Serrallés is the oldest and most respected name in manufacturing in Puerto Rico. The family-owned business that started in 1865 is best known for its flagship product, Don Q Rum, which to this day is the largest selling rum on the island market. 

The company currently produces over 60 percent of the rum sold in Puerto Rico. Rum, however, is no longer its only product. Today, Empresas Serrallés, Inc, the parent company of Destilería Serrallés, has become a large industrial and marketing enterprise that produces and distributes over 80 different product lines. 

Likewise, being among the 100 oldest companies in America, has not kept the Serrallés management from embracing change and applying new technologies in order to improve efficiency and competitiveness as a diversified company with several distinct core profit centers in different industries. Xtrategit is pleased to be working side-by-side with key Serrallés managers in the business transformation of the company, which includes among other things the implementation of a SaaS system. The application of that system immediately saved the company $3 million over the cost of a comparable on-premise solution.

<b>Reengineering the Business Process</b>

“We initiated a relationship in February 2008, where we partnered with Serrallés on business strategy initiatives,” recalls Eliud Gerena, Xtrategit’s Project Senior Manager. “Our next step was to work with Serrallés on transforming the business processes and we developed best practice functional books by business area by September 2009. This second engagement also enabled us to assist in the contract negotiation and selection of the right vendor for Serrallés by December 2009.”

Currently, Gerena notes, the engagement is in the ERP project implementation phase with Xtrategit assisting in project management, configuration, testing, change management and continuous process improvement efforts.

“We have successfully delivered implementation of the system for Serrallés USA, Serrallés Environmental Technologies, which are important subsidiary operations, and the ‘Procure-to-Pay’ process for Serrallés Puerto Rico,” Gerena explains. “We are in the process of finalizing the implementation for the ‘Order-to-Cash and Production’ linkages for Serrallés Puerto Rico, which is scheduled to be done by the end of this year.

<b>New Systems for 2012</b>

“In 2012, we will be working on the application of new systems for maintenance, quality control, fixed asset management, human resources and business intelligence, as well as the injection of new business processes and functionality for Serrallés USA and the implementation of new systems for Serrallés Hotel and Real Estate companies,” Gerena reports. The company acquired the Ponce Hilton and Casino in 2000 and has a real estate operation based in Tampa, Florida.

Serrallés USA is the marketing and distribution arm of Destilería Serrallés on the U.S. mainland with headquarter offices in Dallas, Texas. The division is responsible for capturing a larger share of the U.S. spirits market for the Don Q brand. It began operations in the summer of 2009 as the management team launched its search to enter cloud computing through the application of a SaaS system. “We have grown our volume from 40,000 cases in 2008 to 200,000 in 2011,” Dr. Roberto J. Serrallés, Vice President for Risk Management & Business Development at the parent company recently told an interviewer regarding the mainland operation.

<b>Substantial Savings</b>

Dr. Serrallés, who represents the fifth generation of dedication to the family-owned business, obtained his doctorate in environmental sciences at the University of Oregon. He applied that discipline to the establishment of the Serrallés Environmental Technologies subsidiary, which has successfully implemented a wastewater-to-energy facility that produces essentially all the electricity and steam vapor required at the distillery. 

The flexibility to take advantage of opportunities to diversify and grow in new areas will be greatly enhanced when all management teams from each department, division and subsidiary can rely on the same information and reporting across all business lines. That, according to Gerena, is the ultimate goal of the application of SaaS at Serrallés and the total cost of the system will be significantly lower on the cloud than owning the systems outright.
