IFS Connect UK&I BIRMINGHAM

BY GIACOMO LEE

IFS Connect rolled into Birmingham for its UK&I iteration, as held in the modern and agile venue of Millennium Point. Arguably those same descriptors could be used to describe IFS - indeed, in his fireside chat, CEO Darren Roos argued that the word businesses should keep in mind this year is agility.

The chief exec underlined his recommendation by passionately arguing against enterprises aspiring only to efficiency. In a press briefing afterwards, Roos explained that planning for efficiency results in a “blind spot for opportunities”.

“Agility effectively means we need to make savings,” the CEO continued, “but we still have to be open to the idea there will still be opportunities - and those opportunities won’t necessarily have been there prior to the downturn.”

Efficiency meant deals had been “slipping” for IFS last year, only for traction to pick up and help with recent robust quarterlies for the company. In Roos’ view, companies in the UK, Ireland and around the globe have told themselves it’s time “to get on with our lives”.

IFS Connect saw honesty on the state of the UK market; Brexit was men- tioned by both Roos and managing director for UK and Ireland Alan Laing on stage, perhaps suggesting it’s not much of a dirty word anymore in British business. (Laing also rather memorably delivered his keynote address whilst wearing a kilt and trainers).

Speaking with UK&I MD Laing later in the day, I learned how IFS’ prospect is pulling in UK customers mainly in construction, manufacturing and renewables.

“We’re getting a lot of good, net new customers in renewables,” he elaborates. “Also oil and gas, but that’s kind of adjunctive to renewables. We’ve always had the EAM capabilities, so the majority of businesses are all about assets.”

Cars,

Gondolas And Factories

The event also saw interesting sessions for attendees, including the customer success story of Morgan Motor Company, British car manufacturer and, prior to IFS, one-time SAP customer. One of the company’s vehicles was proudly displayed on the event floor for attendees to snap photos of, whilst a mock replica of an IFS Cloud cable car cabin from London’s transport network provided another opportunity for fun photography.

One decent breakout session was The Connected Factory, as presented by IFS global industry directors for manufacturing, Andy Burton and Maggie Slowik. ERP Today learnt all about smart, connected factories in the IFS sense through an interview with the duo, touching on Industry 4.0 and more.

“We’ve always had a good Manufacturing Execution System (MES), but it was kind of under the radar and not user friendly,” Burton told us. “So what we’ve done is simplified it for the user and brought it into all of our dashboards”.

Meanwhile for the directors, Indus- try 4.0 is “almost an aspiration” for business, rather than anything else.

“Industry 4.0 is looking at technology and adjusting processes, by using our people,” Slowik explained. “A lot of companies still struggle with change management and with the cross-functional approach. They’re still stuck in the early stages of digital transformation because they can’t get the talent nor get the processes and technology investment right.”

In other words, neither agile nor efficient, perhaps - and that’s where the IFS “connect” power may possibly be needed.