Pernod Ricard Group

Pernod Ricard realized that its current server-based technology—used to track and monitor the entire lifecycle of its spirits—was becoming impractical and unsustainable. Today’s IT environment is highly agile and accessible and, with top talent trained on and accustomed to web-based solutions, the company’s legacy infrastructure created a disconnect for prospective IT technicians. Pernod Ricard needed to integrate into its operations a sustainable application that would serve all main production plants or risk losing out on future market share and incoming talent. Pernod Ricard’s top priority was to create a single web- and mobile-based platform for managing its brands. This would eliminate potential skill gaps, allow teams to monitor operations from anywhere and on any device, and enable the company to implement automation and standardized data collection and management processes across all its brands. The result would be a uniform digital experience for its customers that also required minimal training for users. To start, Pernod Ricard conducted a detailed analysis of available software and investigated the benefits of further developing and modernizing internal applications. The company concluded that there were no applications on the market that could provide the adaptability and agility its operations would need for competitive advantages and continued future growth. Pernod Ricard turned its attention to internal applications, most notably those of the company’s Martell brand. Twenty-five years prior, Martell leveraged a tool from Uniface—which was acquired by Rocket in 2021—to build an application for streamlining the data collection and operational management of its spirits’ distillation and natural maturation processes. The software—which had been built piece-by-piece over the years—had become cumbersome and unsustainable for users but it was still performing at a high level. Pernod Ricard knew the only way to obtain the needed flexibility, adaptability, and agility was by modernizing its already powerful internal application. Additionally, the opportunity to develop an unparalleled and unique software would be a selling point for attracting new IT talent. Pernod Ricard aimed to leverage the Martell application into a single-platform scalable solution that would be sustainable for the next 15 to 20 years, all without disrupting current operations. And despite the proposed size and scale of the new solution, the company wanted the application up and running within three years.