IFS, the world`s fastest growing vendor of enterprise applications, today announced IFS Applications 2002, the latest version of its business applications suite. IFS Applications 2002 - "Packaged for Payback" targets four areas critically important for success in today`s economy: cutting operational costs, shortening implementation time for faster ROI, extending business into new areas and eliminating the hidden cost of business applications. The global launch activities for IFS Applications 2002 will start on 18 March at National Manufacturing week in Chicago.
IFS president and CEO, Bengt Nilsson, commented: "In today`s economy, companies need new ways to quickly increase revenues while, at the same time, cutting costs. That`s why IFS Applications 2002 is "Packaged for Payback". We have refined our component architecture, which allows step-by-step implementations for rapid ROI, and we`ve added a number of new components and features, all geared to giving customers a rapid, positive impact on their bottom line."
"Packaged for Payback" features in IFS Applications 2002 that provide companies with new cost-cutting opportunities include:
* Quickly collapsed order cycle times, as much as 50% or more, from new supply chain planning capabilities.
* Maximised efficiency of personnel due to innovative and easy-to-use portals for better internal and external collaboration.
* 150 pre-packaged efficiency drivers that improve productivity in internal and external value chains.
* IFS Applications 2002 contains a number of "Packaged for Payback" features that help companies extend business into new areas such as:
* Increased sales of aftermarket products and services from additional CRM capabilities.
* Faster development of new products through use of IFS collaborative engineering solutions that significantly reduce design and production time.
* Easier expansion into new markets with new supply chain planning capabilities that provide accurate views of future product demand and establish more efficient production and procurement capabilities.
* The flexibility to quickly change and/or add manufacturing styles by adding new components.
A number of features found in IFS Applications 2002 help companies eliminate the hidden cost of business applications and achieve faster ROI:
* Implementation that takes a few months rather than years - with no disruptions during the process due to IFS` component architecture. Companies can implement only the components they require now, adding others as their needs change. IFS Life Cycle Support includes integrated capabilities for all aspects of IT governance from sales, application configuration, physical installation, implementation, roll-out, training, support and updates.
* Localisation of business applications for all major geographical markets is pre-packaged into one single set of source code. This allows most companies to run on one version only, which means significantly faster international implementation as well as lower support and upgrade cost.
* Training and education of employees is dramatically decreased with new online Web-based training material that is totally integrated with the application to help customers better utilize IFS Applications.
* Lower integration costs through the new generation of IFS Connect that ensures scalability and high transaction capacity. This platform independent integration architecture includes eg packaged XML interfaces and out-of-the-box support for SOAP, IBM WebSphere MQ Family, Microsoft BizTalk Server, enabling rapid set-up of Web services.
* Easier Web administration with the Web server of choice. Using J2EE Java Servlet standard IFS Applications 2002 now support Apache Web servers as well as Microsoft IIS.
* Improved supply chain management functionality that is refined for specific verticals and aligned with the Supply Chain Council standardised reference models.
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IFS develops and supplies component-based business applications for medium and large enterprises. IFS Applications, which is based on Web and portal technology, offers 60+ enterprise application components used in manufacturing, supply chain management, customer relationship management, financials, engineering, maintenance and human resource administration. IFS provides customers step-by-step evolution to the extended enterprise with e-business solutions that offer partner, customer, and supplier collaboration.
A leading global business applications supplier, IFS has more than 3 200 employees, with sales in 43 countries. The company is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (XSSE:IFS).
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