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IBM Maximo, Big Blue’s enterprise asset management (EAM) solution, will empower Diriyah to optimize asset performance, implement predictive maintenance, and streamline operations. This deployment marks a significant step towards realizing Diriyah’s vision of a technologically advanced and sustainable urban center.

Implementation is already underway. Diriyah is leveraging Maximo’s AI-driven capabilities for real-time asset monitoring, predictive analytics, and condition-based maintenance. This approach minimizes downtime and ensures the long-term sustainability of Diriyah’s infrastructure.

By consolidating critical workloads, including AI-powered asset performance analysis, real-time condition monitoring, and predictive analytics, into a single platform, Diriyah anticipates significant gains in operational reliability and cost efficiency.

“[The collaboration] exemplifies the vital role that efficient asset management plays in striking the right balance to achieve rapid urbanization, sustainable operations, and superior operational standards,” said Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Company. “It is another important milestone in our accelerating development program to build our vibrant new city on the outskirts of Riyadh.”

The implementation of IBM Maximo aligns with Diriyah’s hybrid cloud strategy. IBM’s flexible deployment model, integrating on-premises infrastructure with cloud environments, facilitates enhanced data-driven decision-making, more efficient asset utilization, and increased resilience. These factors are crucial in Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving urban landscape. This strategic partnership with IBM reinforces Diriyah’s dedication to leveraging cutting-edge technology for sustainable urban development and setting new standards for smart city technology.

According to Fahad Alanazi, General Manager, IBM Saudi Arabia, “Through the integration of predictive maintenance and real-time monitoring capabilities within IBM Maximo Application Suite, Diriyah Company stands poised to catapult its asset management practices into unprecedented heights.”

What This Means for ERP Insiders

The right implementation partner streamlines complex projects. Diriyah has chosen eSolutions Saudi Arabia as its partner to implement MAS. According to Ziad Lamaa, General Manager of eSolutions Saudi Arabia, his company will help Diriyah optimize performance, maximize Maximo’s efficiency, and help deploy the EAM smoothly for a smooth and successful rollout. Diriyah’s use case demonstrates the benefits of a centralized approach through an implementation partner for large, complex projects. This is highly relevant for any organization seeking to improve asset lifecycle management and reduce operational costs.

Predictive maintenance reduces downtime. Maximo’s AI-driven predictive analytics enable organizations to proactively anticipate equipment failures and schedule maintenance, minimizing costly downtime and maximizing asset lifespan. Diriyah’s use case demonstrates this as the company’s utilization of MAS will help it predict future infrastructure needs and proactively address them. This applies to any organization with complex equipment, from manufacturing to transportation.

Real-time asset monitoring can optimize performance. Maximo provides real-time visibility into asset performance, allowing organizations to identify and address potential issues before they escalate. Diriyah’s implementation showcases how this can be applied to large-scale infrastructure projects, ensuring smooth operations and efficient resource allocation. This is valuable for businesses managing diverse asset portfolios, such as utilities or facility management.

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The company detailed the new features in a recent release announcement. They include:

• A new drag-and-drop scheduling tool for work orders improves efficiency and flexibility.
• Enhanced time tracking for manufacturing, including the ability to track time spent on specific serial numbers.
• New reporting capabilities for inspection failures, including cost analysis.
• Improved controls for user access to sensitive data and work locations.
• New reports for tool maintenance, invoice status, and more.
• Various usability enhancements across different modules, such as batch printing receipt labels, improved BOM import, and enhanced Release to Production functionality.

For users updating new field types in the system, the new release also supports a multi-select option in user-defined fields. It also provides warehouse transfer enhancements to support in-transit warehouses in the warehouse transfer orders module and component-level quality alerts in the system.

Improved pricing and costing import tools with provisions for price and cost notes and the ability to set default scrap factors for parts are also embedded into the new release along with improved control over quote-to-order and order-to-shipment processes based on customer terms.

Overall, Cetec ERP aims to simplify daily tasks, improve team efficiency, and enhance overall system functionality for its users with these updates.

What this means for ERP insiders…

Stay competitive. By staying current with ERP release updates, businesses can gain competitive advantage, improve operational efficiency, and drive growth. ERP release updates like the one by Cetec ERP introduce new features that address evolving business needs. It always benefits users to keep track of these releases and updates as they could also include new technologies and features like AI-powered analytics, mobile access, and stronger integration with existing or other systems.

Data integrity at the core. Data management and quality is always top-of-the-mind for most ERP users. SAPinsider research shows that technology migrations and business transformation initiatives such as the move to SAP S/4HANA and the advent of AI are forcing many companies to get their data house in order. ERP updates improve data accuracy and consistency resulting in enhanced accuracy in reporting and better decision-making. These updates can also include advanced analytics capabilities, such as predictive analytics and machine learning, that provide valuable insights into business performance. SAP users particularly can also benchmark their performance with their peers by participating in this SAPinsider survey today!

Get the latest technology updates. Updates often include enhancements to the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) making the system easier to navigate and use. Moreover, the increased flexibility and customization options offered in new releases allow businesses to tailor their system to specific requirements. For manufacturing and warehousing, new releases offer many new features that can help to automate manual tasks like data entry, report generation, and order processing to help optimize their employees’ productivity. They can also streamline business processes, and boost delivery times for processes like order fulfillment, financial reporting, and inventory management.

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Headquartered in Wisconsin, US, Green Bay Packaging is a family-owned manufacturing company dedicated to the innovative development of its products and forestry resources, with a focus on safety, sustainability, quality and continuous improvement across its 37 facilities in 16 states.

The IFS software implementation comes after GBP recognized its legacy EAM solution was no longer fit for purpose – it lacked mobile functionality and was unable to smoothly integrate with other lines of business. After an intensive evaluation period of EAM solutions, IFS Cloud stood out to GBP for its adaptable, composable solution, which met one of GBP’s requirements of a seamless integration.

GBP was looking for a platform that could help support its own objectives involving environmental, safety, quality and reliability targets. IFS Cloud EAM could help GBP achieve a complete view of its asset portfolio via asset tracking and condition-based maintenance. By improving visibility, GBP could now identify assets that are most at risk of failure and schedule the necessary, preventative maintenance, while also tracking the effectiveness of said maintenance. This, in turn, ultimately minimizes downtime and can extend the lifespan of assets.

IFS’ EAM solution can provide a better understanding of asset usage and availability while also helping to improve workforce scheduling and material management by ensuring GBP inventory and maintenance are in the right place at the right time. The inclusion of mobile functionality can also help cut back on any manual admin work, like completing paper-based reports and other time-consuming form-filling processes.

David Smith, VP of energy and utilities, IFS, said: “Green Bay Packaging’s commitment to providing continuous improvement to their products and services is evident in their proactive pursuit of a strategic EAM solution that drives best practice across their mill divisions.

“We are confident that through the blend of flexibility and rich functionality, IFS Cloud EAM delivers and will support GBP to streamline its processes and deliver amazing moments of service to its growing customer base.”

GBP’s usage of IFS Cloud technology couldn’t come at a better time after the IFS Unleashed event on October 24 revealed IFS is focusing on building its AI platform capabilities to help customers better derive value from out-of-the-box solutions, all of which are directly interspersed within IFS Cloud.

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As part of the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, Innovapptive’s enterprise customers can anticipate increased opportunities for optimizing their AWS investment, simplified procurement processes, and dedicated co-sell support, all designed to help drive operational excellence and workforce connectivity at scale.

The AWS collaboration enhances Innovapptive’s customer offerings in three impactful ways:

• Maximized AWS Investment: By investing in Innovapptive’s AI-powered Connected Worker solutions, enterprises can now apply their AWS committed spend toward solutions that improve operational efficiency, safety, and frontline productivity. This creates a path to ROI for customers leveraging AWS infrastructure and Innovapptive’s frontline solutions.

• Streamlined Access and Transactions: Through the AWS Marketplace, Innovapptive simplifies access to its Connected Worker solutions, allowing enterprises to purchase directly within AWS’s ecosystem. This purchasing experience supports Innovapptive’s goal of making digital transformation more accessible, manageable, and effective for global businesses. 

• Expanded Global Reach: Innovapptive’s participation in the AWS ISV Accelerate Program enables strong co-sell support with AWS field sellers. This synergy will drive joint go-to-market strategies, opening up new opportunities for Innovapptive and AWS to collaboratively deliver AI-powered solutions that optimize frontline operations.

“This partnership with AWS represents a significant advancement in our mission to deliver unparalleled connected worker solutions across industries,” said Sundeep Ravande, CEO & Founder of Innovapptive. “Our alignment with AWS not only enhances our global reach but also provides customers with streamlined access to our AI-powered solutions that drive operational efficiencies, safety, and productivity.”

Innovapptive’s inclusion in the AWS ISV Accelerate Program underscores its commitment to supporting global enterprises in their digital transformation journeys, enabling businesses to gain real-time insights, reduce operational downtime, and foster a more efficient, connected, and resilient workforce.

What this means for ERP Insiders

Innovapptive customers and prospects likely to see acceleration in speed, performance and innovation. With this partnership, Innovapptive can leverage AWS’s robust infrastructure and technical expertise to enhance its product offerings, ensuring more reliable, scalable, and innovative solutions. Customers benefit from these improvements, gaining access to cutting-edge tools and technologies powered by AWS. Innovapptive’s solutions will be more closely aligned with AWS’s best practices for cloud-native application development, ensuring better performance, enhanced security, and improved compatibility with AWS services. And with direct collaboration between Innovapptive and AWS, customers can expect faster updates, quicker problem resolutions, and access to innovative features leveraging AWS’s advanced cloud services like AI/ML, IoT, and analytics.

Customers should see purchasing and costing advantages due to partnership. Participation in the AWS ISV Accelerate Program often includes co-selling and financial incentives. Innovapptive can pass on cost benefits to its customers through discounts or cost-sharing on AWS-related services and/or optimized cloud consumption to reduce operational costs. Also, being part of AWS’s ISV Accelerate Program signals that Innovapptive has met high standards for its solutions and services, giving customers and prospects greater confidence in Innovapptive’s reliability and ability to deliver enterprise-grade solutions. The AWS ISV Accelerate Program allows Innovapptive to co-sell with AWS, which means easier procurement processes and faster adoption cycles for prospects already using AWS. And customers and prospects benefit from integration opportunities with other AWS ISV Accelerate Program partners and AWS’s broader ecosystem of services.

Partnerships with cloud service providers becoming table stakes for ISVs. Partnering with cloud service providers enables ISVs to access advanced technologies, such as AI/ML, analytics, and IoT, to enhance their solutions and stay competitive. They benefit from co-selling opportunities, expanded market reach, and increased credibility through association with established cloud providers. ISVs can also leverage financial incentives, technical support, and scalable infrastructure to reduce costs and accelerate innovation. However, caution is needed regarding potential vendor lock-in, high marketplace fees, or reliance on a single provider, which may limit flexibility or increase long-term costs. Some major programs and what they typically offer are as follows:

• AWS ISV Accelerate Program: Co-selling, deep AWS integration, and access to AWS’s massive customer base.
• Microsoft Azure ISV Success Program: Focus on integrations with Azure Marketplace and Microsoft products like Dynamics and Office 365.
• Google Cloud Partner Advantage: Strong emphasis on data analytics, AI/ML, and support for SaaS products.
• Salesforce AppExchange Partner Program: Tailored for ISVs developing applications on Salesforce.

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As a software engineer, Cooper spent his early career developing radar systems for Eurofighter. He eventually landed a job with marine company Babcock, where he was responsible for helping the company migrate to IFS.

“It was daunting for a software engineer like me to migrate around $5bn worth of transactions to a new platform, but it helped me open my eyes to the IFS universe,” he says in an interview with ERP Today.

Seeing IFS’ platform from the viewpoint of a software engineer, Cooper saw how the platform was “architected from the ground up,” which piqued his interest in exploring it further. “I began working on the Babcock project in the early 2000s, and though I was relatively new at that time, the project was a success for the company,” Cooper says. The other upside of the project was that he and IFS built a good working relationship that has strengthened over time.

Soon after, Cooper deployed ERP systems for a company that developed chips for the iPod in Europe and the UK. As it grew from around 50 people to a workforce of thousands, IFS was again the solution of choice for this project, further cementing the bond that he had forged with the EAM leader.

The projects got Cooper thinking: “How can I add more software engineers, more capability to what I do, what I offer customers and then look at running the business?” These ideas led him to start Cooper Software in 2005 in the base of Fife, Scotland.

Growth phase

Aside from Babcock, Interconnector, which runs a gas pipeline between Europe and the UK, became one of Cooper Software’s first customers. In such cases, the company was clesrly working with serious businesses, implementing the IFS platform to enable them with better processes.

“We must have been doing something right all that time ago,” Cooper says, noting that what really struck him in those early days was the range of different types of customers signing up. “Automotive was there, but we were also looking at food and beverage, heavy engineering, manufacturing and complex manufacturing.”

These were also sectors where IFS was becoming a provider of choice in the UK and Europe. Fast forward to today, and Cooper Software has grown to become one of Europe’s largest independent providers of products, consulting services and support for ERP solutions, with headquarters in Dalgety Bay, Scotland and offices in Germany. The company has worked with over 130 customers in the past three years alone and has, over the years, provided 1,500 enterprise solutions for more than 300 clients globally.

These are impressive strides, and adaptability has played a big role in the Cooper success story.

An evolving ecosystem

Cooper Software has seen the ERP ecosystem evolve from on-premises systems to the Cloud and beyond. In fact, the firm has been involved with the IFS Cloud platform since its launch and has worked with different versions of the offering, fostering a culture of adaptability for its customers too.

“On the front end, you can see how [IFS] can enable things like the Internet of Things for any device anywhere; you’ve got this kind of cloud SaaS capability around hosting software delivery,” Cooper says.

As a result of this, he believes, “people have had to adapt and change their mindset in terms of how they rely on and use technology, and how they manage it day to day. So, from our standpoint, we’ve had to change hugely.”

The firm has also adapted architecturally to IFS Cloud’s evolution over this period, understanding different hosting database updates and how new configurations and customizations work. This has also enabled the company to look at the process from the bottom up rather than the top down, allowing Cooper Software to quickly understand how it can help its customers migrate their platforms.

“At its heart, Cooper Software is an IFS services company that delivers end-to-end products and services to our clients,” Cooper attests.

Customer-centric approach

No client need is too small for Cooper Software, which works with a range of different customers and industries. “We work with clients from major projects to ‘we’ve just got a technical issue, or we want something specific,’” Cooper explains, answering a question on what makes Cooper Software a ‘one-stop shop’ sort of IFS support company.

Years of working across a wide spectrum of industries and customers have also given the firm an edge when it comes to understanding the specific needs and challenges of a vertical or industry. Moreover, the company has continued to work with individuals who may be involved in any upcoming implementations for IFS and “want to stay in that world.”

“The role of the partner in this whole ecosystem has also evolved to where we are that trusted advisor who is responsible for helping customers deliver success and achieve value,” Cooper says, adding that his firm’s sights are firmly trained on the mid-market segment, which remains the IFS focus area.

The CEO strongly believes that whether a company has a $10m turnover or a $200m one, its “complexities don’t really change, and they can really benefit from IFS and its solutions.”

Cooper gives an example of Making Tax Digital (MTD), a product developed by Cooper Software for IFS customers to highlight the synergies between the two companies for the mid-market segment: “[MTD] helps enhance the IFS fit within the UK. That’s something we’ve made for the IFS platform to be more applicable in certain circumstances.”

Looking ahead

The customers that Cooper Software mainly serves are “old-world,” according to Frank, and a significant challenge is now making them find value in technology that is always changing. “Many of our customers still consider traditional enterprise implementations fraught with risk, which keeps them awake at night.”

Cooper believes that the Cloud is the answer to bridging this gap, as new technologies are much more accessible for cloud customers than on-premise ones, and “you can deliver more value faster.”

He adds, “Our role is to be ahead of the curve on that and work with IFS. Though implementations are more costly from a technical standpoint, these technological advances can aid the customers that we’re working with by practically implementing them.”

For Frank Cooper, the next big thing on the horizon is harnessing the power of generative AI and machine learning for traditional industries as they can allow end users “to make decisions more quickly, deliver value swiftly, and vastly reduce the manual activities in our day-to-day work life.” Interconnectivity and EDI are also high on his list of technologies that are crucial for suppliers and supply chains to adopt.

“And I have no doubt that IFS are at the forefront of that, and so we’re investing in it too,” Cooper concludes.

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October saw IBM acquire Prescinto, a leading software-as-a-service provider of asset performance management (APM) for renewables. Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, the company  leverages AI to enable advanced monitoring, analytics, and automation, helping to  streamline renewable energy operations and manage clean energy and storage assets.

These capabilities will enhance IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS), Big Blue’s solution for asset lifecycle management that uses AI, IoT, and analytics to optimize performance, extend the life of assets, and reduce operational downtime and costs.

The Prescinto deal will likely also further IBM’s leadership in the energy and utility space, with water, natural gas, oil, nuclear, and other enterprises in the space utilizing IBM MAS worldwide.

With the news, IBM gave the example of how a solar power plant becomes less efficient over time due to accumulated debris and dirt on its panels. With an enhanced IBM MAS using renewable APM software, users can use AI-powered Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities to help monitor these assets, identify root causes for performance issues; and recommend actions to optimize generation. Enabled is the power to streamline required cleaning, and respond promptly before energy output decreases.

Maximo x watsonx

Rewinding back to the summer, let’s delve further into the latest updates for IBM MAS, as powered by generative AI, or GenAI.

Maximo Work Order Intelligence, made available in MAS version 9.0, uses IBM watsonx GenAI capabilities to speed up work order approval, enhance data quality and provide “highly reliable” failure code recommendations.

MAS version 9.0 also saw Maximo Field Service Management, a new solution designed to help clients with their field service management (FSM) experiences. The tech allows maintenance and dispatching teams to access advanced scheduling and intelligent dispatching. Advanced algorithms enable the system to handle 10 times more work orders and improve the number of jobs completed, total resources used, and, IBM reports, job completion time by over 10%.

Maximo Reliability Strategies meanwhile provides organizations with the ability to analyze failure modes and access a comprehensive library of asset-specific failure details and mitigation activities. The new solution can make it easier to create and optimize highly customized maintenance reliability strategies, helping companies develop more reliable assets that are less likely to unexpectedly fail. For the new MAS version 9.0, watsonx generative AI was utilized to develop more failure mode and effects analysis (FMEAs) and expand the library.

What ERP Insiders need to know

Founded in 2016, Prescinto works with and services customers across 14 countries with 16 GigaWatts under management. Its APM capabilities help organizations simplify operations and maintenance to maximize ROI, including:

• Data capture – utilizing open-source protocols and a data governance layer.
• Monitoring features – for centralized visualization of assets with real-time monitoring, high-definition maps, and custom alerts.
• Analysis – using artificial intelligence to identify losses, visualize data trends, and offer actionable recommendations to stem underperformance.
• Action prompts – empowering efficient management and deployment of site teams to repair and maintain assets.

Also of note – the IBM MAS Maximo Application Suite was recognized in Q4 as a market leader in EAM by the independent research and advisory firm Verdantix, receiving top marks in the report “Green Quadrant: Enterprise Asset Management Software 2024.” Earlier in 2024, Verdantix also named IBM MAS a leader in APM in the “Green Quadrant: Asset Performance Management Solutions 2024 report.” Big Blue proudly reports it’s the only vendor to be named a leader in both the APM and EAM reports.

The latest updates to IBM MAS bring significant advancements powered by generative AI, which offer key benefits for EAM leaders with a focus on ESG and AI implementation goals. The new capabilities streamline asset management processes by accelerating work order approvals, improving data quality, and providing highly reliable failure code recommendations.

On the environmental front, IBM has integrated solutions that support monitoring and management of operational emissions, helping companies balance operational efficiency with sustainability. These tools also assist with compliance tracking and bolster corporate sustainability reporting through integration with an ESG platform. They also offer EAM users enhanced tools for improving both asset performance and environmental responsibility.

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Traditionally, the environment for asset lifecycle management (ALM) has been limited by both scope and capacity. It could be combined with an ERP application and other elements of work being done at those assets. However, this served a limited purpose because that environment did not account for what happens before an asset is acquired (before the cradle) and after it is retired (after the grave) when looking at a cradle-to-grave solution.

According to Price, this aspect is now be achieved through a solution set called asset investment planning, offered by IFS through its acquisition of Copperleaf Technologies.

“[Through this solution], we can look at the beginning of that process before the cradle to understand where [an organization] can invest money and where to place the value of that investment,” Price said.

When it is time to retire an asset, Price noted that the solution can help businesses reposition, refurbish or rebuild it. It can also assist organizations in answering the question of reaching a new sustainable goal with that asset. The solution, Price said, “puts IFS in a unique position as it provides real-time information and decision-making for the ALM journey.”

Making a composable solution

Price said that IFS’ ALM offering in a highly competitive enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions industry was unique due to its composability. “It is one of the more attractive areas of the solution set,” he explained.

“The solution not only allows organizations to pick and choose the areas they want to succeed in but also helps them get that success,” Price said. “Instead of burdening the organization with the cost of an implementation or owning or serving the application, we put it in a cloud and make it composable.”

Benefiting from Copperleaf’s acquisition

Speaking on how Copperleaf’s acquisition has impacted IFS’ ALM offering, Price said that though it has been only a few weeks since the acquisition, they are already seeing an overlap in their customer base as both Copperleaf and IFS operate in the same space. Giving an example of what they hear from customers, Price said, “When we are introducing the joint concept to customers, we hear that they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on investments in their infrastructure, new business areas, geographies and opportunities, and believe it or not, some of those decisions are still being made on spreadsheets with consultant partners.”

With the Copperleaf acquisition, IFS wants to offer not only the former’s solution capabilities but also integrate those with IFS’s real-time ALM solutions to make them evergreen and mitigate some of the risks that they may face with a vendor-based solution.

Looking ahead

Referring to the book Moment of Service by Darren Roos, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IFS, Price asked that, when looking at it from the perspective of the ALM process, “Are we really getting to the moment of service where we could be?” He added, “When we think about the Copperleaf acquisition or the deployment of composability, or getting our customers to a faster success, that moment of service becomes more resilient, reliant, and sustainable.”

According to Price, under the leadership of Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS, the company will build on Roos’ principles, and the possibilities of where the company can go with “new technologies, new capabilities and acquisitions are quite limitless.” However, this will require a laser focus on the six industries that IFS currently serves and industrial AI to power the next growth phase for the ALM tool set.

Note: This ERP Today TV content comes sponsored by IFS.

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When Anglian Water first signed on with Copperleaf, one of the goals was to be able to offer a two percent greater customer value, equating to £50m for customers after a course of five years. 

Speaking as a guest on the ERP Today News desk, nestled in the bustle of the IFS Unleashed expo hall, John Green explains: “When we originally set out those numbers, that was based on a two percent capital efficiency on the program as the size it was ten years ago. Our capital investment program is now four times the size moving into our next regulatory period, and we are still seeing those sorts of efficiencies being generated as a result of the prioritization and optimization that the Copperleaf platform allows us to do.”

Taking through the process of evaluating different investment options at Anglian Water, Green says: “In our business plan, we’re looking at our current performance levels versus where we’d like those levels to be. We’re also looking at the sentiment of our stakeholders, including our customers and our regulators about where they’d expect to see performance improvements and what they are willing to pay for those improvements. 

“We can generate a series of different solution options, and then Copperleaf helps us to determine the best cut of investments and alternatives that then helps us to build up our plan that we submit to our regulator.”

The unique aspects of Anglian Water’s investment planning process come from the level of knowledge in-house around the water service provider’s cost base, with Green claiming an “industry-leading” edge, he explains: “That’s based on a number of years of taking actual costs from previous projects and building up complex cost models. That gives us real confidence that when we’re going to our regulator and saying, we think this is going to cost ‘x’ amount, we are really confident in what ‘x’ means.”

The company’s value framework is another leading win in Green’s mind, allowing it to express benefits and disbenefits in a common language and equate that to the money spent. 

“We’ve built a value framework which allows us to value things like flooding a customer’s property, or interrupting a supply of water alongside things like traffic disruption, well-being improvements or health and safety. So we’ve got some really good tools from the cost side, but also the benefits side,” says Green.

What’s next for the partnership? 

From Copperleaf’s Sadnicki, ERP Today hears whether this decade-long partnership is still driving value, and what is on the innovation horizon for the partnership. 

“More recently we’ve done some really interesting work around climate change, and understanding how assets are going to be affected by climate change,” Sadnicki shares.“We have wetter winters, drier summers, and that’s causing the degradation rates that we’ve been using for a long time to change. So, using the Copperleaf predictive analysis capability, looking at different scenarios, we can predict what investment is going to be needed in the future.”

ESG gains have been an ongoing work in progress for this partnership, with a focus both on the governance and environmental factors at hand. 

Sadnicki says: “Understanding the carbon impact, the cost modeling that we’ve done together incorporates a lifecycle view of the carbon requirements for firstly to build the infrastructure, but also the lifecycle requirements for operating that infrastructure.”  

Capital carbon, the carbon involved in the creation of the asset in the first place, was baselined by Anglian Water in 2010 and, now, Anglian Water claims a 61 percent reduction against that baseline. 

“It’s a real, significant change. It’s the data that’s been available through systems like Copperleaf that really helped us to understand that and measure it,” shares Green. “Carbon savings often come with cost savings as well, so it’s a win-win. Which is why having a value framework that considers different types of value is really important, so you can start to deliver not only financial value but natural value, social value, people value, you know there are lots of different areas to look into.”

Anglian Water has a host of enterprise asset management technology providers in its stack, including IBM and SAP, so given the change of the recent IFS acquisition of Copperleaf, and the announcements at IFS Unleashed, is the water service provider tempted to jump ship on any technology commitments? 

Spelling out the next few years Sadnicki shares his excitement at the ongoing development to come from the IFS acquisition of Copperleaf: “It’s going to help us accelerate our roadmap, and that’s across many different aspects. We’ve got exciting new features around Risk Management that John and the Anglian Water team are interested in. Also being able to integrate with the variety of systems that Anglian Water use, but also with the other IFS solutions.”

Risk Manager is said to enable the capture of emergent operational risks that might require a capital investment solution, and for Green, “It would allow us to prioritize those alongside known planned risks and provide real visibility for our field staff in terms of where that risk is for a process prioritization that makes sense. So, they’ve got visibility of what’s going on and it’s not just disappearing into a black hole that is forgotten about and leads to some kind of asset failure or performance issue.” 

It’s a long partnership full of future promise for Copperleaf and Anglian Water and Sadnicki concludes: “I think what we’ll see is IFS Copperleaf being the first end-to-end asset lifecycle planning solution that is going to be considerable benefit to the market.”

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When North American energy delivery company, Exelon, started its enterprise asset management (EAM) journey two and a half years ago, it wanted the project to deliver value for its ten million customers. However, the implementation faced challenges like delays and dissatisfaction regarding experience. That is when the utilities company chose IFS’ solutions to streamline its EAM implementation.

“The solution was all about bringing the different pieces of the puzzle in the EAM system together,” said Biagotti, “And from day one, IFS’ technology was top-notch. What really sealed the deal with IFS was that they truly listened to the customers and wanted to learn as much from us as we did from them.”

For Exelon, IFS laid out a vision of end-to-end processes and how its platform would integrate with everything Exelon did from an asset perspective.

“It’s just not about your EAM; you need intelligence, AI, fitting with your budgeting software, other systems or field deployment,” Biagotti explained. He added that IFS’ product clearly articulated that vision and that Exelon saw it taking shape in real-time.

Exelon had been clear from the start that it needed a technology partner for this project, not just a software company. According to Biagotti, IFS’ deep industry knowledge, partnership with Microsoft, and ability to provide a cloud platform tipped the scales in its favor. Moreover, IFS demonstrated the agility of its platform, leading Exelon to sign up with them in January.

“Our goal was to put users in the system in 2024, which was unheard of,” Biagotti noted, “And I am proud to say that we beat that goal by four months and got people using the platform in August.”

Although the product is small at present, Biagotti believes the cloud deployment has had a very impactful effect.

In the next two to five years, Biagotti said the company will be making small improvements and deployments to its existing system every year to deliver continuous value and over ten years, the company plans to have perfect blue sky reliability so that its customers are ensured of uninterrupted power unless there’s a storm or a significant event.

“So the question we pose to IFS and all our partners is, what are you going to do to help us realize that goal? And that is what Exelon and IFS are striving for through this partnership,” Biagotti said.

Note: This ERP Today TV content comes sponsored by IFS.

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