IFS Joins Parade to Make ERP Easier to Use

Echoing recent moves by SAP, Microsoft, Epicor, and other enterprise application software competitors, IFS AB today unveiled what it said is the first in a series of offerings that will give casual users an easy way to access ERP data using Microsoft Office applications such as Excel.
The new offering, Business Analytics, lets users tap into data from IFS's financial modules. Through the tool, users who may not have much experience with an ERP application can easily access and analyze financial data such as budget balances using the more familiar Excel program, said Rick Veague, IFS North America's chief technology officer.
"Until now, inexperienced users might have [had] to get help from the IT staff to extract financial data or learn to write reports themselves," said Veague in an interview with Managing Automation. "With Business Analytics, they can put their hands on this data with only a modest level of training."
IFS is not the only vendor of enterprise applications attempting to make its systems easier to use by employing Microsoft Office applications such as Excel as a familiar user interface. ERP market-share leader SAP has teamed with Microsoft Corp. to create Duet, a series of self-service applications that use Office programs such as Outlook, Excel, and Word as easy-to-use front ends. SAP and Microsoft recently announced an extension of their two-year-old partnership, including plans to add more business scenarios and integration with Microsoft's SharePoint Server portal product.
And Microsoft's Business Systems group in March unveiled the Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office and SharePoint, a Duet-like set of applications for Microsoft's Dynamics enterprise applications.
IFS's Business Analytics offering is different from Duet and the Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office and SharePoint, said Veague, because it provides users with a direct link to more real-time ERP data.
The Business Analytics offering is based on a smart client plug-in that IFS developed for Microsoft Excel and extensions to the metadata layer of IFS's applications. The metadata extensions provide Excel — through the plug-in — with context for the financial data in the IFS system. That allows the plug-in to respond when a user asks, for example, to see expense account balances.
In order to purchase the Business Analytics offering, customers must license and download the plug-in, Veague said. Cost of the offering was not available from IFS.
One advantage of the Business Analytics offering, he said, is that it links users directly into live financial data from the IFS ERP applications rather than requiring a separate data mart that may or may not be up to date.
The Business Analytics product has been in use in beta test mode at customer sites for the past six months. It is now generally available. The offering is just the first product in what IFS calls its Intelligent Desktop initiative. The company is now creating metadata extensions to supply chain, sales, and order fulfillment modules that will allow the company to create similar tools that let workers use Microsoft Excel to easily access data from other parts of the IFS system. IFS plans to release additional metadata extensions and tools enabling easily access to supply chain, order/fulfillment, and sales data beginning in the third quarter of this year, Veague said.

Five guys, one tent, and a power plant

The story of a global company built on total customer dedication

In 1983 five students at Linköping University shared not only the same kitchen, but also a dream. A dream of not becoming part of a large, faceless corporation, but of building something of their own. Of creating something completely new.

There was just one problem—they did not know what. One thing they did know, however, was that they were willing to go a long way to convince clients of their total dedication.“While working for a Swedish nuclear power plant, two of us even camped right outside the main entrance to save costs and be able to work double shifts,” says Ulf Stern, one of the founders. It turned out to be good advertising too. After a few weeks everybody knew who those crazy guys were.At another nuclear power plant, Forsmark, IFS was given the task of improving administration routines during the annual overhaul. Apart from becoming expert filers the work gave the IFS guys extensive knowledge of the structure of maintenance systems and a growing idea of how to improve them. The first piece of the IFS puzzle was laid.
The next one came when another student, Johan Linder, came knocking, all excited over an amazing software product he had found, which had been created by a small American company called Oracle. While Johan tried hard to explain the advantages of relational databases, the others soon started to see the possibilities.
“None of us five was particularly interested in computers, but we were really excited by what could be done with them. With the knowledge we had gotten from our customers and the power of the Oracle database we knew we could make a difference,” Stern continues.And the rest, as they say, is history.Today, more than 20 years later, the dream of those five young men has grown into a global company with thousands of customers all over the world. “A lot has changed, but the spirit of IFS is very much the same,” says Stern, who concludes, “The essence of IFS still lies in always taking the customer’s perspective, in boldness when it comes to technology choices…and in providing a real alternative.”

IFS wants bigger piece of India's ERP pie

After a two-year partnership with a distributor in India, midmarket ERP vendor IFS has gained full ownership of its Indian operations to sharpen its focus on the rising Asian market.

After setting up a joint-venture company with India's Escosoft Technologies in January 2003, the Swedish business applications maker last month acquired all remaining shares from its partner to establish wholly owned subsidiary, IFS Solutions India.

Mark Rabjohns, president of IFS Asia-Pacific, said the decision is timely as demand for ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications in India is growing. According to research firm Gartner, ERP license revenues in India is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent through to 2008, faster than the Asia-Pacific region's estimated 8 percent growth rate.

Elaborating on the company's plans, Rabjohns told ZDNet Asia: "With IFS acquiring 100 percent of the shares, we will be investing in growing our presence in the Indian domestic market, as well as building a competency center of IFS-skilled consultants who will be deployed on overseas projects."

With over 100 staff currently in India, the company intends to add to the headcount, Rabjohns said. "IFS India will require an additional 50 to 100 resources over the course of the next 12 months," he said. "These are primarily application consultants and technical consultants who will be involved in project implementation and customization."
Rabjohns said the company will work on both a direct and indirect sales model. "IFS is now (selling) fully direct (to customers) in India, but we will also work with partners in selected industries," he said. For example, IFS will work with BAE HAL (Hindstan Aeronautics Ltd) in the defense sector.

IFS' Indian customer list includes Guru Nanak Auto Enterprises, YKK India, TexCorp, Modern Insulators and Escorts Agri Machinery.
India currently contributes less than 10 percent to IFS' Asia-Pacific revenues. "This should grow to 30 percent contribution over the next two years," Rabjohns said.
IFS' announcement follows similar plans from competitors, namely Oracle and SAP, to beef up their investments in India.

General Position on New Technologies--Building for Change

The world of business is constantly changing.
So is the world of technology and computer software.
IFS’ philosophy is very simple—
the winners are those who successfully manage change.

Building for change is a design and engineering challenge. Over the years, IFS has identified a number of best practices to meet this challenge:

1. IFS invests time in, and carefully plans, the evolution of its architecture to build on existing investments and create a robust design that can accommodate future change.
2. IFS takes the time to encapsulate and isolate architecture layers and platform components that might subsequently become subject to change.
3. IFS supports both leading brand and open-source products so that companies are free to change the environment in which IFS Applications runs.
4. IFS embraces commodities. Rather than continue to develop its own proprietary functionality, IFS uses third-party standard solutions whenever possible. This reduces legacy and prevents the company from getting stuck with overwhelming maintenance.

IFS’ strategy of building for change applies also to standards.
As new standards appear, IFS updates its architecture accordingly. XML, Java EE™, .Net, and web services were little known five years ago. Today they are all industry standards and integral parts of IFS Applications.