A couple weeks ago, and with a certain degree of pomp and circumstance, ERP developer IFS launched its new cloud solution, IFS Cloud. The drumroll sounded before the digital event began, and by the time the presentation started, the entire IFS leadership was in place—including CEO Darren Roos, CPO Christian Pedersen and CTO Dan Matthews.

But what was so remarkable about this new solution? On its own, making use of the cloud does not sound like a major revolution in the current environment, and that IFS would like to have its user community on this technical platform is not exactly surprising.

However, the head of technology in IFS, Dan Matthews, sees a great deal more importance to this announcement:

“This is a solution that changes the playing field,” he says. “What we have done is to bring capacity and strengths from many of the products we have acquired in recent years to IFS Cloud, so that it has ‘the sum of the best we have to offer.’ In some cases, we have embedded existing capacity, such as our planning and scheduling optimization for service; in other cases, we have rethought the possibilities within IFS Cloud—which I assume you can call ‘re-implemented’ if you want—and we have adapted everything to the new IFS Cloud architecture and platform.”

I have taken a closer look at the matter. Meet CTO Dan Matthews in today's in-depth interview about what the new IFS Cloud means for customers, the ecosystem and the IFS platform’s role in this.

Furthermore, we have drilled deeper into a very interesting side of IFS and their new cloud platform, related to ease of use: the capability to connect value chains across functions in everything from business resource planning (ERP), customer relations (CRM) and human capital management (HCM), to enterprise asset management (EAM) and field service management (FSM). Matthews explains that IFS’ modular setup and simplicity to create seamless structures are in turn linked to the latest hype in the software industry: no-code or low-code platforms.

Powerful Cloud Platform. Now that IFS has made its big IFS Cloud presentation, they expect that the already good pace in terms of the company's cloud growth will increase even more. Last year in 2020, growth was 60 percent. However, it has not been stated from which levels this increase comes, and due to the high number, there is reason to believe that the increase will take place from slightly lower levels. But this can now be developed exponentially, IFS CTO Dan Matthews believes, and he points to the giant step that has been taken with the new IFS Cloud. “What we’ve done is nothing less than a game-changer,” he says.

To most people, IFS is best known for its ERP, EAM and FSM systems. So, it may come as a surprise that IFS is one of the world’s top ten leaders in the PLM segment cPDm (collaborative Product Definition management), where analyst firm CIMdata ranked them as number seven in terms of revenues in 2020. Furthermore, their business is global with significant operations and sales in Europe, Middle East, Asia and North America. In the latter region, just last year IFS won a great order—the biggest in the company’s history—from iconic Canadian airplane manufacturer De Haviland.

As stated above, the company has now created a single seamless cloud platform with APIs in all directions and with a single data model, and it has built this platform based on the Applications suite's hallmark: modularity. You can combine exactly the configuration of capabilities needed and connect all the pieces with associativity which means, among other things, that a change or essential information that enters the system propagates to all relevant allocations.

Before we move on to what the new IFS Cloud brings, here is a brief background of IFS and their software suite, Applications.

Analyst Gartner positioned IFS as the clear leader in Field Service Management in their June 2020 Magic Quadrant.

1.2 Million Users and A Record Year

Since 2010, the company has had explosive development in terms of technology, capabilities and commercial success. This fact has not passed unnoticed by analysts such as Gartner, IDC or ARC. On the contrary, Applications has been positioned as one of the ERP market's leading solutions, especially in the ERP, FSM (Field Service Management) and EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) areas. Gartner has IFS positioned in the magic quadrant leaders square on the midmarket ERP and FSM side, and when it comes to SaaS/Cloud ERP, IDC has placed the company as one of the leaders. In the latter case, this occurred even before the recent launch of the new IFS Cloud.

Successful Leadership. IFS CEO Darren Roos, a former SAP cloud chief, has gained real momentum in the company's growth. Net income for the tough coronavirus-impacted 2020 ended at plus 14 percent and the company is on its way to becoming a billion-dollar company ($0.8 billion last year).

Another interesting figure is that of IFS’ userbase, which has expanded to around 1.2 million globally. Furthermore, the growth in the company has been explosive under Darren Roos’ leadership.

Even 2020 brought high-level expansion to the table, despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This includes a sharp increase of plus 26 percent on the licensing side, and the total revenue development shows similar growth levels. IFS has therefore been able to present figures that indicate a curve pointing significantly steeper uphill than tough competitors such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics and others.

Among more idle upward curves during 2020, IFS increased its sales by 14 percent, to almost $850 million, compared to 2019. Continuing at that pace, the company reaches the $1.0 billion mark in sales in just over two years.

Last year, as mentioned above, IFS picked up their historically largest deal to date in the Aerospace & Defense (A&D) area with De Haviland Canada. But the big deals did not stop there. Just a few weeks after the De Haviland order, IFS received another substantial order for their Applications 10 system in the A&D sector. This was from the British Marshall Aerospace and Defense Group, which invested in the IFS suite for its 1,700 employees in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada.

This good position on the ERP side does not prevent IFS from also being included as a fairly successful player in the PLM area, where according to CIMdata's figures regarding cPDm it is included as number seven in the top 10 players in terms of annual direct revenues, software and services.

“In our segmentation, IFS fits into our focused collaborative Product Definition management (cPDm) segment for their offerings around service lifecycle management (SLM), enterprise asset management (EAM), and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO),” commented CIMdata VP and analyst, Stan Przybylinski.

What Is So Remarkable About IFS Cloud?

When it comes to the IFS Applications suite, the company is building its success on the software suite’s modularity, simplicity to implement and use, and the broad functional coverage. Now that it has made its major IFS Cloud presentation, Darren Roos and his coworkers expect an already good pace in cloud growth will increase even more.

In 2020, growth was 60 percent when it comes to transitioning to the cloud. However, it has not been stated which levels this growth is measured from, and due to the high number there is reason to believe that the increase will take place from slightly lower levels.

But IFS CTO, Dan Matthews believes this can now be developed exponentially. As a technology developer, he points to the giant step he believes the company has taken with the new IFS Cloud. Overall, he speaks of, "a single technology platform with a shared user experience, a data model and a consistent support offering."

IFS’ CPO Christian Pedersen talked about five points that makes the company unique.

Now, this is a characterization that most cloud developers would sign and claim also applies to their platforms, so we return to the basic question in the article intro: the cloud is perhaps not revolutionary news, so what is remarkable about the new IFS Cloud?

“I think that our CPO, Christian Pedersen, expressed the whole thing spot-on in his presentation during the launch,” says Matthews. “We are talking about five points in particular that make us unique with IFS Cloud compared to the market in general.”

A unique industry depth. "We continue to focus on the five core industries we serve and have a great depth of expertise in, and this will only grow and develop with each release of IFS Cloud, which now also has industry-adapted lobbies."
One single platform. "IFS Cloud is a single solution that delivers all of our class-leading features, not multiple products and solutions bolted together through complex integrations and hidden behind a common interface."
Embedded solutions for innovation. “Here are technologies ready to be used out-of-the-box within IFS Cloud, so that they can be applied and deliver value immediately, not as separate modules, add-ons or conceptual evidence that require long, expensive tests.”
All on the same platform. "A single one, whether we are talking about the cloud or locally, on-premise installed."
The user experience. “From the very first commitment with our marketing part, to value technology, architectural design and distribution and decades of use, we are committed to delivering a sharp experience to users throughout the life cycle.”

What Does IFS’ New Slogan "Moment of Service" Mean?

In addition to these five points, Matthews emphasizes that IFS is thinking about how to help its customers deliver what IFS calls "the moment of service."

This concept is not entirely easy to define, but the point seems to be wanting to help your customers deliver the right service at the right moment—"the moment when the service is delivered"—with optimal effects for the customer's end customers. This means that every internal process must have been completed successfully, on time and at a high quality, so that what the service or product customers have paid for comes to them when they need it and exactly how they expect it.

“It is about how we help them in turn focus on their customers, their employees and their fixed assets. What we have done is bring in capacity and strengths from many of the products we have acquired to IFS Cloud, so that IFS Cloud has the sum of the best we have to offer,” explains Matthews.

“In some cases, we have embedded existing capacity, such as our planning and scheduling optimization for services; in other cases, we have rethought the possibilities within IFS Cloud and we have adapted them to the IFS Cloud architecture and platform. To be clear, even though we gather our solutions in IFS Cloud, this does not mean that we stop supporting our other products. But this does mean that many of our customers who have used the other products can now start looking at the value of moving to IFS Cloud, which will be a positive change in their game plans,” he adds.

Matthews further points out that they have a completely new view of the user/customer and the ecosystem around them which consists of the customers and all partners involved.

“Here we talk about how to collaborate on development, delivery and support of the customer solution. We have a completely new IFS Lifecycle Experience module to support this, where everyone collaborates on one and the same ‘construction site’ in the cloud. The customer has control and invites IFS and partners to participate,” he says.

The entire application architecture has changed in IFS Cloud, from being based on Java EE to a base of containers, Kubernetes etc. This allows you to run on a large scale and efficiency in the cloud, while we provide distribution choices (cloud or on premise) and mobile.

What is The Difference Between IFS’ Old Clouds and the New?

IFS already has the cloud on its menu, and has gained an increasing number of users on this technology platform. What are the differences between the new and the old IFS Cloud?

“Just like you say, our IFS applications, FSM and PSO products have been in the cloud for a few years now. However, there are several important cloud things that are new in IFS Cloud compared to before,” says Matthews.

“The entire application architecture has changed from being based on Java EE to a base of containers, Kubernetes, etc. This is what allows us to run on a large scale and efficiency in the cloud, while providing distribution choices (cloud or on premise) and mobile,” he adds.

IFS' chief technology officer further states that the company's new 100-percent browser-based IFS Aurena interface and 100-percent API coverage with REST APIs make those who have IFS Cloud a ‘model citizen’ when it comes to cloud use.

“With IFS Cloud, we have therefore removed the older user interface for IFS Enterprise Explorer and also the ability for users to log in to the database. APIs are the only way in,” Matthews explains.

“This allows us to offer a much higher level of self-service and automation for customers in terms of how their solution is created and supported over time."

“The most important advantage of a low-code platform is that it enables the developer to express more functionality in a faster and more compact way with the help of visual tools,” says Dan Matthews.

No or Low Code

Finally, about no-code or low-code platforms, which have become a hot topic in the last two years: What are the benefits and how does IFS Cloud work in this regard?

“The main advantage of a low code platform is that it allows the developer to express more functionality—user interface, flow logic, data models, integrations interactions—in a faster and more compact way with the help of visual tools and a compact low code language, rather than traditional programming in 3G language where you may need to write a lot of code, management logic, etc. to achieve the same thing,” Matthews says.

“Low code platforms are often also to be used by 'ordinary' businessmen without developer training. In my opinion, this is a bit exaggerated. While it may be easy to outline a simple user interface as a non-developer, when trying to build complete applications—with all of the data modeling, actual logic, highly interactive user interfaces, etc.—it really helps and in many cases is necessary to have a developer background,” he adds.

How is low code used in IFS Cloud? Matthews points to three pieces.

“One thing you may not be directly aware of is that very large parts, the entire browser-based Aurena UI, our built-in mobile apps, our APIs, our data model, parts of the business logic, in IFS Cloud are developed using our own low-code: Domain-specific language (DSL),” he explains. “This allows us to produce functionality much faster, while we get higher consistency and quality. When we compare the development in IFS Cloud with the development in some of the products we have bought over the years and which do not have this low-code strategy, we can see that the pace in IFS Cloud is several times higher.”

He also explains that because IFS Cloud has 100 percent coverage of open RESTFul APIs (which implement the oData standard), it is very easy to use third-party low-code platforms—such as PowerApps, Mendix or Outsystems, just to name a few—to develop task-focused applications "on top” of IFS Cloud.

A good example of how the functionality in IFS Cloud can be used for almost maximum automation of processes in connection with field service was run at the launch event with the CIMCORP case, where automation is used very efficiently.

Simplicity as a Thematic Development Line

When it comes to low code, for a long time IFS with Applications has been based on simple drag-and-drop solutions. Take the Lobby idea, and how to create exactly custom dashboards without being a programming specialist—something that undeniably looks to lean towards “low-code thinking.” How do you see this as a kind of thematic development line in your and IFS’ work to develop easy to use software?

“As you say, there are many parts to tailoring a solution that suits a customer's business that has been done according to the ‘drag-and-drop’ or ‘no code idea’ for several years,” says Matthews. “The major new addition to these features in IFS Cloud is our intelligent business process automation. Here you can design automation that, unlike lobbies and other configurations, not only simplifies the work for users but actually automates away work completely. We had a good example in the launch event with the CIMCORP case, where every time the customer sends a product, automation is used to invoke a machine learning (ML) model, which determines whether it is likely that an on-site technician will be needed to install the product. And if so, the automation solution automatically creates this service visit. Our scheduling engine is invoked to get the right technicians assigned at the right time and notifies the customer.”

“This ‘automates’ several steps that would otherwise need to be done by one person,” he adds. “And if the person was sick or on vacation, it might have been completely forgotten and the customer gets a lower level of service.”

This shows some of the power of the new intelligent process automation and is one of the factors that, together with one of the industry's most cohesive and easy-to-handle complete solutions, makes IFS Cloud a remarkably good cloud solution.