In this latest blog, IFS, Global Industry Director – Construction and Engineering (C&E), Chris Knight shares his thoughts on the fast-approaching IFS Unleashed event and why construction and engineering companies should book their place for the event of the year.
Since the launch of IFS Cloud, there has been a strong focus on adding industry-specific capabilities that our customers really care about, need and ultimately add value to their business. This focus is no exception for IFS’s construction and engineering customers, and IFS Unleashed provides the perfect opportunity to see these enhancements first-hand. To give you an overview of what you can expect to see, I’ve condensed these into three core themes:
- Accelerating intelligent insight and automation
- Elevating the service, you provide to your customers
- Unlocking new levels of experience and productivity for your people
Thinking about accelerating our core solution we have added, across all parts of the solution, more automation and intelligence enhancements to create a ‘self-driving ERP experience.’ For users, this means they’re presented with lobbies that surface key information that needs their attention in the form of KPIs and RAG reports. Meaning IFS Cloud enables real change. An example is improved asset performance prediction capability, where we are combining IFS data with sensor data to monitor performance.
Many construction and engineering companies wouldn’t associate with being a ‘service’ provider; however, maybe you should? Construction and engineering companies are continually being made more accountable for ensuring successful project delivery times, which is then extended to ensuring the assets they create are maintained to the highest standards. Recognizing this IFS Cloud can elevate service levels – a common example is in procurement, where we have focused on employee self-service; users can gain more flexible access to procurement catalogs which reduce maintenance times.
Finally, when we think about unlocking, we are trying to take the experience achieved to a new level. For example, with IFS Cloud, finance teams will unlock the ability to expand their cash planning capabilities – providing a truly unified view of your cash activities, past, present and future.
IFS Unleashed will also be a perfect opportunity to understand the IFS Cloud product roadmap and how we work with customers and industry trends to prioritize the next steps in our roadmap for C&E customers. These include improvements in the following:
- Control Change Management
- Projecting Budgeting and Forecasting
- Cash Planning
This roadmap is the path that ensures construction and engineering customers that use IFS Cloud will remain ahead of the technological curve on an evergreen platform that ensures real-business value is not just theoretical, it is standard.
Which are the best sessions to attend? – This is a question I’m asked by many when they’re trying to plan out their agenda. There are a number of key sessions on the agenda which include:
- Optimizing resources is a game changer for your
- How to successfully managing quantities through the project lifecycle business
- The bright future of modular and offsite construction
- Financial project control: Maximizing your financial performance
- Full asset lifecycle management: The golden goose that delivers triple digit revenue boost
- Mitigate hidden costs of equipment and machinery rental
So, if I had to pick an option right now, it would be Modular & Offsite Construction. Because for me, it’s fascinating how quickly and comprehensively, things are changing in such a traditional industry. Many C&E businesses understand that offsite manufacturing or modular construction is increasingly seen as an opportunity to drive change across construction, whether in general construction, specialty construction, infrastructure, or developer/house building businesses.
Recent examples of Modular & Offsite Construction includes the world’s longest suspension bridge called the “1915 Çanakkale Bridge” with a main span of 2,023m, at the cost of £2.1bn. In May last year, the tallest modular building in the world was completed in London, standing at 135m!
Some of the drivers for the change that we will highlight in the session are:
- Established target market with a value for new real estate construction alone in Europe & the USA has been estimated to be $130billion by 2030 Ref1
- Costs savings in construction estimated at 20%
- Build timescales reduced by up to 50%
- Speed for construction
- Less waste is produced on-site. Traditional construction has 30% average waste on site, but this is reduced to 5% when using offsite manufacturing and modular construction practices
- Provide more affordable housing. A survey carried out by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP) in 2019 found that 90 percent of the 200 cities around the globe polled were unaffordable to live in, based on average house price in relation to median income Ref3
Why you should book your ticket today
Compelling reasons to attend are really a combination of these drivers that make up the IFS Cloud strategy.
IFS want to continue enabling our customers to deliver #momentsofservice through a combination of the drivers above. When attending our sessions, you will see how we can achieve that together. We will show that the IFS Cloud Solution, combined with Industry Expertise can deliver value at many levels in your company.
IFS can help you find the fastest time to value by engaging with your team and we can’t wait to get together with you, in person, at IFS Unleashed – at last!
