Defense group Saab signs corporate agreement with IFS

Saab AB has signed a corporate agreement with IFS to deepen the cooperation between the parties and to position the group for new business opportunities. The agreement covers licenses, consulting, support, and maintenance of IFS Applications for the entire group.

Several companies within Saab currently use IFS Applications for after-sales services, design and manufacturing, MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul), engineering, supply-chain management, and project management. Saab has been a customer of IFS since 1994 and has a long-term strategy of increasing its use of IFS Applications across the group to achieve greater efficiency within IT. One example is the business units that manufacture aerostructures and related sub-systems for commercial aviation as well as the military market such as the JAS Gripen, Saab Aerostructures, which in 2006 carried out a successful consolidation of 59 self-developed or customized systems into one common system—IFS Applications.

“We see great opportunities for similar synergies in the other business units within the Saab Group, and our strategy is to achieve a global standardization of processes and systems by 2013. We look forward to working with IFS to continue streamlining and rationalizing our operations based on a common business system”, Saab AB Vice President ICT Coordination Office Johan Sjödin said.

As a corporate supplier, IFS gets a central role in assisting Saab to reach its business goals.

“The agreement will help us reach our goals both in terms of new revenues and savings. Now that many central business processes can become common, we get more mobility and flexibility as well as lower IT costs as a result of economies of scale,” said Sjödin. “IFS’ focus on the defense industry is positive. Their developers and consultants really listen to us and I look forward to the continued development of our collaboration and partnership.”

For IFS, collaboration with customers is critical for the continued improvement of the solutions.

“The industry solution for Aerospace and Defense is continuously developed in close cooperation with key customers like Saab and partners such as BAE Systems, Logica and EDS”, IFS Scandinavia Managing Director Glenn Arnesen said. "One of the primary areas for our 2009 research and development is to improve the functionality we deliver to the A&D segment."

The aerospace and defense industry is one of IFS’ focused industries. Recent analysis made by ARC Advisory Group in the “Enterprise Asset Management Solutions Worldwide Outlook” by Ralph Rio in May 2009, puts IFS in the market-leading position in the aerospace and defense industry. In the Enterprise Asset Management for A&D, ARC states that IFS is “…providing an exceptionally agile solution with low total cost of ownership.”

IFS’ customers in aviation and defense include the British, Norwegian, and American defense. Commercial workshops and operators include Finnair, Bristow Helicopters, Aero-Dienst GmbH, Hawker Pacific, and LTQ Engineering Pty Limited (formerly knowns as Jet Turbine Services). In addition, IFS provides solutions to manufacturers such as the Eurofighter consortium, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Saab, and GE Transportation.