Global Maritime Enterprise Selects IFS Applications

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announced today that SMIT Internationale N.V., active in the maritime industry for over 165 years, has selected IFS Applications™ as its new enterprise software system.

SMIT chose IFS Applications to optimize its business processes for its four divisions. Initially there will be 175 IFS Applications users, with an anticipated increase to 500 users.

The scope of the project will be all four divisions of SMIT, which includes Harbor Towage, Terminals, Salvage and Transport & Heavy Lifting. SMIT has chosen to implement the new system step by step. During the first phase the financial system, the order system, as well as the project registration will be replaced. In the following phases SMIT will add components that replace current systems for maintenance, purchasing, estimating, and CRM. The end users will determine the pace of replacement, and new components will only be added when prefaced systems have been fully approved by the end users.

“There’s little support left on our current, 10-year-old software and a lot of functionality is added using Excel or Access,” SMIT Manager ICT Ruud van Oers said. “I often compare it with a car: when a car is 10 years old, parts become rare and difficult to obtain. Starting January 2009, all support on our old software will be stopped. For that reason we decided to start a project to select and implement new software to support our business processes.”

During the selection it soon became clear that IFS stood out on important decision making criteria.

“They proved early in the process that they have extensive knowledge of our business processes and subsequently showed with their component-based software how to translate these processes into a software system,” Van Oers said. “The end users will vary from ex-seafaring employees to business end-users and managers. The software needs to fit this variety of users as regards to ease of use, user interface, and report options. A final important reason we choose IFS as a business partner was the strong cultural fit: there’s a real hands-on working environment at SMIT and we recognized the same mentality at IFS.”

About SMIT

SMIT has a proud tradition of more than 165 years of service in the maritime sector. The company has earned an excellent reputation by combining expertise and experience with high-quality materials and equipment in the nearly 50 locations around the world where SMIT is active. SMIT aims to provide its worldwide services in the main to shipping companies, producers in the oil and Liquefied Natural Gas industries, insurers, and governments. SMIT maintains the highest standards in respect of safety, health, protection of the environment, and quality.

SMIT’s services are organized into four Divisions:

• Harbor Towage: harbour towage services and related maritime services.
• Terminals: towage services and related maritime and management services to offshore and onshore terminals.
• Salvage: salvage, wreck removal, environmental protection, and consultancy.
• Transport & Heavy Lift: chartering, barge rental & transport, ocean, coastal and river towage, heavy lifting, and marine support to a variety of civil and offshore projects.

About IFS

IFS is a public company (OMX STO:IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications™, a fully-integrated, component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology. The company has more than 2,000 customers in 54 countries and focuses on seven main industries: aerospace & defense, utilities & telecom, manufacturing, process industries, automotive, retail & wholesale distribution, and construction contracting & service management. IFS has 2,600 employees. More information on IFS is available at www.IFSWORLD.com/us.