What needs improvement with IFS Applications?

Customization needs to be improved, and the solution should be simpler.

Regarding an area of weakness in the solution, it is not a user-friendly solution. In future releases, I want to see more reporting features and interactive dashboards included in the solution. In short, the solution's overall interface should be simplified.

Aspects of HR and payroll could be better. Polish law is complicated, and users are demanding. In the Polish market, there are a lot of smaller HR/Payroll systems that are easier to use. While IFS is powerful, this is sometimes also a weakness as it could be easier to use, yet it wouldn't be so flexible and open for customization if they simplified it. Some changes should be made in almost every module. However, it depends on process logic.

We have upgraded to the latest version right now. We have issues with the quality. We tried to enroll in their Evergreen program which was meant to help us adopt any service update or anything that the tool’s providers come up with. However, the tool always causes disruption to the business because of issues with quality, general compliance, and others. There is also the issue of missing functions. Some finance people would expect the invoicing behavior to be closer to SAP. They need to think about a different approach in advanced invoicing or something like that. I also have issues with the quality of new releases. In the past, we had to upgrade only every four or five years. We expected it to be a big project. However, when we attempt to do every single update that pops up, it keeps us busy constantly.

IFS uses Crystal Report mostly, which isn't too user-friendly. Developing reports isn't easy and requires a lot of dev time. Since SAP bought it, Crystal Report has become more complicated to use on IFS. You have a dashboard for reporting that is good, but it's incomplete. Most of our clients use Power BI or some additional tooling for BI. I worked on a third-party system called Harmony Solution. This French company produces a reporting tool that I feel is better than Crystal Report for IFS. They could also improve the plugin for Excel data migration to clarify its use. Many clients use it for massive amounts of data, which affects their systems. There is no communication about that. Clients use the Excel plugin because they know it works, but it does not always work the way it should. They need to improve the plugin's performance or inform customers to limit their use. Migration jobs are often based on Excel inputs, particularly CSV files. That can cause issues when operating across several countries. For example, say I'm working on a French PC collaborating with someone in India who uses an Indian PC. Excel will transform the file based on the country's language, and the input data will be wrong. I believe they are trying to fix this with the smart data tool in the cloud.

I'm a business analyst, so I do a lot of customer-facing work. I take calls from businesses I have to troubleshoot. One thing that bugs me is the error messages you get from IFS. If I get an error message, I have to dig to find the cause because, often, the error message doesn't precisely describe the problem. It'll hint about where the problem lies, but you have to work to find the root cause. It doesn't help in my situation. You expect an error message to point to the field or what is causing the issue. If they cleaned up their error messages, it would make things so much easier. Typically, an error message will focus on one field. It's one comment. Obviously, you don't want to see a lengthy message on the screen. I don't know if it's a translation issue because the organization is Swedish, but the wording of the messages isn't native English. There's another issue for anyone using the system. IFS is based on companies. You create a company in the system called Company 100. When you bring on another plant or office, you need to make another company called Company 101. IFS has this popup box, so you need to be conscious of the company you're working with at any time. If you need to switch to another company, you must click on this right mouse button and say "Change company." It brings up a dialogue box with all the companies you can access; then, you put a checkmark in the box of the company you want to go to. When people start using IFS, they have difficulty grasping this concept, but you constantly have to switch companies depending on what you're doing. I think everybody's in agreement that you have to go through this process. I don't know what they can do about it, but it causes issues. They do have a popup at the bottom of the screen that indicates which company you're working in. However, people don't always look at that when they are busy. They might start processing invoices in Company 100 when they should be working at Company 101. You have to manually switch companies, which frustrates users. I'm sure IFS has heard this over and over. When each user is set up, they're assigned a default company. My default company could be 100, so I start in Company 100 when I log into IFS, but if I have to do business with two other companies, I have to select the company and click back to the original company when I'm done. I can't say it's a minor thing because it causes a lot of frustration.

There should be some improvements in the predefined templates in IFS Applications.

The next version has already been released, and some of the technical things are a little bit behind the curve in development. This is specifically security, maintenance, security role maintenance, and creation. This is in their new product, called IFS Cloud. They've significantly changed the user interface and how the entire package is presented to both tech users and regular end users. They've gone to a thin client instead of their own client. There doesn't seem to be a focus on some of the maintenance and technical areas that users like me would use from the IT point of view. These are areas that I've only seen in demonstrations. In version 10, which we're using now, everything is in good shape.

IFS Applications is not robust enough to handle high-volume transactions, so it's not suitable for larger enterprises. It's also lacking flexibility in platform compatibility - it's more compatible with Windows than other platforms. In the next release, IFS Applications should include compatibility with mobile devices.

An area for improvement would be transactions, which can be tedious to complete as the process is very complex.

The integration is a bit complex, and post-implementation support services need to be improved. They have a service center based out of Sri Lanka. The support aspect is good, but the response time is a little slower than we anticipated. In the next release, it would be better if Warehouse Management could be improvised. They have a product line that's a data warehouse management system, but it's still premature and requires a bit of enhancement.

There are certain digital features that need to be incorporated, such as IOP. It's a blockchain platform. We are currently exploring these types of features to enhance our solutions for added value for our clients. Pricing is an area that could be improved. They could be more competitive.

As a salesperson, my perspective is limited. Someone from a development team may have more insights into which features may be lacking. It would be ideal if, in the future, the product could incorporate IoT and blockchain elements. We'd like to explore more of these types of features going forward. We feel they could enhance our client experience and add value to our own solutions. The pricing could be a bit better. It's a little high.

We would like to see AI-driven CSI functions built into the tool that would allow us to quickly tie our improvement goals to metrics and activities, so Assyst will suggest the next steps to help us get closer to our goals. Another area we would be interested in seeing is further support for MS Teams. We have used the APIs to work solutions but as soon as the graph APIs from Microsoft come out of Beta, we would love to see a packaged app here that is supported through upgrades like the rest of the Axios products.

I won't be able to give the correct feedback. I haven't seen everything in action, however, based on my experience, what I've found is that lot of days we are using mobile phones or tablets. Yet, this solution doesn't work on those types of devices. They need to create something that can be used on Andriod devices to make it easier to use in terms of how we work. It should incorporate the devices we're constantly utilizing. The user interface can be improved. When you're clicking through the screens, there are some icons or symbols that really need updating and would be more useful and noticeable if they are aesthetically pleasing.

The product requires heavy administrative work. It's not an easy drag-and-drop workflow type of model. It's hard to configure and customize. Axios claims that the new version will improve that, but I haven't seen that product. I hope they offer it in the next release. Technical support could be improved.

The CRM was shaky and although this improves greatly in Apps 10.

I'm speaking in regards to the state of the IP in 2016, and I don't know how it has improved since that time. However, I would say that some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting.

* End-user interface * The concept of the main request and its related tasks or decisions * Reporting module * CMDB integration * Pricing for incidents * Knowledge management features.