Robert Mondavi

Challenge

Implement automated process management and reporting to help manage IT initiatives and reduce the impact of regulatory requirements.

Solution

Serena TeamTrack

Results

• Helped achieve government/regulatory compliance
• Improved auditability enterprise-wide
• Streamlined IT processes
• Increased efficiency and enhanced team communication
• Increased enterprise agility

“Our internal auditors noted that our use of TeamTrack on the software development side provided a solid audit trail. They felt we could address areas that needed improvement by using TeamTrack even more.”
- Brian Shelden, Director of Information Technology, Robert Mondavi

Complete IT process management solution enables company to minimize the impact and risk of new regulations

From refreshing chardonnays to regal cabernet sauvignons, Robert Mondavi is a leading producer of fine wines from around the world. Established in 1966 with the founding of Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, California, the company's award-winning wines have been instrumental in building the California wine industry. Today, the company produces, markets, and sells distinct wines from California, Italy, Chile, and Australia.

Credited with the introduction of cold fermentation in stainless steel tanks, Robert Mondavi has long been viewed as a pioneer in the wine industry. This spirit of innovation also extends to the technology the company utilizes to streamline its business activities. With this, IT plays a key role in the organization, working closely with leaders to gather requirements and ensure that department-specific applications meet user needs.

While IT had honed a process for development projects, it needed a way to manage its process more effectively. The company previously tracked all issues using email, but found it challenging to stay on top of every issue. With the emergence of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, one of the single most important pieces of legislation affecting corporate governance and accounting practices today, a tight audit trail and powerful reporting features became essential.

Enhanced process management on every project

Robert Mondavi selected Serena TeamTrack to help manage its IT initiatives. The software’s flexibility enabled the company to customize it to its ongoing needs, while the web-based nature gave all users access, without the need to install software on each user’s PC. Additionally, TeamTrack easily integrated with active directory for single sign-on, which meant that users could log in and out of all programs simultaneously with one username and password. And to top it off, TeamTrack fit within the company's budget.

IT relies on TeamTrack to help manage projects involving its internal customers in nearly every Mondavi department. Users across departments such as Finance, Manufacturing, Distribution, and PR and Communications turn to the software to keep projects and tasks on track from start to finish.

“TeamTrack helps automate and better manage our IT processes,” said Brian Shelden, Director of Information Technology at Robert Mondavi. “It keeps our customers in the loop and enables us to maintain close track of issues.”

The company uses one primary TeamTrack workflow for all IT projects. First, customers submit their project requests in TeamTrack. The workflow kicks in and routes those requests to the IT manager, who then assigns it to development teams. The software then takes projects through the analysis and development phases, through QA and review cycles, then back to the customer for acceptance testing.

TeamTrack builds efficiency into IT projects by providing much better visibility into project status. Because employees and developers can view the status of projects anytime in TeamTrack, meetings are more productive because everyone knows project status ahead of time, and can quickly get down to business. The company saves significant time and enhances team communication on projects.

TeamTrack further improves communication by automatically notifying a specific set of individuals within a department when someone else in their department submits an IT request. Those individuals then have the opportunity to offer their feedback about the project.

TeamTrack provides essential audit trail for Sarbanes-Oxley Act

With TeamTrack already fully entrenched in its processes, Robert Mondavi found itself well prepared to achieve Sarbanes-Oxley compliance when it came to providing an audit trail of development activities. The company had a critical audit trail covering the complete project lifecycle and providing proof of internal customer approvals. When Robert Mondavi brought in internal auditors to help the company prepare for a Sarbanes-Oxley audit, the auditors considered TeamTrack a strength.

“Our internal auditors noted that our use of TeamTrack on the software development side provided a solid audit trail,” Shelden said. ”They felt we could address areas that needed improvement by using TeamTrack even more.”

Auditors recommended that Robert Mondavi extend TeamTrack to its help desk, which used a tool for troubleshooting internal customers' IT issues that lacked a comprehensive audit trail. In response, the help desk is creating a new workflow within TeamTrack to address its specific needs. The tight process and automation that TeamTrack offers will likely improve the help desk's service to customers. With this development, all Mondavi employees will have access to TeamTrack to log their IT issues.

“We’re in the process of developing and deploying the help desk workflow, which ultimately everyone in the company will be able to use,” Shelden said. “From a Sarbanes-Oxley perspective, it provides the audit mechanism that was lacking because we now have complete tracking throughout the help desk lifecycle.”

With TeamTrack already in place - and flexible enough to scale to other areas of the company - Shelden feels that TeamTrack provided Robert Mondavi a good foundation to prepare for Sarbanes-Oxley, and more readily able to implement internal auditors' recommendations. Plus, he has the peace of mind that the company’s day-to-day practices prepare it well for external audits. When external auditors come in, Shelden and his team can easily create reports in TeamTrack to show audit trails. Powerful TeamTrack reporting also gives Robert Mondavi a way of routinely spot-checking its efforts to ensure Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Solution offers flexibility and scalability to meet Robert Mondavi’s growing needs

As Robert Mondavi prepares to take TeamTrack company-wide, Shelden feels confident that employees will quickly pick up the application. So far, the company has only needed a two-page document to teach new users how to use the software.

In addition to the help desk workflow, the company plans to use TeamTrack to improve processes in several other departments. Customer service, which answers consumer questions about wine, hopes to soon log customer questions in TeamTrack. Shelden also envisions integrating TeamTrack with the company’s intranet so that employees can view their issues there. In IT, he also wants to link the software with the department's source control program to eliminate duplicate entry of fixes in TeamTrack and the source control program.

Moving forward, IT plans to apply TeamTrack as its needs evolve and to help it achieve even greater efficiency throughout the company.

“We still have the same basic process we always had, but with TeamTrack, we now have a much more efficient tool to facilitate and track our process,” Shelden said.