IFS ACQUIRES POKA

IFS announces it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Poka, the Quebec based provider of a connected worker platform. Poka enables factory and field workers to be more efficient across all aspects of their jobs from training and development to troubleshooting. This capability enables businesses to measure productivity across machinery and operators globally and therefore provides a clear insight into profitability. Poka also provides actionable insights for companies to stay compliant and provide safer working conditions as part of their ESG goals.

collaboration, orchestration, and intelligent automation across all cyber defense services. As the foundation for the Help AG cyber defense service offering, UNIFY brings together people, processes and technologies in a next-generation platform delivering consistent, high-quality services and a seamless customer experience.

Commenting on the launch, Stephan Berner, Chief Executive Officer at Help AG, said: “The future of cybersecurity is service-centric, and Help AG has long been at the helm of this evolution – from the launch of our Managed Cyber Defense offering in 2015, to the launch of Help AG as a Service in 2021, and now with Help AG UNIFY, which represents our service-centric business evolution 3.0. As a solution to fragmented and overly complex security infrastructures, the UNIFY platform provides an exceptional consolidation of diverse security controls, powered by intelligent automation. This reinforces our outcomebased approach to service delivery with the ultimate goal of delivering added value to our customers.”

Over the past decades companies have invested trillions of dollars enabling back office workers to do their jobs. With the massive focus on efficiency, industry 4.0 and the merging of the physical and digital worlds to drive automation, companies are now looking to enable factory and field workers to work smarter, safer and more efficiently.

The acquisition puts IFS at the nexus of this trend as it now combines its ERP / FSM / EAM technology with Poka and extends its value all the way to the actual user empowering them at every step.

Founded in 2014 by Alexandre Leclerc and Antoine Bisson – the company has customers in 55 countries which include brands such as Nestlé, Tetra Pak, Mars, Bosch, RioTinto, Coty, Alcoa, Hitachi Energy, Mahle, and more. For companies such as these, recent global events have created a heightened degree of complexity, and uncertainty in labor availability as well as impacted supply chains and raw material sourcing. To address these business challenges, organisations are doubling down on their efforts to achieve faster digital transformation. At the heart of this renewed focus is the need to empower their own employees making the Connected Worker a key focus.