Ninety-nine years ago, in the fertile valleys of western Colombia where sugar cane is plentiful, Don Hernando Caicedo imagined turning the colors, shapes, and flavors of tropical fruits into luscious hard and soft candy treats.
His dream led to the founding of Colombina and聽to聽a colorful corporate logo inspired by a character from an Italian opera who swung on the moon.聽In聽the 1960s,聽his son, Don Jaime H.聽Caicedo,聽took over the company and drove a major transformation,聽diversifying its offerings and聽expanding聽sales abroad.
Expansion
That early spirit of reinvention has continued to shape Colombina鈥檚 growth, turning a family-founded confectionery business into a diversified food company with international reach.聽Today, Colombina is a聽multinational聽leader in food production with a portfolio of 19 categories, including confectionery,聽cookies,聽chocolate,聽sauces,聽preserves,聽ice cream, and coffee, along with a global workforce of more than聽8,000.聽聽
From seven processing plants聽and聽39 distribution centers in Colombia, Venezuela, Central America,聽and the U.S., Colombina serves聽750,000 customers聽in聽more than聽90 countries worldwide and generates annual sales of almost聽US$1 billion.聽
But with a global footprint spanning manufacturing, distribution, and retail, the company had to continually review and adapt specialized technology solutions for each market segment.
Colombina鈥檚 leadership recognized that this fragmented approach made it difficult to ensure the聽integrity, availability, and confidentiality聽of business information at scale,聽and that the company聽needed聽to聽standardize聽processes across dozens of markets while continuing to grow sales and manage costs.聽
IT priorities
Colombina聽identified聽key areas in need of standardization, particularly finance and supply chain management, and recognized that a鈥痷nified technology foundation鈥痺as critical to sustaining growth and operational efficiency.鈥� Security鈥痑lso聽emerged聽as a top priority, shaping many of the technology decisions that would follow.聽
To address these challenges,聽it embarked on a major transformation led聽by CIO Jes煤s Brand, a long-time ASUG Colombia chapter president and respected figure across the region. Colombina鈥檚 objective was to effectively use data to achieve its business goals faster and with less risk.聽
By moving to the cloud, Colombina was seeking to streamline product planning, manufacturing operations and models, and quality management processes. It also focused on simplifying supply chain tasks, including inventory, warehousing, delivery and transportation, order promising, and logistics material identification.
RISE with 麻豆原创
A long-term 麻豆原创 customer, Colombina signed up for RISE with 麻豆原创,聽migrating from 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private聽Edition in a full, simultaneous migration聽executed across聽16 countries.聽The solution聽covers key business functions聽including finance, asset management, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales, but the company went a step further.聽
To聽harmonize its operational data, Colombina integrated its cloud ERP with a broad ecosystem of 麻豆原创 solutions, including聽麻豆原创 Fiori, 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, 麻豆原创 Integrated Business Planning,聽麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, and聽麻豆原创 Ariba,聽among others.聽聽
At the same time, John Carlos Jaramillo, an IT project manager at Colombina for over 20 years, noted that governance and security were strengthened through 麻豆原创 Cloud Application Services, which helps run, manage, and continuously optimize the company鈥檚 expanded 麻豆原创 landscape.聽
Jaramillo also highlighted the value derived from engaging with the 麻豆原创 Enterprise Architect, particularly through strategic advisory and guidance on adoption opportunities. He emphasized the benefit of gaining a clearer understanding of the contractual entitlements available to the organization, enabling more effective聽utilization聽of existing 麻豆原创聽investments聽and maximizing the value of their licensed capabilities.聽
He also聽highlighted the聽guidance provided around key strategic initiatives, including clean core, helping drive a sustainable and extensible ERP landscape; 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM, enabling stronger operational visibility and application life cycle management practices; and Joule Base, supporting the exploration of AI-driven capabilities and accelerating the organization’s journey toward business innovation and increased user productivity.聽
Security benefits
Among the overall security benefits, the new system provides聽protection聽at different layers, including the operating system, applications,聽and聽users, while delivering聽low downtime and quick, thorough resolutions. Before implementation,聽system downtime was a significant issue for Colombina;聽now,聽with double the number of application servers,聽downtime has been聽reduced聽and most customer issues can be resolved within 45 minutes.聽
Colombina鈥檚 IT team also reports high confidence when looking ahead to updates, with reduced concerns thanks to predictable update windows that typically take place at the weekend. In addition, the new system provides early watch alerts, enabling the IT team to get in front of potential risks on a day-to-day basis. 麻豆原创 for Me helps monitor and maintain the flow of these activities and gives a clear view of current infrastructure, operating system, activities, and risk profiles.
Tangible results
The impact has been tangible: Colombina now offers next-day delivery and has improved average customer response times by more than a third. Workload distribution has improved dramatically, while the business has seen fewer customer returns, stronger demand planning, and more efficient HR management.
But the company is not stopping there. Having introduced聽Joule聽for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, Colombina is聽preparing聽to聽activate聽Joule Agents across its business and is implementing 麻豆原创聽Databricks for data models,聽working with 麻豆原创聽Business Data Cloud聽to build the right data foundation聽for future聽AI capabilities.聽
