Playing Devil’s Advocate with an Innovative Vendor’s “Techies”

Introduction
The series of articles where Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) asks vendors to provide their input on a number of market trends has received much attention and reaction from readers and vendors. Infor and IFS were the first to respond (see Two Stalwart Vendors Discuss Market Trends), followed by Progress Software (see Open Platform Provider Answers Questions about the State of the Market), xTuple (see A Semi-open Source Vendor Discusses Market Trends), and The Sage Group (see A Traditional "Local Touch" Leader Espouses a More Global Vision).
As detailed in some of TEC's previous articles, enterprise applications have evolved from mainframes via client/server to service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web service paradigms (see Architecture Evolution: From Mainframes to Service-oriented Architecture).
According to some of the latest developments, the user interface (UI) has improved and evolved on the server side (i.e., "under the hood"), especially lately. But in any enterprise application, the aim should be to reduce interaction with the system and make it as "lights out" as possible (i.e., reduce human intervention to the maximum degree possible). The only thing users should use the system for is studying the data and making the right decisions (if we don't count the heads-down folks that focus only on capturing transactions).
Then again, the interface should be adapted to the analysis being done. Poor interfaces and the inability to search for the right information are time wasters in business applications. Generally speaking, the best way to users' hearts and minds is via an intuitive UI that helps with the "zero training" and "self-evident applications" themes. The need for agility in business and the ability to continually make the changes in processes to accommodate the demands of the market means that the user ought to have intuitive tools that require minimal system training and re-training.
In evolutionary terms, from character-based "green screens," the next step was a Microsoft Windows-like "fat/rich" graphical user interface (GUI) during the client/server era. Lately, many vendors have been betting on Microsoft Office's familiarity. For instance, Microsoft Dynamics CRM's UI emulates working within Microsoft Outlook, and Duet emulates working in SAP from Microsoft Word, Excel, or Outlook, while Alloy (previously code-named Atlantic project) will emulate working in SAP from IBM Lotus Notes (see Application Giants in Duel—and Duet—for Users' Hearts, Minds… and Wallets). Moreover, Lawson Smart Client leverages a number of common Microsoft Office products (most notably Microsoft Office Groove).
However, the other school of thought is that Microsoft Office is not necessarily the only familiar "inspiration." With the help of interactive tools like Asynchronous Java and XML (AJAX) and JavaScript that provide "richness" to Web applications, Salesforce.com and other software as a service (SaaS) players use the Web browser familiarity to build their UIs. In other words, if a UI resembles Amazon's, Google's, or eBay's Web pages, who needs any formal software training?
Other similar products such as IQMS Smart Page and Smart Search, IFS Enterprise Explorer (IEE, part of the ongoing Project Aurora venture), Microsoft Dynamics Client for Office (DCO), Lawson Smart Office and Enterprise Search, Epicor Productivity Pyramid and Enterprise Search, and Infor MyDay revolve around themes such as role-based portals, contextual analytics, key performance indicators (KPIs), alerts, dashboards, etc.
Below is a list of TEC's recent blog entries that touch on the topic of "vendors trying to win users' minds and hearts."
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May a New Day Begin for Mature Enterprise Applications – Part 2 *
Intelligent Manufacturing Systems: Beating the Odds, Mightily – Part 3 *
Microsoft's Underlying Platform Parts for Enterprise Applications: Somewhat Explained – Part 3 *
Microsoft's Underlying Platform Parts for Enterprise Applications: Somewhat Explained – Part 4
IFS Appeals to Generation "Y"
Sweden-based IFS has surprised us pleasantly by going a step further to provide the familiarity of Apple's iPhone and Google search within the IFS Applications suite.
Who is IFS?
The following information was taken from the recent press release entitled IFS and Saab Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement.
IFS is a public company (OMX STO: IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications™, a fully integrated, component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology.
The company has more than 2,000 customers in 54 countries and focuses on seven main industries: aerospace and defense, utilities and telecom, manufacturing, process industries, automotive, retail and wholesale distribution, and construction contracting and service management. IFS has 2,700 employees and net revenue in 2008 was SKr 2.5 billion [$330 million USD].
IFS straightened its balance sheet and profit and loss (P&L) statements well before the current economic onslaught, which in turn has produced good financial results (against the odds) and fewer layoffs than its competitors.
A few years ago, under the new chief executive officer (CEO) Alastair Sorbie, IFS organized its priorities via a number of wise initiatives. The first priority was to pick its research and development (R&D) battles in several asset-intensive and project-based industries. The idea was to address a number of recent industry trends with new functionality. One example would be to accommodate the new project-focused ways of working or the new business paradigm, with fewer being manufactured by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and more being produced via subcontracting and outsourcing—all that while delivering products more frequently.
The capital contract management functionality was another priority for IFS because many organizations develop a product and service according to their contract obligations. Moreover, each contract is managed as a project if it has its own P&L statement. Another particular example is the in-life service and maintenance of an asset; assets are being managed more by the OEM (i.e., the user rents the asset as a service) and less by the actual asset user.
Furthermore, any product endeavors had to be in line with revenues. In some cases, major customers were involved in R&D undertakings and both parties would benefit. For IFS's part, the vendor would end up with an intellectual property for a fraction of R&D costs (if it developed it on its own), while the major customer would have the first-to-market competitive advantage in terms of IFS's functionality.
IFS also decided to selectively rely on partners (resellers) to sell and implement IFS Applications in certain markets. This would include some major customers such as Saab. Partnering with Saab would mean that
Saab's support division, besides using IFS Applications for its internal processes, will also offer its customers various business models that include a broad spectrum of services involving IT and information management. As a result, Saab, as a support integrator in collaboration with IFS, can implement solutions at customer sites, provide the service as an application service provider, or manage the assignment with in the framework of its own internal systems. (See IFS and Saab Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement.)
Finally, being ahead of the SOA curve (due to the way its suite has long been structured as components) has enabled IFS to focus on the user experience (UX) innovation. IFS believes that small- and medium-sized companies can beat the larger competitors (like IFS does against SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics) by reacting faster and adopting new and innovative ways of working by learning from iPhone's and Facebook's generation "Y." Usability leads to increased user productivity via intuitive, zero-training, and familiar interfaces such as enterprise search features like Google's Web-based search, but confined within the enterprise data and extended enterprise. IFS was one of the first vendors with the native enterprise application search capabilities, and the other vendors have lately been following suit, including the recently unveiled SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.
For more information on IFS's recent moves and philosophy, see the following TEC articles:
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Why Database-agnostic Enterprise Applications Are on the Way Out *
Is Your Enterprise Application on a Road to Nowhere? *
Blast Past Manufacturing Bottlenecks with Constraint-based Scheduling *
"Once Bitten" Vendor Is Not "Twice Shy" about New Acquisition *
Why Enterprise Application Search Is Crucial to Your ERP System
Instead of giving a ringing endorsement or criticism on IFS's moves and directions, we decided to pose a number of provocative questions to the vendor. The answers were provided by Rick Veague, chief technical officer (CTO) at IFS North America, and Dan Matthews, CTO at IFS AB.
SOURCE:http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/playing-devil-s-advocate-with-an-innovative-vendor-s-techies-19559/