Equipped with a unified view of their business and access to the right information at the right time, IFS customers can be challengers in their industries. Here are the achievements of two IFS customers, leading the way in automotive manufacture and the food and beverage industry.
THE IFS TRAILBLAZERS
Morgan Motor Company is known the world over as an iconic British car manufacturer, famed for creating sports cars that boast a unique blend of craft, heritage and pure driving experience.
Pukka Pies are the UK’s leading pot pie brand. They service most UK supermarkets, chip shops and various high street shops. Every week they produce around a million pies. As part of their quality commitment, Pukka guarantee traceability from farm to fork.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SYSTEM
At Morgan, their IT infrastructure had grown and morphed with new technologies and solutions retrofitted to their existing architecture. To move forward and future-proof the business, Morgan needed to integrate their solutions.
“We reviewed what the IFS system could offer and could confidently agree that their system answered all of our questions,” says Graham Chapman, Technology Director, Morgan. “I think IFS has changed our way of work in that it’s brought us up to date and in line with other companies” says Nathan Harvey, Frontline Manager—Production, Pukka Pies.
Morgan focused on using IFS to automate processes, enabling their employees to concentrate on tasks that add value to the business. “It’s a change in job role, a new focus in their life, they’re actually adding some real value. To me, that has started to empower people and as a result the whole business starts to move forward,” says Chapman. While at Pukka Pies their decision was based on IFS’s commitment to research and development, as this meant their software would grow and evolve with their business.
IMPLEMENTING IFS
When Pukka Pies implemented IFS, they chose core software, covering financials, sales, purchasing, and production carding. They also use IFS Applications on their production floor, where it gives users access to all the information they require, without needing to rely on data analysts or specialists.
REALISING VALUE
Graham Chapman estimates that Morgan’s employees will gain 25-30 percent more time with IFS. But the real value gain, he says, is that orders will be more accurate. When a dealer puts in their specifications, this data will go straight into IFS Applications and the paperwork will be created automatically and accurately, ensuring the end customer is totally satisfied with the resulting car.
Whereas for Pukka the biggest benefits have been in terms of growth. Since post go-live they’ve increased factory capacity by over 30%. And as a business, they’ve grown by more than 10%, which Andy Wormald, Business Systems & Process Manager at Pukka Pies, believes wouldn’t have been possible without IFS.
SETTING GOALS
The future is bright for Morgan and IFS, but there’s plenty still to be done notes Chapman: “Now that we’ve gone live, the next step is to develop the system. We need to place it into the hands of everyone throughout the business. When we think about the system at board-level, it’s KPIs. It’s having the tools to make factual statements to business KPIs.”
For Pukka Pies it’s all about building on their success. “The strategic plan for Pukka Pies is to continue our astonishing growth rate matched with IFS’s equally impressive growth rate to set us on an exciting journey for the future,” says Wormald.