Infor, the industry cloud company, announced that French wine company Sieur d'Arques has chosen to deploy Infor M3. The integration of this enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is part of a project to transform the information systems of Sieur d'Arques, which wants to benefit from the many advantages of a solution designed to respond precisely to the requirements of the wine business and its relationships with its producers, distributors, and resellers.
Founded in 1946 in Limoux in the Languedoc region of France, a land with ideal conditions to produce great wines, Sieur d'Arques is a true pioneer in the field of wine production and techniques. It has inherited a tradition of producing sparkling wines that goes back to the 16th century. Today, the company is gathered around a cooperative of 188 wine-grower members that produces around 9 million bottles each year, 45% of which are dedicated to export. At its headquarters, it employs 117 people and generated a turnover of 32.3 million euros in 2020.
The IT overhaul project initiated with Infor and its partner Hetic3 was born from the increasing demand on the system from the winery’s growing commercial activities, which require each day more agility, flexibility, visibility, and integration of exploitable data.
"We wanted to standardize our business processes by capitalizing on a technological solution that would allow us to avoid continually developing specific functionalities and that would allow us to communicate, exchange and analyze crucial data within the framework of our growth in France and internationally," comments Pascal Vigata, Sieur d'Arques management controller and project manager.
"From the very beginning of the project, we had established precise specifications. One of the conditions was to be able to count on a vendor and systems integrator pairing that was perfectly accustomed to working together. Then, it was essential for us that the chosen solution could offer simple and efficient answers to all of our challenges and standardize our practices related to commercial and financial aspects, production itself, quality control and traceability, logistics aspects (storage and shipping) ... The positive feedback from our ecosystem regarding the Infor M3 solution and its functionalities dedicated to our wine business also weighed in our final decision," Vigata says.
The integration of the Infor M3 solution will be spread over two phases of 12 months each, one devoted to the commercial management part, the other to all activities involving the cooperative. It will occupy a team of nine people within the Maison Sieur d'Arques accompanied from start to finish by the Infor and Hetic3 teams.
Christophe Pino, Hetic3 sales manager, said: "The project entrusted to us by Sieur d'Arques is typical of the expectations of our customers in the wine and spirits industry who are looking to improve and accelerate their operations without sacrificing the quality of their products and services. With Infor M3 integrated by Hetic3, Sieur d'Arques has acquired a solution specifically dedicated to the industry. The functional business processes and the high level of parameterization of Infor M3 will allow Sieur d'Arques to efficiently manage its production activities as well as its relations with all of the company's distribution channels, which are as numerous as they are varied.”
This new signature validates, once again, the relevance and constant innovation of Infor’s solution dedicated to the food & beverage industry. "We are very happy to accompany Sieur d'Arques in a large-scale project at a particularly difficult time for the wine industry," said Philippe Maillet, Infor sales director for France SMB & channels. "Infor's vision, Hetic3's support and the customer's resilience allow us to look forward to the coming months with optimism thanks to the implementation of Infor M3, our high value-added solution that is particularly well suited to Sieur d'Arques' ambitions in France and internationally.”
