VineSpring Employee Spotlight: Amy Parker
VineSpring is lucky to have Amy Parker as part of the team. If you’ve migrated data to VineSpring, chances are Amy was the one guiding your transition. She is a vital link between VineSpring customers, our support team, and the product team. Her technical know-how and passion for helping others are obvious. Learn more about Amy, what she does at VineSpring, and where she escapes to when she needs a change of scenery.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROLE AT VINESPRING?
My title is Technical Product Owner but that encompasses several things. While I am on the product team I work closely with development on getting system bugs and enhancements into production each week. When we have new clients that are moving from a prior system I help to import the more complex customer data and order history data. When support is unable to debug an issue a client is having they send it to me. Often times I need to do research in the code or look at the underlying data to figure out what is going on. And finally, I work on the data warehouse helping to create reports and validate data.
MANY WINERIES ARE INTIMIDATED BY MIGRATING THEIR DATA TO A NEW SYSTEM. WHAT DO YOU DO TO MAKE THIS A SMOOTH AND WORRY-FREE PROCESS?
One of the things that we pride ourselves on is the fact that our clients have access to us. They can ask questions and expect timely answers back. Many times a migration starts with a phone call to see where their data is currently housed and what they are wanting to migrate. We also are very flexible in how we can get data from their existing system. We can take almost any format of data and transform it to be easily imported into VineSpring.
WHAT DO YOU THINK SETS VINESPRING APART FROM OTHER WINERY ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS?
Our team. Each individual that works for this company is passionate about the job they do. Our support team can put themselves in the shoes of our clients and give them a level of help that other eCommerce platforms do not. Our development and product team cares that the software we are building is going to make our clients lives easier. As a team, we work to really understand our clients’ needs for each new enhancement we put in the system. We don’t ever get stuck in a rut and use the term, “that’s how we always do it.” We are constantly striving to make things simpler and more streamlined.
HOW HAVE YOU SEEN TECHNOLOGY CHANGE IN YOUR TIME AT VINESPRING?
It is becoming more commonplace for web applications to have webhooks and an API to access most of the data within a system. In the past, we would have to formally support a partnership with another company by coding a communications link directly into the code. It is now possible for our clients to use the tools we provide to send their data to any number of other applications, such as fulfillment houses, reporting tools, accounting software, etc.
THE VINESPRING TEAM IS LOCATED ALL OVER THE COUNTRY! WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED AND WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR WORKING REMOTELY?
I am in Littleton, Colorado. Staying in communication with your co-workers can be difficult when working remotely but we get around this with weekly team meetings, monthly company meetings and staying in touch via Slack during the day. It is nice to know that you can reach out electronically and someone is there to help if you need it. I have also found it is best to set consistent working hours for yourself. Each day, I figure out the things I need to get done for the day and start working through the list.
IF YOU COULD RETURN TO YOUR FAVORITE VACATION SPOT, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHY?
It sounds a little odd since I pretty much as far from the ocean as you can get here in Colorado but I love the water. My parents owned a condo in Maui and I was able to visit every year or so and it was my happy place. I find so much peace in snorkeling or scuba diving with marine life. There is nothing more mesmerizing than watching an octopus scout for food or try and hide from you (very successfully) by bending into their environment.
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND GIVE YOUR YOUNGER SELF SOME CAREER ADVICE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Making more and more money is not the end all. There are far more important things when it comes to being happy in your career than simply making as much money as you can. Like the credit card commercial… “Picking up my step-daughter from school every day - priceless.”
