IFS Service CollABorative: Tech Talk - R&D Roadmap + Q&A w/ Stephen Jeff-Watts

Date of Meeting: 11 June 2025 10:00 AM US Eastern Standard Time

Introduction and Overview by Stephen Jeff-Watts

Let me start with a quick overview of where we are on our current journey. I’ll touch on the strategic investments we’re making, walk through our short-term roadmap, and of course, no presentation would be complete without discussing AI—so we’ll cover that too.

I’ll wrap up by talking about how we’re working with our customers today. A lot has changed in recent years, and we’re seeing new opportunities emerge. At the last Tech Talks, I asked for customer involvement in a few key areas. Many of you stepped up, and we’re now actively collaborating on several initiatives. I’ll be making a similar ask today—slightly rephrased—to see if you can support us again.

Our Objective

Our goal is to evolve how we deliver service. According to Gartner, service management falls into four main modalities. Let’s start with two:

• Appointment-Centric Service
  This is typically reactive, often seen in B2C and some B2B environments. Think of broadband installation—you book an appointment, and the service is delivered at a set time. These are high-volume, short-duration tasks that are repetitive and tightly scoped.
• Equipment-Centric Service
  Here, the focus is on the equipment itself. Organizations in this space often specialize in specific types of complex, regulated equipment. They employ certified technicians and rely heavily on telemetry and compliance standards.

Strategic Investments

We’re currently focusing our investments in a few key areas that align with both our long-term vision and immediate customer needs:

• Platform Modernization
  We’re upgrading our core platforms to improve scalability, resilience, and integration capabilities. This ensures we can support evolving service models and deliver faster innovation.
• Data and Insights
  We're investing heavily in data infrastructure to unlock actionable insights. This includes predictive analytics, real-time dashboards, and enhanced reporting to drive smarter decision-making.
• Customer Experience
  Enhancing the end-to-end customer journey remains a top priority. We're embedding feedback loops, streamlining digital touchpoints, and personalizing interactions to improve satisfaction and loyalty.
• Sustainability and Compliance
  We're aligning our services with environmental and regulatory standards. This includes optimizing field operations, reducing emissions, and ensuring compliance across all regions.

Short-Term Roadmap

Looking ahead over the next 6–12 months, our focus will be on:

• Accelerating Deployment of New Capabilities
  We’re rolling out updates more frequently, with a focus on automation, self-service, and mobile-first experiences.
• Expanding Partner Ecosystem
  We’re onboarding new technology and service partners to broaden our solution offerings and improve time-to-value.
• Operational Excellence
  We're refining internal processes to reduce friction, improve service delivery, and enhance reliability.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is at the heart of many of our innovations. We're applying it in several impactful ways:

• Predictive Maintenance
  Using machine learning to anticipate failures before they happen, reducing downtime and improving asset performance.
• Intelligent Routing and Scheduling
  AI helps optimize technician assignments, reducing travel time and improving first-time fix rates.
• Conversational Interfaces
  We're integrating AI-powered chat and voice assistants to streamline support and improve responsiveness.
• Knowledge Automation
  AI is helping us surface the right information at the right time—whether for customers or field agents—boosting efficiency and accuracy.

Finally, let’s talk about how we’re working with customers. The way we collaborate has evolved significantly:

• We’re moving from transactional relationships to co-innovation partnerships.
• Customers are now actively involved in shaping our roadmap, testing new features, and providing early feedback.
• At our last Tech Talks, we invited customers to participate in pilot programs—and many did. Their input has been invaluable.

So once again, I’m extending an invitation: if you're interested in collaborating with us on upcoming initiatives, we’d love to hear from you. Whether it’s testing new capabilities, sharing feedback, or co-developing solutions, your involvement makes a real difference.

Service Modalities: Deep Dive

Let’s revisit the four service modalities, focusing on real-world examples:

• Equipment-Centric Service (Top Left)
  A third-party contractor managing heating and ventilation systems fits here. These services are governed by strict safety and environmental regulations—such as gas leak detection and energy consumption standards. The contractor’s core focus is maintaining the systems on behalf of their customers, often with specialized knowledge and certified technicians.
• Knowledge-Centric OEMs (Bottom Right)
  This is where most Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) operate. For example, companies like Tomra are deeply knowledgeable about their equipment. They maintain direct customer relationships and exclusive access to proprietary components, enabling them to offer highly specialized service.
• Outcome-Based Service (Top Right)
  This is the most transformative model—and where many of our service and manufacturing customers are heading. Instead of traditional SLAs (e.g., respond in 2 hours, resolve in 8), contracts are now based on guaranteed outcomes like uptime or throughput. This shift changes the entire service dynamic and is a major area of investment for us moving forward.

Strategic Direction: Building the Future of Service Management

Since the launch of IFS Cloud, our goal has been clear: unify the best of our acquired service management products—Field Service Management, Clevest, and legacy IFS Applications—into a single, future-ready platform.

We’re in a unique position. Our combined products represent over 130 years of market experience. That gives us a rich foundation of knowledge, a diverse customer base, and the opportunity to build a “best of the best” solution—where 1 + 1 = 5.

Recent Progress and Key Investments

Over the past year, we’ve made significant strides:

• Core Capability Expansion
  We’ve added depth in workforce management and mobile functionality. Native PSO capabilities are now fully integrated into IFS Cloud, and the mobile client has seen major enhancements.
• Service Lifecycle Management
  We’ve reintroduced and expanded features like warranties, service BOMs, and more. These are foundational for managing complex service operations.
• New Strategic Modules in 25R1
  Two major capabilities have launched:
  • Depot Repair: Supports inbound service models, enabling sustainable repair and reuse workflows.
  • Contractor Management: Enhances how third-party service providers are integrated and managed.

Coming soon: Reverse Logistics, which will complete our vision for full lifecycle service management.

Sustainability and Circular Service Models

Depot repair isn’t just about fixing equipment—it’s about sustainability:

• Field technicians can collect faulty components and return them to repair centers.
• If repairable, items are reintroduced into the service ecosystem.
• If not, they’re disposed of responsibly.

This model supports both cost efficiency and environmental responsibility.

We’re also enabling consumer-style service flows—like warranty claims where a replacement is sent in advance, the faulty unit is returned, repaired, and swapped back. These are the kinds of seamless, circular processes we’re building into the platform.

These are the four primary solution areas, each supported by a robust foundation of capabilities. Over the past year, we’ve made significant progress in delivering the supporting functionality needed to effectively operate within one or more of these service modalities.

One of the key advancements has been in request management, a capability that’s relatively new to IFS Applications customers. This process is now well-rounded and fully supported by tools like the Dispatch Console for scheduling, and a new install base object type called Products and Models. This addition enables support for repeatable assets, making IFS one of the few vendors globally that can manage both bespoke assets (via functional and serial objects) and repeatable assets (via service objects based on Products and Models, inherited from FSM).

We’ve also delivered major enhancements in resource management, including:

• Global skills management
• Crew management
• Task bundling to improve work execution efficiency

Significant improvements have been made in SLA handling, ensuring tight alignment between contracts, requests, and PSO. We now have a much more robust mechanism for managing work that falls outside contractual SLAs.

In the 25R1 release, the volume and depth of new capabilities are substantial. While not everything fits on a single slide, the breadth of enhancements—such as the introduction of the Service Bill of Materials—demonstrates the scale of progress we’ve made. That's how we manage the components within the installed objects. A huge amount of effort in warranty management. The start of that depot repair capability. A lot of work continues in the resource management areas with enhancements in shift planning with things like appointment templates with a much you know, a productivity focus within the user experience that's used there. And then the core contracting capability has given us that that starter of the. Contractor management functionality I was on about a couple of seconds ago and then in the SLM space we've enabled bulk invoicing.

New Capabilities in 25R1

We’ve introduced several powerful enhancements in the 25R1 release:

• Sales-Driven Service Requests
  You can now automatically generate service requests from a sales order. For example, when selling a product with an associated installation service, the request process is triggered directly from the sale—streamlining operations and improving customer experience.
• Extensive Feature Set
  25R1 includes a wide range of new capabilities. Everything you need to know is available in the IFS Community. The accompanying PowerPoint deck has over 600 slides—highlighting just how much the team has delivered in this release.

What’s Next: Strategic Roadmap

Here’s a look at our major strategic investments over the next 2–3 years:

• Mobile Workforce Management
  This solution enables full-cycle support for third-party work ingestion, scheduling, mobile execution, and handoff. It will be largely complete by the end of 25R2, with final refinements in 26R1.
• FSM and Alliance Migration
  By 27R1, all capabilities from FSM and Alliance will be fully migrated. We now have a clear path for every customer on those platforms to transition to IFS Cloud.
• Depot Repair
  The core flow is already in place. We’ll continue building out reverse logistics over the next three releases, with full completion expected by 26R2.
• Contractor Management
  This brand-new capability launched in 25R1. We plan three more releases to expand and mature this area, supporting service businesses that rely on third-party delivery partners.
• Service Lifecycle Evolution
  We’re steadily advancing our support for servitization—shifting from reactive service to outcome-based models. This is a long-term investment that will continue evolving.
• Mobility Enhancements
  Mobility remains a permanent focus. We currently have three releases of planned improvements, with ongoing investment to ensure best-in-class mobile experiences.

Discussion between Stephen and Genevieve

[Genevieve]: Yes, sorry I'm not familiar with the term reverse logistics, so maybe you explained it?

[Stephen]: Reverse logistics is all about managing the supply chain process for returning items to a depot for repair. It starts when a customer reports a faulty item. The system determines whether the item is still under warranty and identifies the appropriate repair center. It also handles integration with freight providers to arrange the return shipment.

If a swap is needed, a replacement unit can be sent to the customer in advance, ensuring they’re not left without service while their original item is in transit. Essentially, reverse logistics covers everything involved in getting the item back to the depot. Depot repair then takes over—this is the actual execution of the repair process once the item has arrived.

Continuing the discussion

Future Updates and Developments in Mobile Workforce Management and Service Lifecycle Management

In mobile workforce management, we’ve already covered the high-level updates in 25R1. In 25R2, our focus on user experience continues, but we’re also making a significant enhancement to the PSO Workbench.

Until now, the Dispatch Console has served organizations not using PSO—those relying on manual or assisted scheduling with basic travel calculations. Some use PSO in static mode, starting the day with a clean plan and manually adjusting it throughout. While that works, it underutilizes PSO’s real-time optimization capabilities.

The challenge has been keeping the user experience in sync with PSO’s real-time engine. To address this, we’re embedding the PSO console directly into IFS Cloud. This will allow users to drive transactions seamlessly from within the platform, even though the underlying technologies differ. This is a major investment in 25R2.

Looking ahead, we’re integrating Esri’s GIS client for our utility sector customers who prefer Esri over HERE mapping. This will allow them to bring their own geospatial data into IFS Cloud. We’re also enabling part, vehicle, capacity, and tool scheduling directly within IFS Cloud, so PSO can make smarter decisions using real-time inventory data.

We’re enhancing forecasting and simulation for resource planning, building on the foundation of WISE, and introducing capacity management. Time reporting will be extended to cover non-task-based events—like toolbox talks—so every hour of an engineer’s day can be accounted for. We’re also improving resource costing for more accurate financial modelling.

In Service Lifecycle Management, the work done in 25R1 continues in 25R2. We’re enhancing how the service catalogue and standard tasks interact, and expanding contract coverage to match the capabilities of FSM and Alliance. Each legacy system had unique strengths, and we’re combining them into a best-of-the-best solution.

We’re also introducing Service Projects—a lightweight way to manage repetitive, project-based work without the overhead of full project management. This is ideal for scenarios like installations that involve site surveys, procurement, execution, and post-installation visits. You’ll be able to manage these as structured projects with linked tasks, either as individual site projects or multi-phase programs under a single contract.

AI will play a key role in task bundling. Today, PSO can suggest grouping tasks at the same location, but it still treats them as separate jobs. This leads to redundant travel and fragmented technician experiences. Bundling allows us to treat multiple tasks as a single visit—one travel, one execution, one sign-off. AI will help determine the optimal grouping, improving both efficiency and experience.

We’re also expanding pricing options to support the wide variety of pricing models our customers use. Similar logic will be applied to recurring service, allowing better sequencing and grouping of preventive maintenance tasks.

On the mobility side, we’re replatforming the mobile client framework using Microsoft’s .NET MAUI. This will modernize the mobile experience and improve performance and flexibility across devices.

Mobile Application Replatforming and Contractor Management Capabilities

If you're using the mobile work order app today, you’ll have noticed it’s now labelled with “Classic” at the end. A new app has also appeared—this is a preview version built on our new technology stack. While it’s available for early access, we don’t recommend deploying it in the field just yet. Please continue using the Classic version for now. Over the course of the 25R1 lifecycle, we’ll begin transitioning early adopters, with a full switch planned for 25R2.

With 25R2, it’s not just about new technology—it’s also the beginning of a new mobile user experience. This is something we’ve wanted to deliver for a long time, and the replatforming has finally made it possible. Alongside this, we’re introducing Copilot capabilities on mobile. Technicians will be able to receive AI-generated job readouts en route and complete jobs using Copilot, streamlining their workflow significantly.

In Contractor Management, 25R1 introduced the foundational capabilities: contractor agreements, basic costing and financials, invoice handling, onboarding, and integration APIs for job dispatch. In 25R2, we’re expanding this with a contractor portal, enhanced agreement features, and support for tendering and bidding processes.

We’re also enabling contractors to either use your materials or record their own usage, with updates to the asset register when applicable. This will be supported by comprehensive reporting and KPIs. Following that, we’ll expand into mobile workload enablement for contractors and use this framework to support intercompany service delivery.

For global service organizations, this means you’ll be able to assign work across legal entities—say, from Luxembourg to a technician in Switzerland—and handle the financial reconciliation automatically. This is a major step forward for operational efficiency.

On licensing, we’re keeping it simple: base contractor capabilities will follow a modular pricing model, while job-level usage will be pay-per-job, allowing unlimited contractor access without complex licensing.

In Depot Repair, 25R1 delivered a complete end-to-end flow: RMA creation, receipt, repair execution, return shipment, and invoicing. In 25R2, we’re adding support for recall and repair campaigns—similar to automotive recall letters. You’ll be able to manage affected assets, schedule repairs, and track campaign progress. Future releases will extend this to field-based campaigns as well.

We’re also introducing part disposition capabilities, allowing you to manage how parts are handled post-repair—whether reused, scrapped, or returned to inventory.

Process and Challenges of Product Repair and Maintenance

Disposition is the step before repair. It functions as an inspection process to determine the scope of the repair before it's accepted. It also handles swap scenarios and includes a comprehensive set of APIs to support the authorization and execution flow.

Following that, we’ll introduce capabilities like component-level repairs and bulk repair. Bulk repair is used by customers who collect large volumes of faulty items—often stored on pallets—and later initiate repair operations in batches. Items are unpacked and processed per repair operation when needed.

We’re also adding support for refurbishments, repair quoting, and warranty claims. For example, if an OEM uses a third-party component that fails under warranty, the system will allow a claim to be raised against the supplier and facilitate chargebacks.

Integration with PSO is also planned, enabling effective scheduling of repair operations. As part of our broader part scheduling enhancements, we’re working on forecasting when repaired items will re-enter the supply chain. This will support intelligent buy vs. repair decisions.

For instance, if a $10,000 part is needed for a job and none are in stock, but a repairable version is available that would cost only $2,000 to fix—albeit with a longer lead time—we can evaluate urgency and cost to determine the best course of action. This forecasting capability will be a valuable tool for optimizing service operations and cost efficiency.

Implementation and Impact of AI in Industrial Services

At IFS.ai, we’ve been busy. You’ve likely heard us talk about the difference between industrial AI and generic AI—and for good reason. Our focus is on embedding AI directly into the user experience, using your existing data to deliver intelligent, context-aware solutions that solve real, industry-specific problems.

We categorize our AI capabilities into six key areas:

• Content Generation
• Optimization
• Recommendations
• Event Forecasting
• Anomaly Detection
• Contextual Knowledge

Let’s look at how our recent service-related AI features map to these categories:

Content Generation:

We’ve introduced knowledge article generation and regeneration. AI is seamlessly integrated into the knowledge base, helping clean up language, generate new content, and update articles based on real job outcomes. For example, if a technician completes a job, the system can automatically update the related article with new insights or part recommendations.

Recommendations:

Our First-Time Fix Prediction tool analyzes tasks and predicts the likelihood of a successful first-time fix. It also provides actionable suggestions—like verifying parts, contacting the customer, or assigning a more experienced technician—to improve success rates.

Optimization:

Dynamic scheduling and appointment booking are classic optimization problems, and we’ve embedded AI to make these processes smarter and more efficient.

Event Forecasting:

We’ve added resource forecasting and “what-if” scenario exploration, enabling more granular planning than what was previously possible with WISE.

Contextual Knowledge:

Copilot is now available for dispatchers and service managers, offering intelligent assistance and knowledge search directly within the workflow.

All of this is done in a deeply embedded, seamless way, so users and customers benefit from AI without needing to think about it—it just works.

Looking ahead, we’re moving into Agentic AI. This is about enabling AI to take action within the application, while also knowing when to pause for human input. For example, if the system predicts a missing part on a job, should it automatically add it? Or should it wait for a human to confirm? Agentic AI will help define those boundaries and make intelligent decisions based on context and rules.

We’re also exploring how AI can enhance dispatching—not just following rules, but interpreting and adapting them in real time. This will lead to a truly intelligent dispatch agent that knows when to act and when to escalate.

Customer Engagement

To close, let’s talk about how we engage with you—our customers.

If you’re not already part of the IFS Community, I strongly encourage you to join. When we launched it a few years ago, it was mostly IFS staff answering questions. Today, it’s a vibrant space where customers help each other, partners contribute, and IFS teams engage directly. It’s become a true community.

It’s also where we share release updates, roadmaps, and where you can submit and vote on product ideas. It’s a key part of how we collaborate with you.

The third area I want to highlight is how we approach requirements and design validation. As I mentioned earlier, when I joined you last year, we were just about to begin work on Contractor Management, Service Projects, and Depot Repair. At the time, I put out a call for validation partners—and I’m pleased to say we now have four customers actively engaged in each of those areas.

These customers have been working with us from the very beginning—helping us define what needs to be delivered, sharing how they manage contractors, and validating our designs. They’ve committed to adopting the capabilities once released, which is incredibly valuable.

This kind of design and validation collaboration is essential. It gives you early insight into what’s coming and a real voice in shaping the product. For us, it’s invaluable—from product managers and program leads planning multi-release investments, to UX designers mapping user flows, to operational leaders focused on exception handling and reporting.

Our goal is always to release features with the highest possible market fit. That’s why we never rely on a single customer for input—we work with a diverse group. For example, in Service Projects, we’re collaborating with RES, TDC, Speed, Polygon, Elvia, Andritz, and others. Some are already planning to adopt the new capabilities at release.

While I don’t have any new asks today—we’re midstream on several major investments—I will in the future. And when those opportunities arise, I encourage you to get involved. It’s rewarding to see your ideas reflected in the product, and your input is critical to our success.

Q&A

Q: I’m curious about timing, particularly around the AI capabilities. I’m not asking for a firm commitment, but could you give us a ballpark estimate of when we might see some of these features ready for real-world use?

A: Everything improves with each release. Depot Repair, for example, was first discussed 18–24 months ago and is now live. But we don’t just release and move on—we continue to invest and enhance, as we’ve done with mobile and scheduling. There’s a lot coming in 25R2, and even more already lined up for 26R1. The 26R1 roadmap will be available in the next 3–4 weeks. We prioritize based on value, investment, and market demand. If you’re interested in specific areas, reach out via your account team—we’d be happy to explore validation opportunities with you.

Q: Hey Stephen, how would this integrate with the platforms we currently use, especially with the various AI tools already in place? Would it create confusion—particularly for finance or other teams—or could it fit cleanly into our existing service management ecosystem?

A: We’re not an AI vendor building tools for others—we’re focused on delivering embedded, industry-specific AI within the IFS Cloud service process. Just like Tomra US and NA, you're already running SLM with us, and I’d love to see the rest of Tomra move toward IFS Cloud. We’ve got a strong, compelling offer for service management.

Next CollABoratives: 

• 17 June 2025 10:00 AM US EST / 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST
  IFS Digitalization CollABorative: Tech Talk - Discussing making AI work in Practice.
• 24 June 2025 10:00 AM US EST / 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST
  IFS Assets CollABorative: Tech Talk - Using Operational Intelligence to drive predictive maintenance

If you are an IFS Customer and you would like to join the CollABoratives, please click here to fill out the form.