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Publish Date : 28-Nov-2014

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announces that Portsmouth Water, the water supplier for Portsmouth and the surrounding area, is rolling out IFS Applications 8 as its new ERP solution to provide greater visibility of assets, mobile support for its field engineers and to further improve its level of service to customers. Founded in 1857, Portsmouth Water supplies water to an area that spans 868 square kilometers across South East Hampshire and West Sussex. The company provides high quality public water supplies to a domestic population exceeding 660,000, as well as many important industries, large defense establishments and varied commercial businesses.

The company has implemented IFS Applications 8 to replace a range of bespoke applications previously hosted on a mainframe server, which was becoming increasingly expensive to manage and was lacking sufficient IT support. Water regulator Ofwat is also enforcing greater reporting requirements upon utility providers, meaning Portsmouth Water was looking to implement more rigorous reporting processes. The integrated approach provided by IFS will improve the visibility and management of assets, allowing greater consistency of reporting while improving the flow of information across the organization. With the roll-out expected to be completed by the end of 2015, Portsmouth Water has gone live in the ‘Supply’ group with mobile work order and asset management, which includes purchasing and inventory / stores management. The next phases being rolled-out are the ‘Distribution and Investment’ group with linear assets, integration with geographic information systems (GIS), additional mobile work orders plus the project and sub-contract management solution.

The ERP modules will be integrated with IFS mobile solutions to allow over 240 field engineers and contractors to access the system remotely. IFS is currently working with Portsmouth Water to include GIS technology, which will enable field workers to view the location and status of assets by using maps hosted on mobile devices. Rod Porteous, Engineering Director at Portsmouth Water has commented, “The new IFS solution is the most comprehensive ERP suite that we looked at and will enable us to improve the quality of service to our customers and help us remain competitive as Ofwat introduces more stringent regulations and competition into the market. He continued, “as a company with a track record for delivering leading customer service in the industry, it was important that an implementation of this magnitude did not impact the day-to-day functioning of the business. However, IFS worked with us in an exceptionally collaborative way, meaning any major disruptions to our business have been avoided. This has given us the confidence to take on new phases of the project in addition to our initial agreement.”

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