IFS’s Acquisition of Falkonry: Benefits, Application Areas, and Technical Details
Acquisition positions IFS as the only vendor with leading ERP, EAM, FSM and ESM functionality now able to provide AI-generated anomaly detection to drive automation and optimization of processes and workflows across its entire platform.
IFS, a global Cloud Enterprise Software company exclusively represented in Italy by FI Solutions, has announced the acquisition of Falkonry, Inc., a California-based company specializing in Industrial AI software that provides automated and high-speed data analysis for the manufacturing and defense sectors.
The self-learning solution, powered by artificial intelligence, continuously monitors vast amounts of data related to assets, machinery, and industrial processes to detect and analyze unusual behaviors and causes of failures.
Motivations behind the Acquisition
Over the past twenty years, the expansion of assets, machinery, and fleets has generated an unprecedented amount of data. This has made real-time operational monitoring extremely complex, hindering the implementation of immediate operational improvements such as maintenance and process adjustments.
By leveraging Falkonry’s automated and self-learning artificial intelligence, organizations can now democratize and make intelligence accessible, enabling operational users to take timely actions to prevent asset downtime, quality issues, and emission violations, while automating improvements in processes and workflows.
Application Areas of Falkonry Solutions
The integration of Falkonry’s self-learning anomaly detection solution with IFS’s existing AI-driven business simulation, scheduling, and optimization capabilities further underscores the company’s strategy to leverage AI pervasively to deliver intelligent, end-to-end insights in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) through ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), PSO (Planning, Scheduling, Optimization), FSM (Field Service Management), and ESM (Enterprise Service Management) technologies, with the aim of enhancing the productivity of both assets and people.
This acquisition follows IFS’s acquisition of Poka, a company specializing in connected worker technology that enables factory and field operators to work smarter, safer, and more productively.
The combination of Falkonry and Poka with IFS Cloud positions IFS as the leading provider for organizations aiming to develop the advanced and efficient smart factories of the future.
Falkonry: Birth, Customers and Technology
Founded in 2012 by CEO Nikunj Mehta, Falkonry is headquartered in California (USA) with a significant regional presence in Mumbai (India). The company has built a customer base across North America, South America, and Europe, including prominent names such as the U.S. Navy and Air Force, Ternium, North American Stainless, Harbour Energy, and SSAB, highlighting its focus on sectors like industrial manufacturing and defense.
Falkonry is an AI software platform for time-series data that enables industrial organizations to enhance operational productivity, reduce risk, and eliminate unexpected downtime.
By analyzing terabytes of data from machinery and sensors, Falkonry’s AI applications detect developing defects earlier and more accurately than would ever be possible with manual systems. Maintenance and operations teams use Falkonry’s applications to troubleshoot issues faster and take timely action. This patented AI technology requires no configuration and scales securely across the entire enterprise, whether in the cloud or at the edge. For more details, visit: falkonry.com.
CEO’s Comments
IFS CEO, Darren Roos, 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.” Roos added: “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.”
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”. He added: “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.” He concluded: “Becoming part of IFS will enable us to further innovate and extend the value we create for our customers.”
“Today’s enterprise is continuously collecting asset performance data, making it a challenge across a multitude of industries from manufacturing to service to put it in the right context and take action in real-time. Organizations using artificial intelligence and machine learning models with their data for self-learning asset performance anomaly detection will generate critical insights faster, boosting productivity and business performance,” said Brian O’Rourke, IDC Research Manager, EAM and Smart Facilities.’