IFS AB (Industrial and Financial Systems) is a multinational enterprise software company headquartered in Linköping, Sweden. IFS has over 7,000 employees in more than 80 countries.

History

Early years (1983–1996)

IFS was founded in 1983 in Sweden and launched its first software product ''IFS Maintenance'' in 1985. Five years later the complete product suite known as IFS Applications was launched. In the next several years saw IFS expanding its presence in the Scandinavian region with the establishment of offices in Norway,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and then expanding outside Scandinavia into

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. 1993, saw IFS introduced its first graphical user interface and expanded to

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. In 1995, it expanded to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Expansions (1996–2015)

In 1996, IFS was listed in the Swedish stock exchange and the product was made into a component based one. This was followed with the launch of its web client and its establishment of an RnD center in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. In 2001, IFS introduced Java-based mobile clients and Internet portals. In 2004,

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

acquired a 7.7% of IFS share capital. By 2005, IFS Applications had more than 500,000 users. In 2008, IFS launched its new GUI and began several acquisitions.

Investment by EQT (2015–)

In 2015, IFS had reached more than one million global users and was acquired by

EQT EQT may refer to: * EQT AB, a Swedish global private equity group, including infrastructure and real estate ** EQT Ventures, the venture capital arm of EQT * EQT Corporation, an American petroleum and natural gas company * EQT Plaza, a skyscr ...

, a Swedish private equity group. IFS released its most recent ERP system, IFS Applications 10, in 2018 – the same year that Darren Roos was appointed as CEO, followed by IFS Field Service Management 6 in 2019. In July 2020, the EQT VII fund sold IFS AB to the successor funds EQT VIII and EQT IX, and global growth private equity firm,

TA Associates TA Associates Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm and was one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States. The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA invests acros ...

, which became a minority partner at a transaction value in excess of US$3.3 million. In March 2022, IFS announced that Hg, a leading software and services investor, would become a significant minority shareholder in IFS and WorkWave. Long-term investor EQT remains the majority shareholder, with Hg and TA Associates as significant minority shareholders. The transaction values IFS and WorkWave at $10 billion and sets both companies up to further grow their position as leading players in growing sectors. In April 2025, IFS launched Nexus Black, a strategic initiative focused on accelerating the adoption of Industrial AI across asset-intensive industries. The program is designed to co-develop AI-driven solutions with customers, targeting use cases such as predictive maintenance, intelligent scheduling, and autonomous decision-making. Also in April 2025, IFS set a Guinness World Record for the longest static indoor billboard. The 304-foot-long installation at Chicago O’Hare International Airport was part of a global campaign to highlight the company’s focus on Industrial AI and the growing impact of its IFS.ai platform on its customers.

Operations

IFS is governed by the company’s Executive Management Team, providing leadership and direction from a global, operational perspective. Strategically, the company has a four region focus, led by members of the Executive Management Team. These focus areas are; Southern &

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

and APJME&A.

Acquisitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Industrial And Financial Systems Swedish brands ERP software companies Customer relationship management software companies Companies established in 1983 Software companies of Sweden Software companies of Sri Lanka Companies based in Östergötland County Linköping 1983 establishments in Sweden