A Wine Club Service Can be More Affordable than Purchasing Wine Club Software

Livermore, CA - February 8, 2007 -The excuse that "software is too expensive" is no longer a valid excuse. Wineries have put off getting a solution to support and secure their wine clubs due to the high costs of purchasing software as well as the additional need to sign long term service agreements. Many wineries continue to store customer information in environments which are not secure. This results in the wineries spending more time managing their club behind the scenes than offering benefits to retain and grow the number of club members.

The upfront costs that are required when purchasing a software solution is too often cost prohibitive. In addition to the initial investment the software the after-purchase expenses of upgrades, service, training and maintenance are often not factored into the contract and become "surprise" expenses to the wineries.

A California based company recognized the problem and is the first company to offer a club solution that offers a "pay as you go" solution. Active Club Management has been developed as a wine club solution which requires a minimal setup fee and then charges a transaction fee by each sales transaction. "This allows wineries to have a secure solution with more features than other software provide, at a cost which is in balance with the size of their club" stated Theresa Dorr, Active Club Management.

Each customer is provided with their own application which is designed to their specific preferences. The application allows customers to access and work with their club information anywhere they have a good network connection. Active Club Management integrates membership management with all the other areas of successful club management. Seamlessly integrating with over 20 credit card gateways, customers can select a gateway that best fits their own needs. As a certified partner with both FedEx and UPS clients can create labels, cancel and track shipments with the selection of a single option. Emailing and printing personalized sales receipts allows wineries to immediately notify club members that a club release has been processed and also provides the shipping tracking number and credit card authorization number in each respective receipt. This is just one of the many features that saves a great deal of time for the club managers. By providing the credit card authorization and shipping tracking numbers in the receipts it reduces the frantic calls from customers questions the charges to their accounts and wanting to track their packages.

Daily, weekly and monthly reports are another strong advantage of the service. Preparing reports usually require a person to access the system and request the specific reports. Active Club Management schedules the reports to be processed and emailed to the clients inbox automatically. When customers login to their email accounts they will find the work has already been completed for them.

The service was built as a club solution that can integrate with accounting, POS, and other existing applications that the businesses may already use. Originally built with direct input from several wineries in the Livermore Valley Active Club Management now supports over 100 clubs across the United States. Feedback and new ideas continue to foster the release of new features and the customer feedback is extremely positive.

Poppie Mantone from Syncline Winery in Washington started using Active Club Management in February of this year. After completing her first wine club release with the service she stated "It's 100 times better than how we use to process the club."

Wineries are still managing clubs with an Excel or Access database, personal email accounts, a single transaction credit card processing and an online shipping solution need to step up to secure their customers. In addition to protecting the wine club clients the wineries will be able to spend less time managing their club and spend more time increasing club member and retention. The good news is that wineries have several options of all shapes, sizes and costs from which to choose.

There are no longer any excuse as to why a wine club member's credit card and personal information is not encrypted and secured. Wine Club software packages are abundant. The popularity of wine clubs has continued to grow year over year.

About Active Club Management: Active Club Management offers an affordable and powerful solution for wine club management. Serving over 100 clubs in boutique operations and large, multi-locations organizations Active Club Management is customized to the needs of each business. The solution works like a personal club assistant and is specifically built to offer seamless integration with other accounting, POS, Inventory and shopping cart solutions. For more information, visit www.activeclubmanagement.com