IFS has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Falkonry Inc. Falkonry provides a time series AI suite that continuously monitors all assets and processes, enables users to perform collaborative root-cause analysis and augments decision-making with data-driven insights based on anomalies in data. Its platform allows regional and global manufacturers to improve performance in manufacturing plants.
Once integrated into IFS Cloud, it is easy to see the use cases across all the solutions that IFS currently offers, including ERP, EAM, FSM and ESM. Falkonry already supports manufacturers across several industries, including metals, electronics and semiconductors, Oil & Gas, Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Chemicals and Defence.
Roberto Demidchuk, Chief Information Officer at Ternium, a leading steel manufacturer in the Americas, commented, “With our asset performance management solution, powered by Falkonry’s AI, Ternium operations teams receive actionable warnings before an event could impact the business.”
The Falkonry solution will also support the IFS MRO solution. It already has contracts with the US Navy and Air Force, bringing the power of its AI analytics to the defence and intelligence community. Dan Santosusso, Electrical Engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, commented, “Falkonry has been a great partner in applying AI and ML to exploit operational data for both operational readiness and design improvements. Their AI finds important patterns in large volumes of multivariate time-series data of complex system-of-systems.”
Darren Roos, IFS CEO, commented: “Falkonry is unique in the market because its technology is agnostic and also it does not require data scientists. These are great differentiators for Falkonry that mean the solution is both scalable and low-cost to implement – two fundamental attributes that very much align to our own values.
“Falkonry’s technology can be applied in all industries, and while the team has some hugely impressive references in IFS’s focus markets on asset performance management, manufacturing execution systems, servitization, and configurable workflows, we see a really broad addressable market to capitalize on.”
Falkonry
Falkonry was founded in 2013 by CEO Nikunj Mehta. The firm has raised $13.3 million in funding over three rounds. The most recent was a $2 million raise in 2021 led by Hypertherm Partners. Presidio Ventures led Its $5 million Series A funding round in June 2018. Source Crunchbase.
Nikunj Mehta, CEO of Falkonry, commented: “The convergence of artificial intelligence and industrial processes has become increasingly crucial for organizations seeking to enhance productivity through data. We are thrilled to join forces with IFS and looking forward to combining our unique strengths to provide a truly compelling value proposition to our existing customers as well as IFS’s customers. Becoming part of IFS will enable us to further innovate and extend the value we create for our customers.”
Details of how IFS intends to bring the Falkonry solution into the IFS Cloud suite are unclear. However, IFS notes that it “further evidences the company’s strategy to use AI pervasively to provide end-to-end intelligent insights in EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) across ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), PSO (Planning, Scheduling, Optimization), FSM (Field Service Management) and ESM (Enterprise Service Management) technology to increase people and asset productivity.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Falkonry appears to be a very suitable match for IFS. Falkonry will bring a ready-made solution that will quickly supplement several IFS solutions. It also gives it access to an additional customer base to cross-sell its other solutions into.
It is unclear whether Falkonry will also work with IFS Ultimo, bringing the power of its analytics and AI solution to the mid-market. For Falkonry, this provides the organisation, already finding traction overseas, with a global sales and service network and easier access to a much larger customer portfolio.
The one surprise in this announcement is that Oracle, with whom Falkonry has worked on several projects, did not make a bid. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and IFS expects it to complete in Q4, 2023.
