IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announced that International Maritime Industries Company (IMI), a landmark joint venture between Saudi Aramco, Lamprell, Bahri, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, has concluded the first deployment of IFS Applications to support maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) contracts and back-office operations. Located in Ras Al-Khair on the east coast of Saudi Arabia, IMI, when fully operational, will be the largest maritime facility in the region and globally unique in terms of its mix of services across multiple market segments: newbuild and MRO for commercial vessels including very large crude carriers (VLCCs), bulk carriers, offshore support vessels (OSVs), and offshore jackup rigs. To promote productivity and ensure efficiencies across its operations, the company needed a modern, fully integrated ERP solution with robust functionality, designed for the maritime industry. Following a comprehensive evaluation process that included major ERP vendors IMI chose IFS Applications. Following the successful implementation of phase 1, IFS Applications now supports mission-critical processes and operations and is fully integrated with finance, human capital management (HCM), payroll, and procurement. "We are impressed with the capabilities of IFS Applications 10 and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with a global ERP provider that has a successful track record in supporting companies in the shipbuilding industry," said Emad Al-Humam, vice president of Information Technology at IMI. "The open architecture of the IFS platform empowers us to easily connect our best-of-breed systems to our ERP backbone and thereby gain invaluable operational insights. By investing in a central, integrated platform, IMI will get enhanced business insights through complete process visibility. As we embark on the next phase of the deployment process, we can rely on IFS Applications to help us enhance the efficiency of our core processes and working methodologies." Mehmood Khan, IFS managing director, Middle East, added, "We are proud that our technology plays a part in bringing about improvements in efficiency, as well as greater visibility and integrity throughout IMI's vast scale of operations. IFS fully understands the business challenges associated with such a large-scale implementation. With our expertise and best practices, we look forward to delivering an outstanding solution that will meet the high standards of IMI." The IFS solution will be implemented by IFS Partner DAR.ME.
