In its quest to become an ever more global enterprise software company, IFS recently announced a partnership with Infosys, a global provider of consulting and technology services. The global partnership covers joint sales activities toward targeted industries in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, as well as development of skills in the IFS Applications software suite within Infosys, which should aid in the delivery of successful projects.

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IFS, the global enterprise applications company, recently announced that Emirates, an airlines with one of the youngest fleets in the sky, has selected IFS Applications 8 to manage its new engine overhaul facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Emirates is one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world, flying to 132 destinations in 77 countries across six continents.

The airline operates 198 wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircrafts and has orders for an additional 200 aircrafts, worth more than $71 billion (USD). In 2011, the airline announced the construction of Asia’s most technically sophisticated engine overhaul facility in Dubai. The facility will cover 90,000 square meters and will serve as Emirates’ in-house engine overhaul facility. IFS Applications will support all operations at the overhaul facility, which, when fully operational, will service up to 300 engines per year.

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While some analysts may question the true revenue figure that can be attributed solely to SAP HANA (i.e., whether SAP is intentionally crediting HANA with revenues that might be attributable to other SAP offerings), the fact remains that businesses have currently only just scratched the surface of SAP HANA’s potential. For example, SAP recently announced that HANA would underpin new releases of manufacturing solutions as well as updates for existing solutions covering engineering, manufacturing, and sustainable operations. The announcement was made at Hannover Messe 2013, held April 8-12 in Hannover, Germany.

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While it may not be surprising that IFS has lately had a streak of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise asset management (EAM) wins in its traditional asset-intensive industries, it is interesting to note that some recent wins and expanded project footprints are in the realm of field service management (FSM). IFS has tackled this attractive software category via the recent acquisitions of Metrix and 360 Scheduling (see the related article for more details).

In late 2012, IFS won an Asian telecom company. In January 2013, IFS announced that the seventh largest Pepsi-Cola franchise company in the US is expanding its footprint with the IFS Metrix Service Management Mobile solution. Read the rest of this entry »

IFS’ win streak continued with Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent Holdings, LLC (“Atlas Pipeline”), active in gathering and processing natural gas for transportation to commercial, industrial, and residential markets, recently choosing IFS Applications as its new enterprise solution. The oil and gas industry is one of IFS’ core markets. Based on a single product line, IFS Applications delivers component-based business solutions that manage the entire lifecycle of contracts, projects, assets, and services. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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In late November 2012, IFS announced that a major North American offshore oil & gas drilling company had signed a contract to implement IFS Applications as its enterprise asset management (EAM) software system. The unnamed offshore drilling company will implement the IFS Applications for Offshore Service edition to support maintenance operations. The deployed solution will include projects, maintenance, and IFS Instant Replication, a special solution for rapid replication of data between offshore rigs or vessels and onshore facilities. Read the rest of this entry »

In late November 2012, Siemens and Bentley Systems announced a strategic collaboration to integrate digital product design and manufacturing processes design offerings by Siemens PLM Software with information modeling for facilities lifecycle design offerings by Bentley. Initially, the companies will focus on the digital factory for automotive and discrete manufacturing. In other words, the Siemens Industry Automation Division and Bentley will initially collaborate on common file formats and content, integrated workflows for factory layout, and the convergence of process and layout. This work is an extension of earlier collaborations between the two organizations that resulted in each deploying technology offerings developed by the other (see the related news item).

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In a flurry of product announcements at the IFS World Conference 2012 in Gothenburg, Sweden, last week, IFS announced the launch of it reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) toolkit. Based on IFS’ long experience and heritage in asset-intensive industries, the solution is optimized for any industry that implements complex or capital-intensive assets and is delivered through a flexible cloud-based model. Read the rest of this entry »

It was interesting and perhaps telling that on the so-called “Super Tuesday” on March 6, 2012, when the Republican (GOP) presidential candidates were duking it out in 10 US states, two once-fierce competitors in the spare parts planning & optimization (SPP/O) space decided to merge instead of continuing to bludgeon each other. Indeed, Servigistics and MCA Solutions have competed for virtually every major deal in the space since their inceptions over a decade ago.

The NY Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox or LA Lakers vs. Boston Celtics sports rivalry analogies could describe the software rivalry here: there was never any love lost in the process, and the companies and their staffers were monitoring each other keenly (and crowing over each other’s occasional misfortunes or missteps).

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My blog post earlier this year discussed IFS AB’s (OMX Stockholm: IFS) continued market success in spite of the tough economic milieu.  The IFS Applications suite is positioned as the intelligent Tier 1 enterprise resource planning (ERP) alternative choice for customers seeking efficient return on investment (ROI). The company’s “agile ERP alternative” message is well received by the market and interest in its product remains high. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the reasons why Infor, despite its over 70,000 large customer base, hasn’t been regarded as a serious enterprise applications contender has been the company’s spotty relationship with its channel partners. Partners currently contribute only about 25 percent of Infor’s license revenue (except for Latin America, where that ratio is 50 percent).

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Part 1 of this blog series introduced ClickSoftware Technologies (NASDAQ: CKSW), which until recently has focused solely on workforce and service optimization software solutions for large field service companies. Gradually, via both internal development and a few appetizing acquisitions in 2009, the vendor has added a few important growth engines, such as mobile computing solutions, shift planning (rostering) solutions, and solutions for small to medium businesses (SMBs).

Part 2 then analyzed the individual modules (in a price list manner) and logical bundles of the vendor’s flagship Service Optimization Suite as well as a number of original concepts that have differentiated ClickSoftware in the field service workforce optimization market. One of these concepts is the so-called real-time service enterprise.

Part 3 analyzed ClickSoftware’s Mobility Suite, as the major enabler of the real-time service enterprise as well as the vendor’s existing customers and go-to-market strategy. One of the major tenets of the vendor’s expansion into new markets has been the strategic alliance with SAP. This final part will recap the company’s strengths and point out its still outstanding challenges. 

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These days when all the excitement seems to be coming from “social anything” and “cloud anything” gadgets, it is refreshing to see some tried-and-true enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors doing very well in their much less exciting manufacturing realms. The two vendors in this instance are IQMS and IFS, and there are many similarities between them (other than the superficial one that their names start with “I” and end with “S”).

Namely, both vendors are focused solely on manufacturing (mostly in discrete manufacturing, but also in mixed-mode discrete and process manufacturing environments), they both leverage Oracle’s database and Microsoft’s client-side technologies, and are currently happy to remain deployed on-premises (perhaps with some managed hosting options). In addition, both vendors tend to offer complete functionality natively and scalable solutions without requiring costly third-party interfaces. 

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Part 1 of this blog series introduced ClickSoftware Technologies (NASDAQ: CKSW), which until recently had focused solely on workforce and service optimization software solutions for large field service companies. Gradually, via both internal development and a few appetizing acquisitions in 2009, the vendor added a few important growth engines, such as mobile computing solutions, shift planning (rostering) solutions, and solutions for the Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs).

Part 2 then analyzed the individual modules and logical bundles of the vendor’s flagship Service Optimization Suite as well as a number of original concepts that have differentiated ClickSoftware in the field service workforce optimization market. One of these concepts is the so-called real-time service enterprise. 

Read the rest of this entry »