Published on the 04/03/2016 | Written by Donovan Jackson

The CEO and president of IFS chats with iStart about integration, unconstrained development and operational intelligence as the ‘IoT’ moves from concept to proof of concept…

While IFS doesn’t enjoy the visibility of ERP vendors like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, the Swedish vendor has carved out a respectable niche by focusing on four core strategic processes: service & asset management, manufacturing, supply chain and projects.

Speaking by phone from Perth, UK-based CEO and president Alastair Sorbie said poor integration remains one of the limiting factors for getting optimal value out of business systems today. “With the emergence of new technologies, like the IoT and increasing mobility, there are islands of activity which don’t join up; they aren’t presented as complete business solutions.”

Concern about poor integration may seem odd in a world where its advantages are widely recognized, and APIs and integration specialists are part and parcel of the business technology landscape. But Sorbie said one of the most notable features of IT – it’s rapid, often unconstrained, development – is also one of its biggest risk factors.

“More data is coming from the shop floor thanks to cheaper sensors and inexpensive cloud software.”

Simply put, it is difficult for corporate IT departments to keep up. “The classic example is that people tend to have more sophisticated IT in their homes and personal lives. People are changing the way they work personally; when they get to the office, it’s out of sync.”

Sorbie said it is necessary to impose controls in a common way to ensure that the benefits of new technologies aren’t lost, and doing so needn’t be excessively difficult. “Nowadays, there is a lot more interoperability of applications and interchange with [third party] products. It is easier to link up; for example, with IoT you’d want to link processes to service management with live data which enables response to real events as they happen rather than historical ones.”

Sorbie is referring to operational intelligence, which he sees as an emerging trend and goes beyond traditional BI by using business flows “as a starting point”. Operational intelligence provides deeper insights into what is happening in real time; the system will identify issues immediately and automatically bring attention to it. “Just like a warning light in a car gets you focused on the information which is most important at that time, operational intelligence should cut through the noise,” he explained.

Too much information, Sorbie noted, is just as bad as too little. “What’s required is control without being a slave to the system.”

Within areas of specialty – particularly service and asset management, and manufacturing – Sorbie said the IoT and the operational intelligence it enables is progressing rapidly from ‘concept’ to ‘proof of concept’.

“We have quite a few projects underway; a lot of clients are exploring opportunities, particularly those with computer integrated manufacturing. With live integration and more data coming from the shop floor thanks to cheaper sensors and inexpensive cloud software, the ability to gather and use data is accelerated. That offers the potential to boost the effectiveness of processes, the ability to divert business flows as events happen. That’s hugely beneficial.”

IFS is currently riding high on a recent Gartner mid-market ERP report which places it squarely in the Leaders section of its Magic Quadrant.