Your IFS system is running. Core processes are stable, there are no major disruptions, and your users can get their work done. But when did you last adopt a new feature that genuinely improved a process? Or made a manual report obsolete?<\/p>
If the answer is more than a year ago, you’re not alone. Most companies treat their ERP system as a workhorse that just needs to keep running, not as a source of continuous improvement. And behind that mindset sits a question that rarely gets asked out loud: am I actually working as efficiently as I think I am? Because that missed opportunity is quietly costing you tens of thousands of euros every month.<\/p>
In our experience, 60 to 70 percent of the functionality in the average IFS system goes unused. Most companies are only working with 30 to 40 percent of what’s available. The licenses have been purchased, the system has been implemented, and the costs are being paid. But the platform isn’t being used to make operations smarter.<\/p>
<\/blockquote>“60 to 70 percent of the available functionality is never used. That is not the exception, that is the average. And I am not talking about exotic modules. Just the things they already have, already pay for, and never switched on.”, Patrick says.<\/p>
“They did not realise how much time they were losing. Only when we mapped it out did they see it.”<\/p>
The cost isn’t in the licenses themselves, those are a sunk cost either way. The real cost is what your people do because the system isn’t working for them. In many cases, it’s actually working against them. The spreadsheets maintained alongside the ERP. The manual planning done in Excel, because the advanced planning module was never configured. The hours finance spends merging data that should come from a single source.<\/p>
“We saw a client where shop floor employees were making five or six extra scans per order. Neatly configured during the implementation, for a reason that made sense at the time. But that reason had been gone for years. Nobody had questioned it, because the system kept asking for it.” Patrick shakes his head. “Your company changes. Your processes change with it. But your system does not know that unless you tell it.”<\/p>
That mismatch has real costs. At a manufacturer of large waste processing machines, eqeep automated the incoming invoice flow. Result: the finance team saves at least eight hours a week on repetitive work. Patrick: “They did not realise how much time they were losing. Only when we mapped it out did they see it. Eight hours, every week, doing work the system could handle.”<\/p>
At a German machine builder, they automated the inbound order process via EDI. Every order now saves five minutes of admin. The existing team focuses on quality control and customer satisfaction instead of data entry<\/p>
The treadmill of two releases per year<\/h2>
The challenge is growing. IFS releases two major updates per year, on top of monthly service updates. Every release is packed with improvements, new features, and even AI-driven functionality that your competitors may already be using. The opportunities to improve your processes grow every six months.<\/p>
But keeping up with those releases takes effort. You need an impact analysis, testing, user training, and activation of new functionality. For an internal IT team, this feels like an extra project on top of daily operations. The result is predictable: the update gets installed on the technical side, but the new functionality never gets used. The system is up to date. The way people work is not.<\/p>
At Eqeep, we get early access to the latest releases. We analyze them for you, translate them into concrete opportunities for your processes, and flag what to watch out for. No stack of release notes to work through yourself, just a clear picture of what’s in it for you.<\/p>