IFS’ win streak from late 2012 seems to be flowing into 2013. On January 16, 2013, the global enterprise applications company announced that Vantaa Energy Ltd., one of Finland’s largest urban energy companies, has selected IFS Applications 8 to streamline its business processes.

The Selection Rationale

In September 2011, Vantaa Energy reportedly started to look for a new business solution to streamline and consolidate its business processes in one enterprise applications suite. The company’s existing best-of-breed solutions were not able to fully support key processes such as project management. After an extensive public procurement process, Vantaa Energy chose IFS Applications over competing solutions from SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. There were two main focal points in the selection:

1. Functional fit—IFS got the highest points in the following evaluated areas: financials, procurement, maintenance, facilities management, construction, and project management. This showed that IFS has a very good functional fit for an energy company. Energy and utilities is one of IFS’ prioritized market segments. Since it was founded, IFS has developed and delivered best-practice-based, industry-specific solutions for the sector, covering enterprise asset management (EAM), capital project management, and asset lifecycle management. IFS solutions support all critical business enterprise processes with an integrated applications suite for capital project management, supply chain management (SCM), assets and work management, service and contracts management, sustainability, financial management, human resource management, document management, and others.
2. Overall total cost of ownership (TCO)—IFS had the lowest TCO based on Vantaa Energy’s calculation. Cost-effective and scalable, the IFS Applications suite can be used in large-scale enterprise deployments and as best-of-breed functionality.

The contract includes licenses and services worth approximately €1.6 million. The IFS solution purchased by Vantaa Energy includes support for financials, logistics, project management, facility management, and maintenance. The first phase of the implementation project is expected to be complete in September 2013.

IFS’ Energy and Utilities Stronghold

IFS has been delivering best-practice solutions to the energy and utilities industry since 1983. Deep utilities functionality, an agile application architecture, and a dedicated team of experienced professionals have made IFS the choice of leading utilities such as Three Gorges, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, Brookfield Renewable Power, Mälarenergi, Horizon Utilities, Torresol, Barking Power, PKE, France Telecom, B Sky B, TenneT, and nuclear power stations in Sweden (E.On OKG, Vattenfall Forsmark, and Ringhals), South Africa (PBMR), and China (Sanmen, Shandong, and Qinshan).