By Kathy Gibson – Everyone has heard of the enterprise resource processing (ERP) software giants, and – love them or hate them – probably has a pretty fixed idea about their capability and position in the market.
They may not necessarily have heard about IFS: but the software company is starting to make a name for itself outside of its traditional mid-market stamping ground.
Global CEO Darren Roos is steering IFS into the enterprise space, and he believes it is well positioned to succeed.
Roos is no stranger to the enterprise software market: was MD of the South Africa Software AG office before moving to the company’s European management team and later taking on several senior positions at SAP’s head office.
When he had the opportunity to come to IFS, he saw the potential in the company and seized the opportunity.
“Our strategy is to move up and compete more in the big enterprises,” he says. “IFS has a compelling return on investment (ROI) because customers are able to deploy fast – and the software is easy to use.
“It’s all about time to value and a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
“I believe that IFS will well positioned to win.”
The company is not as well known as the big brand names, he points out, which leads to an interesting dichotomy.
“It means that in many markets we are completely unknown; but on the other hand this can be a positive in that there is no legacy debt associated with the brand.
“I have come to recognise that this is positive. When we get in front of customers we are able to tell the story, and control the narrative. The customer doesn’t have an existing perception of what the business is likely to do.”
The market is a lot more receptive to solutions from smaller, innovative vendors than they might have been a couple of years back, he adds.
“There was a time when no-one got fired for buying solutions from the large vendors, and customers didn’t have to think too hard about alternatives.” The market is much more open to agile new players and IFS is seizing the opportunity, Roos says.
He has no doubt that the software is well able to compete in the enterprise. “We have traditionally played in the mid-market, but we certainly don’t lack the functionality enterprise customers need – and we are winning a lot of deals in the enterprise space.”
Roos says IFS is an attractive alternative to many born-in-the-cloud offerings. “We have put a lot of time and investment into our cloud offering, and can offer the completely integrated functionality that enterprise customers want.
“We’ve been building ERP solutions for almost 40 years, so we have a great functionality. Customers want that, and they also want flexibility and agility, which we can give them as well.”
Roos has also spent the last 18 months making sure that IFS is aligned with a global ecosystem of vendor and consulting partners so customers get a lot more options.
“We’ve not signed up a lot of really significant global relationships,” he says. “Customers want to access a breadth of skills, as well as specialisations when needed. So we have invested heavily in creating these partnerships, working with the channel to create a vibrant IFS practice that is better able to serve customers.”
The company has offered free training and today has “literally thousands” of IFS consultants.
“Everywhere from Australia to Dubai, we have ensured there are IFS partners with industry expertise in the markets where customers want to deploy our solutions.”
As a result, IFS revenue is up 40% year on year, and the company has signed up literally hundreds of new customers.
“We’ve won some great new deals in South Africa,” Roos says. “The local office has increased revenue by 400% year-on-year.
“The market here was a little stagnant for some time, but we see huge potential and are hiring new people to seize the opportunities.”
While broadening the ecosystem, Roos has been working on gaining better focus in the product set.
“We have been drilling down to ensure not trying to be all things to all people. This is one of the flaws in the industry, a tendency to cast the net really wide and trying to do many different things.
“Customers want solutions that go in faster, are easier to use, and give them lower TCO. This implies less customisation and more specialisation.”
IFS has focused on a subset of industries where its processes and functionality are well-suited and aims to work with those customers on fast deployment.
“We have a very large customer in the Netherlands that deployed a huge project in just seven months,” Roos says. “In fact, we did our own end-to-end ERP project and went live in six months.”
These timelines are not commonly seen in ERP deployments, he adds, but they are not unusual for IFS.
“It comes down to our vertical specialisation, our focus and our commitment to the ecosystems.”
IFS works with 350 partners around the world, ranging in size from boutique firms to the consulting giants.
The bottom line, and the secret to IFS’s success, Roos says, is that it focuses on keeping customers happy. “It may sound cliched, but you have to listen to what customers want.
“The phrase customer-driven innovation is so important. During the last 20 years I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen engineers building functionality that they think is important that the customers don’t need or want.
“Instead, you have to stay focused on innovation that is customer-centric. Yes, customers often don’t know what they want, and you have to innovate ahead of the curve, which is why the focus on the customer is so important.”
This might not even be functionality, Roos points out. Some of the big disruptors have had more to do with their ease of deployment and usability that with their features, functionality or price.
“Staying focused on what your customers really want and demand is important. And if your customers are unhappy be prepared to change your model.”