IFS signs multimillion-dollar agreement with Rockwell Automation

Rockwell’s $700 million Global Manufacturing Solutions Group, the manufacturing and process industry automation and engineering projects and consulting arm, is implementing an IFS Applications ERP system on top of its corporate PeopleSoft ERP system currently live across the UK and Europe. Steve Smidler, vice president of marketing for Rockwell, says the company will continue to run PeopleSoft – which is competing its roll-out now with pilot systems in the US – for its financials, warehousing and distribution and HR, as well as MRP. But on the project side, the new software will take over. Rockwell has bought IFS components for project management, manufacturing, distribution, maintenance, engineering and e-business. Says Smidler: “PeopleSoft is good for product line item and SKU management. We were looking for a system to manage the global projects side of the business, able to recognise project-based revenue that can span two or three years, and with web client functionality for our distributed engineering centres around the world. Projects like this, ranging from $100,000 to $10 million, account $400 million of Rockwell annual revenue. Recent deals include Ford for a turnkey manufacturing press project in Michigan valued at $5.5 million, and another at biotechnology company Amgen for plant systems and automation worth $10 million. Project scope includes delivering turnkey information systems, PLC-based automation systems, batch processing plant systems, as well as project management, installation, commissioning and the rest. The new software will be implemented in phases at multiple sites world-wide. Smidler says that there is no intention initially to integrate the IFS and PeopleSoft applications. Monthly reports will be generated through its Hyperion business intelligence system and it will be run stand alone.