Hello,

Welcome to the world of IFS and the customer service that goes along with it.

You will find, already have I imagine based on your questions, that the responsiveness of IFS is dramatically different once you are handed off from the pre-sales and sales team to the project teams.

IFS is significantly behind/understaffed for the number of upgrades and installations they are attempting to manage.  Coupled with the product being well behind where it should be nearly two years in and that is the main driver for the delays you are seeing.

Yes, we’re experiencing the same thing as you, we are going from Version 9 to IFS Cloud.  We’ve seen this problem in spades with Cloud, but we’ve experienced this nearly the entire time we’ve been with IFS (almost 10 years).  Take any promised delivery for something they owe you, triple that time (not joking) and maybe you approximate a timeline you can plan a project against.  We’ve been constantly frustrated with this same lack of timeliness and ability to deliver.  There are definitely good folks to find and deal with in IFS, but it is their immensely complex and layered business architecture that works against actually delivering on the ‘moments of service’ they are so keen to talk about all the time.

We have found many things that were promised or should be in the product at the current release actually aren’t there, additionally there are still tons of bugs throughout the software.  Anything earlier than 22R1 was essentially unuseable, 22R1 has been ok to evaluate but not good enough to go-live.  22R2 has been very problematic to get in place due to tons of issues and it is most likely that 23R1 will be the landing spot for our solution - however, that is going to put the project 3-6 months behind our original intended go-live date.

The final thought I’ll offer and then quit ranting is that the most frustrating thing that we encounter when there are problems is that you can’t find an owner who will stay with the problem until a solution is reached.  You have to chase them to find the person to answer the first round of troubleshooting and as soon as they figure out that the problem isn’t in their area….they walk away and point you to another area, not a person mind you, but just another department to go chase all over again.  This troubleshooing process and lack of ownership is the single most delaying factor in arriving at a solution to a problem.  Then once the solution is known, it has to go into the queue to be packaged into the next Service Update or worse, the next Release Update.  Depending on the timing, that can be 2-3 SU’s down the road or not the upcoming RU, but the next one.  Planning a project against those parameters is actually a bit of a nightmare…..which is our world currently.

You won’t find an SLA that you can hold them too, especially if you aren’t live on the software.  Once live and under a service agreement, there are some SLA’s that come about based on what you are paying and how hard the problem is, but again, most of the time, you are the one managing that, not them.

As for documentation, your best bet is to start here:

https://docs.ifs.com/

Then pick the version you are on and go from there.

Good Luck!

Another thread with other customers to commiserate with….

@Adam Rodda 

@HDAL 

Tagging you both in this one, since your comments seem a little similar.

Hi Shs7,
We do not have here the same long experience as ShawnBerk with IFS since we bought IFS Cloud (fully managed by them) only 1 year ago. We are now in 22R1 SU9 and our Go Live is supposed to be next month January 2023. So you can imagine how busy we are at the time.
We also have Go Live blocking cases, and to tell you how hot it is here, we regularly summon IFS French CEO to be our special guest in our Steering Commitees.
I think that the main issue is that everything related to Cloud Service : Build Place, Use Place, Deliveries, etc… is mastered by very few people.
But yes, globally I couldn’t say it better than ShawnBerk.

Dear @shs7  

My name is Cathie Hall, SVP Experience, and I’ve reached out to you via your open case so we can discuss your feedback in more detail. Regards, Cathie

Hi Shawn

My name is Tony Johnson I am the IFS Cloud Integration Director at IFS.  Thanks for your input, but this kind of comment is inflammatory and not conducive to making a good way to work together.  I would appreciate if this kind of reply is not made in a public forum.  With regards you project situation, I am in regular contact with several people from your company Preethy Thomas, Jonathan Wyman, Kevin Durette.

It seems you have not been available to join the session over the last two weeks, but I have asked your Customer Success Manager to include you in the weekly meeting we have to ensure that can express your opinions and we can work together to improve things.

I we have discussed a number of the point you raise in the meetings last week which were collaborative and useful to both sides.  I have explained the actions we have and are planning to put in place to work towards a better future.

Tony

I’ve been developing software as a hobby since the 90s and professionally since the early 2000s. I’ve been using IFS since 2008 when I was a mechanical engineer and have been doing serious IFS development since about 2011.

I’ve had a lot of trouble with IFS providing deliveries on time that function correctly the first time, and every one of these problems has stemmed from their development and delivery practices and the disconnect between IFS Global and IFS North America. North America used to recommend a nonstandard application owner like ACME1APP. The credit card, freight, and tax interfaces, the Italian finance pack in Apps 8, and the Global Extension in Apps 9 were all sold as bolt-on, off-the-shelf components, but each of these has required support as though they were customizations, with sticky tentacles reaching all throughout the core code, breaking the entire application if any one of these components wasn’t deployed perfectly. For the first time in a very long time, I do see light at the end of that tunnel. They’re moving away from Harvest and have adopted Git. They’re finally recognizing the problems around this gray area between a module and a customization, and I’ve been told the groundwork for these North American interfaces will eventually be put into the core layer with R&D support. IFSAPP is now the standard for everyone. They at least have recognized the need to have a single case owner and say they’re working toward that, which is a huge first step to actually getting there.

If I may make a public recommendation, it would be to encourage every software employee, working at IFS or elsewhere, to expand outside their bubble just a little bit and continually cross-train in something new every week or month. Sure, specialization provides incredible efficiencies, where everyone gets into their groove doing what they do best, but the handoffs from one specialist to another eat into those efficiencies. If a popular department gets overloaded, it slows down everyone if employees can’t adapt, slowing down the customer experience. I’m not asking for anyone to become a jack of all trades, master of none, but branching out a little helps not only your customer experience today but also makes your résumé far more marketable tomorrow.

Thank you @durette for the feedback and good suggestions. It’s something I will take back to the senior leadership team for discussion on the cross-training. I also appreciate your comments on the journey we are on. If it’s OK I will pass on your details to a team who would like to speak to you more about your experiences and feedback.

Regards

Cathie

SVP Experience