Somm’It is a Bordeaux-based cellar management tool for restaurant, hotel, and bar owners. It enables them to manage their inventories online or via the app, where they can view extensive information on current stock, including valuation information. We spoke to David Fourquet, Head of Data, to find out how Liv-ex services have helped to improve the product.
Before Liv-ex automation
Somm’It was launched five years ago to help restaurants – particularly those with extensive fine wine lists – to manage their stock more easily.
It gives managers a view of which wines they have in stock, from which regions, and at which price points. This saves time on manual stock-takes and helps them to reorder wine at the right time.
Initially, some price information was available, but it was limited. Data was provided by clients, and it was patchy. Plenty of wines – particularly at the high end – didn’t have any valuation information at all.
Its team understood that providing accurate valuation information for these wines would help Somm’It users. This would enable them to charge an up-to-date price for their wine, and secure access to loans and accurate insurance coverage.
What they did
The Somm’It team started to use Liv-ex Price APIs to bring thousands of Market Prices into their own system. These prices are then shown on each user’s individual portfolio.
Users can see the total value of their portfolios, plus changes in value.
“It was really simple to develop, compared to other connections that we’ve built,” Fourquet told us.
“The API was complete and stable, and we had easy access to documentation and a test environment. Liv-ex’s technical support were very helpful and made sure that I made the most out of the service.”
Both Liv-ex Prices and Somm’It product codes are matched to LWIN, the universal identifier for wine and spirits. This ensure total accuracy – that the right price appears next to the right wine on Somm’It.
Valuations are given for individual wines
The results
Fourquet reports happy clients: “They are very happy – and surprised! – to find an up-to-date price in our tool. Before we introduced it, they couldn’t imagine that they could access this valuation information so easily. It’s a real improvement to the value of the tool.”
It has been easy to maintain, too. “The API works perfectly every time”, he reports.
“It has been a great, great experience and it was a pleasure to work with Liv-ex.”
Note: Standard Liv-ex licencing does not permit members to distribute price data to other businesses. Special permission was provided for Somm’It to share pricing with restaurants, bars and hotels.
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