Having been deeply involved in the evolution of IFS’s mobile solutions over the past 10 years, I always feel a great swell of pride whenever I hear about successes in the field of mobility. That is why I am very pleased to announce Visser & Smit Marine Contracting (VSMC) as the first IFS Benelux customer to deploy the IFS Notify Me Touch App.
As a market leader in offshore cable installation, VSMC, based in Papendrecht, the Netherlands, provides complete specialized offshore marine cables that play a crucial role in transferring electricity, data, and telecommunications. Working on offshore projects in various regions, VSMC needed a way to secure real-time cost reporting in order to ensure control of its international projects.
A REAL-WORLD BUSINESS CASE
VSMC decided to deploy IFS Notify Me, a member of the IFS Touch Apps family, enabling project managers to approve purchase orders, expenses and invoices in the field. Eliminating the need for performing these tasks in the office, VSMC project managers and directors will be able to speed up the approval processes resulting in improved project cost control and higher customer service levels. The IFS Touch App will run on Windows 8 tablets, which is the company’s standard device.
Commenting on the choice of IFS’s native business apps, Borg van Katwijk, Financial Director at Visser & Smit Marine Contracting said, “Our workforce is becoming increasingly mobile. By using business apps, such as IFS Notify Me, our employees are no longer required to be at their desks. IFS Notify Me enables them to approve purchase orders and invoices at any time and at any location—at home, at the office, or on the go. This boosts productivity and ensures up-to-date information in our central ERP system. We are also working closely with IFS on the future development of new Touch Apps.”
USER-CENTRIC AND OS-INDEPENDENT: IFS TOUCH APPS PHILOSOPHY
From the outset, we designed our Touch Apps based on a set of core tenets, the most important of which is the focus on the actual needs of mobile users. I believe this principle permeates the entire concept—from the uncluttered user interface, through the multiple OS compatibility (iOS, Android, Windows), to the cloud-based architecture, which makes app deployment a self-service operation.
What it comes down to in the end is making the day-to-day operations quicker, easier, and more efficient, so that companies like VSMC can focus more on their business and spend less time on administration.
