85% Of Manufacturers Need Project ERP But Few Have It, According to IFS Study

ITASCA, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IFS, the global enterprise software company, has released a study illustrating that traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is not meeting all of the needs of project-driven companies.

“Engineer to order manufacturers and engineering, procurement, and construction contractors all have an obvious need for excellent project management functionality”

According to the study results, project-driven industries with the most pressing needs for project ERP include:

• Engineering, procurement, and construction contractors
• Engineer to order manufacturers
• Process manufacturers

The study is based on a survey of more than 200 executives with industrial and manufacturing companies in North America. Results were reviewed and interpreted by Cindy Jutras, principal analyst, Mint Jutras of Boston.

Among the key findings:

• While projects are a necessity for 85 percent of respondents, 39 percent have no integration between their project management software and enterprise system.
• The ability to control processes in real-time correlates directly with better integration between project management functionality and ERP. The best results are from running an ERP application with embedded project management functionality.
• Risk management is one of the major gaps left by existing ERP solutions used by project-intensive companies.

“Engineer to order manufacturers and engineering, procurement, and construction contractors all have an obvious need for excellent project management functionality,” IFS North America Vice President of Marketing Steve Andrew said. “Many of these executives involved with engineering, fabricating or managing highly engineered products or assets believe that running traditional ERP will suffice. But traditional ERP focuses only on products, not the types of projects associated with something like engineering or constructing a processing plant, or asset lifecycle management processes like maintenance, plant shutdowns and lifecycle extensions. Companies that are in complex industries where the business value comes from managing complex projects need software designed for their type of business. That is why IFS Applications, which is perhaps the only ERP suite on the market with powerful embedded project management functionality, is such a strong choice for all of these types of companies.”

The study is available for free download at: http://download.ifsworld.com/studies.

About IFS

IFS is a public company (OMX STO: IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications™, a component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology. IFS focuses on industries where any of four core processes are strategic: service & asset management, manufacturing, supply chain and projects. The company has 2,000 customers and is present in approximately 60 countries with 2,800 employees in total. For more information about IFS, please visit: www.IFSWORLD.com.