NEC is first to offer pay as you go IFS ERP in the cloud

The service covers IFS's manufacturing, supply chain and financials functionality, as well as add-ons developed by NEC, and first deliveries are being slated for April 2011 – with a modest goal of 50 customers over the next five years. "The new collaboration on cloud services will enhance and develop the alliance between NEC and IFS," comments Yasujiro Ryuno, associate senior vice president at NEC. "This new initiative will be very attractive for companies seeking a more agile business solution." "Hosting IFS Applications in the cloud is a natural development of the traditional hosting concept, and we are pleased that our partner NEC is offering this to their customers," states IFS CTO Dan Matthews. "Cloud hosting together with software plus services are where we believe IFS customers will initially benefit from the new possibilities that come with cloud computing," he adds. Since 1997, when NEC and IFS started their partnership, NEC has co-developed add-ons with IFS to meet requirements for Japanese companies. To date, NEC has implemented 130 systems, one third of them for customers outside Japan, mainly in Asia.