Manager is available for existing customers or as an expansion for new installations. Cephrus encourages anyone interested to schedule a demonstration by calling (707) 255-4390.
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Cephrus Completes Point of Sale v2 Beta Testing
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus is pleased to announce the completion of their Submerce™ POS v2 beta testing program which started January 15th. Based upon user feedback and insight, the new Submerce™ POS v2 offers enhanced features and tools which provide the ability to process transactions more quickly than ever before. New to the platform is the optional touch screen interface which allows users to streamline checkout with just the touch of a screen. New multi-channel inventory tools have also been added which allow depletion of inventory from multiple sources. Fully integrated with the Submerce™ eCommerce platform, inventory is managed in real-time along with invoices for both retail and eCommerce available online to customers 24/7.
“The new release simplifies our POS software to the point where one can create and process a transaction in less than 30 seconds,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “That was our main intent of the new release along with the addition of new interface options to further streamline the process,” continues Jonathan. “Our original POS was a huge success for wine merchants and the new update will only push this success even further,” says Sarah Elliman, Director of Marketing and Sales.
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Cephrus Opens New Napa Design and Production Studio
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus announced today the opening of their new Napa Design and Production Studio located in the Napa Gateway Business Park. With over 4000 square feet, the new office offers additional space for a webcast and podcast studio along with additional workstations as part of Cephrus’ expansion plans for 2007.
“We are currently in a hiring mode to bring more people onboard in an effort to meet the increased demand for our services,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “Moving our offices to Napa came at the perfect time as many of our clients are located within our immediate area,” continues Jonathan. “Having the additional space gives us the opportunity to invite talented people to join our award-winning team and become part of one of the largest web design and video production companies in Northern California.”
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Cephrus Releases Vendor Management and Sales Channel Locator Module
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NAPA, Calif. – Cephrus announced the release of the Submerce Vendor Management and Sales Channel Locator module as part of their expansion module offering customers the ability to search for local sales channels based on product, type of sales channel, and location proximity.
“We found that one of the major lost sales opportunities in direct to consumer transactions involves wineries blocking states due to compliance issues,” says Sarah Elliman, Director of Sales and Marketing. “Why lose the sale to another winery that is willing take the chance, when you can retain the sale of your products through another sales channel?” asks Elliman.
“Our Sales Channel Module offers customers the ability to search online for local sales channels as well as the option to display a list during the checkout process when a customer is in a “blocked” state,” says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer. “We’ve had several customers ask us why someone didn’t think of something like this before,” he says. “That is why Cephrus is focused on maintaining the position as an innovative leader rather than as a reactionary follower.”
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Benchmark Wine Group Launches New Submerce-powered Website
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NAPA, Calif. – Benchmark Wine Group announced the launch of their new website powered by Cephrus’ Submerce™ Merchant Edition Point of Sale solution. The project included months of custom development work in order to meet Benchmark’s specific technical requirements. ”We are pleased to see another customer witness the power of the Submerce™ system,” says Sarah Elliman, Director of Sales and Marketing.
“Wine Merchants are one of the fastest growing markets for our Submerce™ platform as it has many options to get online in just a matter of a couple of days,” says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer. “Many merchants can start with our base installation and then build upon it at any time as our system offers the flexibility to do so without the high cost of one-off customizations,” says Tim.
Cephrus offers expansion modules such as Supply Chain Management, Newsletter Tools, Advanced Site Search Engine and customization at any level to meet your specific requirements.
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Aldea Childrens Center Selects Cephrus to Produce Film
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NAPA, Calif. – Aldea Children’s Center has chosen Cephrus to produce their 35-year anniversary video scheduled to be released in May. The video will cover Aldea’s 35 years of committed community service to the Napa and Solano counties. The story will include interviews with company employees and children who have benefited from the program.
“Cephrus has a long-standing history of producing films that tell the stories of the unsung heroes of the local community... and Aldea is no different,” says Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “Aldea’s story is one that we look forward to completing as we believe they are doing a lot of wonderful work without much media attention or recognition,” says Jonathan.
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Cephrus Completes Rosemount Film Package
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St. HELENA, Calif. – Cephrus, a Napa Valley-based creative services company announced today the final delivery of the Rosemount Relaunch Film package to Foster’s Wine Estates. The package includes a launch film which covers the Rosemount relaunch strategy, a ‘walk-in’ film for trade events and several video pieces to be integrated into their relaunch presentation. The entire package was delivered on 4,500 DVD-ROMs replicated in-house at Cephrus for a far lower cost than advertised by bigger DVD replication houses.
“We continue to deliver on time and on budget while maintaining the quality that our customers expect,” promises Jonathan Elliman, Director of Creative Services. “Our team works like clockwork and has the experience necessary to meet some of the tightest turnaround times, and everyone on the team does their part to complete the project flawlessly and on budget.”
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Cephrus Set to Release More Submerce™ Expansion Modules
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St. HELENA, Calif. – Cephrus will release additional information regarding two new upcoming Submerce™ modules to add to an already large list of available modules. Set to be released on February 1st, the modules can be added to any existing Submerce™ installation and wineries will see the biggest benefit with the use of the newest module.
“We’re keeping tight-lipped on these two modules as we prefer to avoid ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ so to speak,” says Tim Holtermann, Senior Programmer. “Our success has been based upon delivering an affordable, rock-solid eCommerce platform which can be expanded upon at a client level-rather than merely general software without customization. Each Submerce™ installation is unique in many respects and this allows the flexibility for clients to request customizations without affecting other Submerce™ users,” says Holtermann.
Cephrus has two wineries currently beta-testing the new modules and is scheduled to release further details on January 22nd, 2007. Stay tuned for another revolutionary set of features to become available with the Submerce™ platform.
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