Disruption, data capture and analysis: IFS Unleashed includes themes of automation and AI

Hot, humid and art-deco-style South Beach, Miami, FL and the Miami Beach Convention Center was the site where approximately 2,000 data, cloud-storage and digital-transformation professionals met Oct. 10-14 for IFS Unleashed 2022. The conference is organized by enterprise software company IFS for its employees, partners and customers to discuss the latest in data capture and cloud computing and the digital frontier, and to share success stories, challenges and tales of business disruptions that are dominating the automation landscape. This was the first time in three years that the group had gathered, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and attendees came from Australia, Canada, France, India, Italy, Norway, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United States. Technologies and vendors were showcased in the exhibit hall. IFS develops and delivers cloud enterprise software for companies around the world — including mining companies — that manufacture and distribute goods, build and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. Center stage At the opening of the conference, IFS chief executive officer Darren Roos invited customers and partners to join him on stage for quick, individual mini talks, lasting five minutes or less, in which they explained the ways their partnership with IFS had transformed their businesses. “Our industry expertise has been a huge differentiator. We are bringing the best functionality on a single platform in a way that it can be integrated with other technologies. We exist to help you create those amazing moments of service for your customers, which are critical, because they help you to build loyalty with your customers and secure repeat business,” said Roos. The sectors IFS serves include service, energy, utilities and resources, telecommunications, aerospace and defense, manufacturing and construction and engineering. For example, the company manages the information technology backbone (also known as enterprise resource management) of the Norwegian Maritime Authority, Norway’s ships and vessel authority, where IFS computer applications run in navigation, vehicle carrying and search information. For Southwest Airlines, the largest domestic airline carrier in the United States with 60,000 employees supporting 4,000 flights per day, IFS implemented the largest master data management (MRO) project in the world, said Roos. MRO is a discipline driven by ensuring accuracy and consistency of shared master data to optimize supply and minimize risk, and is typically used in businesses that have a variety of functions such as sourcing, purchasing, maintenance, inventory and analytics. In 2022, Southwest went live with the IFS MRO solution, which now supports the maintenance of the airline’s entire Boeing 737 fleet, and introduced automation for processes and realtime compliance, allowing the carrier to be more efficient and effective. Mining data Mining Engineering conducted a one-onone interview with Antony Bourne, senior vice president at IFS. Bourne graduated college with a computer science degree and was hired on to the IFS computer help desk in 1997 as employee number 15. Since then, he has worked at IFS for 25 years and has seen tremendous growth for the company, which now has 5,000 employees worldwide. IFS is established as a cloud provider for some mines and operates as their data backbone, merging different systems as needed, and managing and parsing the massive amounts of information mines need to manage and decipher. LKAB, a government-owned Swedish mining company and Europe’s biggest iron mine, is one such company where IFS has been involved in managing data, including that on health and safety, Bourne said. IFS has also worked with Hecla Mining Co. on some of their mining efforts out of the United Kingdom, and other mines in Australia, South Africa, Scandinavia and the United States. According to Bourne, having intelligent assets is the most important factor to consider when it comes to data today. “Everyone is focused on efficiency in how to operate. The intelligence comes in by being able to look at the data and gather meaningful information from it,” said Bourne. “How can I look at my assets more efficiently and make them more reliable,” these are the questions to ask of one’s organizational information and how it is managed, he said. Bourne has witnessed a complete transformation of information technology, digitalization, and data capture and analysis during the course of his career. In the next generation of change, he expects computer professionals will learn to better manage “soft data,” which is unstructured data, and will discover how to make that information helpful to decision makers. He also anticipates more work around digital twins, and mapping and simulation work, and that these efforts will all be a part of companies’ planning and strategies in the future. “We don’t expect our customers to hire data scientists. They want a system that’s built in,” he said. This is where IFS comes in and today includes employing techniques of artificial intelligence (AI). Understanding when certain events should happen, “explainable” AI, is all a part of what IFS offers its customers. ESG Another theme of the primarily technologyrelated conference that is shared with the mining industry is that of environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics and goals. ESG was a topic repeatedly discussed throughout the conference — how to work and act with sustainability in mind, and how to use and harness green technologies in business pursuits, and their importance to shareholders and customers. Carol Johnston, vice president of Energy, Utility and Resources at IFS, speaking to the crowd during an industry breakout session at the IFS Unleashed 2022 conference. Many European countries already have requirements for companies to report on their ESG efforts, including how much fuel they are consuming, as well as government policies on reporting companies’ direct and indirect emissions and their carbon footprints. IFS manages data for many of its customers on their environmental performance. It has conducted surveys with its customers and partners, and ESG efforts are second only in importance to safety when it comes to customer expectations today. ESG is “coming like a freight train,” said Christian Pedersen, chief product officer at IFS.According to Pedersen, “People often forget about the S and the G in ESG; to not just look at it from an emissions point of view,” he said. IFS has established a variety of ways to capture ESG data for companies that can be collected from many different sources and streamline their ESG reporting. “IFS has come a long way in a short time in its ability to understand and track customers’ ESG performance and support them on their journey to sustainability. We have concentrated on the element that represents the biggest challenge: data. Understanding data and being able to collect and interpret it is ultimately fundamental to any strategy. We are focused on making this easier and simpler for every organization to achieve,” said Pedersen. Motivational talks The three-day conference featured guest speakers including keynote speaker R. “Ray” Wang, founder, chairman and principal analyst at Constellation Research Inc. based in the Silicon Valley, CA. Wang gave a talk on disruptive technologies, the rules of digitalization, and how to take business growth to the next level during times of massive change. “The question asked around the world is, how do you grow when 61 percent of Fortune 500 companies have been borrowed, merged, acquired and disrupted since 2000,” said Wang. Wang explained that every business is a technology business today. “It doesn’t matter what you’re selling. It is the enablement of automation and technology that gives companies the edge. Competing for digital supremacy starts with analytics, and the goal is to automate precision decisions,” he said. Michael Phelps, world Olympic Games champion and 23-time swimming gold medalist was also a featured speaker. Along with discussing his road to success with earning the medals, Phelps talked about balancing work and mental health.

Disruption, data capture and analysis: IFS Unleashed includes themes of automation and AI

Authored by:
Nancy Profera

To view the past issues of the UCA magazine you must be a member of SME/UCA.

From sessions to strategy: Revealing long-term and emerging innovation trends in data analytics, intelligent systems and automation

Mining education gets federal boost as industry faces workforce crunch

Critical minerals management on the federal seabed

From sessions to strategy: Revealing long-term and emerging innovation trends in data analytics, intelligent systems and automation

Mining education gets federal boost as industry faces workforce crunch

Critical minerals management on the federal seabed

To view the past issues of the UCA magazine you must be a member of SME/UCA.

Gateway Development Commission to release request for qualifications for Hudson Tunnel

Environmental and social governance for the extractive industry in Canada

Related Articles

Copper stockpiling, transformation capacity and industrial synchronization in the US

From sessions to strategy: Revealing long-term and emerging innovation trends in data analytics, intelligent systems and automation

Historic day in Washington DC for mining education

Critical minerals: Technical and policy considerations

From sessions to strategy: Revealing long-term and emerging innovation trends in data analytics, intelligent systems and automation

Mining education gets federal boost as industry faces workforce crunch

Critical minerals management on the federal seabed

From sessions to strategy: Revealing long-term and emerging innovation trends in data analytics, intelligent systems and automation

Mining education gets federal boost as industry faces workforce crunch

Critical minerals management on the federal seabed

Use Single Sign On