IFS continues to invest in mobility, field service management with acquisition of Metrix

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announced it has signed an agreement with the owners of Metrix (“Metrix”) to purchase 100% of the membership interests. The purchase price will be paid in cash. The acquisition will further strengthen IFS's market position in the high-growth global mobility and service management application market.

Metrix was founded in 1980 in the USA, and is 100% focused on providing advanced mobility and service management applications. The company is headquartered in Waukesha (Wisconsin, USA) with subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Singapore.

The company generated net revenue of $8.7 million and EBITDA amounting to $1.3 million in the financial year ending 31 December 2011.

Metrix has built a very strong position providing service management solutions to industries such as asset and capital equipment, telecommunications, hi-tech and medical device manufacturing, transportation, and third-party/outsourced field service operations. It has approximately 90 customers including many well-known brands, such as the Ericsson Group, Motorola, Xerox, Space Engineering Services, DHL, Auto Windscreens, ITT, IMAX, Ingenico, Makino and Sysmex.

The acquisition provides IFS with a state-of-the-art, built-in, configurable and packaged mobile application for the field service market. This solution offers short time to value and a robust, mobile development framework which will add valuable mobile technology and experience to IFS. Metrix has provided mobile solutions to the field service market since 1991, and has continued to innovate to offer modern, leading-edge technology.

By combining IFS, Metrix, and IFS 360 Scheduling, a real-time workforce scheduling solution, IFS can realise strong revenue synergies as it gives IFS the most complete service management offering on the market - from a single vendor. IFS now provides both a broader service and project centric ERP solution for asset intensive industries (long life capital equipment), as well as a more customer-centric (contact centre, workforce scheduling) solution for high volume service providers - both combined with a state-of-the-art on/offline mobile application.

In addition, the acquisition further extends IFS' existing cloud strategy. Metrix is available through multiple deployment options: on-premise, software as a service (SaaS) or software + services.

“With the acquisition of Metrix, IFS can be seen as executing on its stated strategy for growth by investing in one of the fastest growing sectors for enterprise applications. Market penetration of advanced service management and mobility solutions is estimated by Gartner at only 20% of the addressable market, with highest demand in capital-intensive industries such as utilities and telecoms. This acquisition gives IFS an excellent platform to exploit the growth potential in this market and provide solutions to help our customers deliver competitive advantage. IFS will significantly strengthen its execution capabilities in this very attractive sector, especially in North America, to the benefit of all our existing and new customers,” Alastair Sorbie, IFS CEO said.

Larry Laux, Metrix Founder, said: “IFS and Metrix will be an unstoppable force in the service management and mobility market. IFS, with its international presence, strong position in service and asset management, and customer-focused culture is an ideal fit with Metrix. My team and I very much look forward to joining IFS and continuing to accelerate the growth of the mobile workforce management business.” IFS Americas will be responsible for integrating Metrix. President and CEO of IFS Americas, Cindy Jaudon, looks forward to welcoming both new customers and employees to IFS.

IFS expects that there will be a positive earnings impact from the acquisition in 2012.