In June, I asked one of the Automation World Contributing Editors, Dave Gehman, to attend a software conference. He came back with a report from one of the keynote presentations that search would be the next big thing in manufacturing enterprise software. Sure enough, 6 weeks later I received this release from IFS.
IFS, the Linkoping, Sweden enterprise applications company with North American headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill., announced the delivery of integrated enterprise application search (EAS). The company says that it the first top-tier enterprise application vendor to embed this critical functionality within an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
EAS gives information workers access to business information through a "Google-style" search-based interface that is embedded within the enterprise application. In contrast, other enterprise application vendors and best-of-breed search tool companies are offering solutions bolted onto the outside of applications. According to IFS Chief Technology Officer Dan Matthews, this approach presents a number of drawbacks in the areas of security, usability and cost.
"Since the enterprise application search functionality is embedded within IFS Applications, there is nothing else to buy and no additional licensing fees," Matthews said. "Furthermore, there is no costly, months-long implementation project to configure the search tool to your systems. The search functionality is already fully integrated. By integrating search functionality within IFS Applications, we avoid the main problems that plague bolt-on search appliances, allowing organizations to get the benefits much sooner."
According to Matthews, it is hard for an external system to perform effectively as a search tool as it does not fully understand the application and underlying metadata it is running within. Because it is an integrated part of IFS Applications, IFS' EAS delivers more targeted results than a generic enterprise search. For example, a user can tell the IFS Applications' EAS tool that the scope of the search should be invoices, spare parts or customers, and only the specified data will be returned.
Some examples of search functionality include customer and supplier data, parts information, document databases, fault reports and other quality documents, and key business transaction records.
4:27:12 PM 
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