IFS, the global cloud enterprise applications company, announced that Jotun, the Norwegian decorative paints and marine, protective and powder coatings manufacturer with global operations, has decided to upgrade their long-standing relationship with IFS and go ‘evergreen’ with IFS Cloud™ to minimize risk to their operational efficiency and maintain their desired standard of growth.
Jotun is a multi-national company with 39 production facilities around the globe and a market presence in over 100 countries. The company’s products protect and beautify several iconic landmarks around the world. Also, almost one in four of the world’s shipping vessels have Jotun’s coatings applied.
The company is split into four main business areas: Jotun Decorative Paints (interior and exterior paints for consumers and professionals), Jotun Marine Coatings (leading provider of marine coatings to shipowners and management companies for newbuilding, drydock and seastock), Jotun Protective Coatings (used in industries such as offshore, energy, infrastructure and hydrocarbon processing) and Jotun Powder Coatings (leading supplier of powder coatings to industries related to appliances, furniture, building components and pipelines).
Jotun has created a strong global presence by focusing on quality, brand management and standardized business processes, in which IFS’s enterprise resourcing planning (ERP) software has played a major role.
The company began working with IFS in 2004, initially implementing IFS applications components for financials, manufacturing, logistics management, procurement and maintenance in its Scandinavian operations. Following this successful introduction, Jotun in 2008 started to replace local legacy systems in each company outside Scandinavia with a unified, single instance and fully transparent ERP solution from IFS. The solution is deployed across 120+ sites in 46 countries supporting major aspects of the business. Jotun has also selected IFS’s CRM, which is fully embedded within the ERP solution.
Jotun has now chosen to future-proof their operations with a move to IFS Cloud. The new agreement will empower over 9000 users across 46 countries, including Jotun’s HQ in Norway. Jotun’s main reason for moving to the cloud is to achieve a more standardized solution with less customization, quicker updates and the ability to use new functionality when it is released. The company is investing in a strategic, long term partnership with R&D that will speed up improvements in their business operations.
IFS CEO Darren Roos commented: “We are hugely proud to be in such a strong partnership with Jotun and, that they are embarking on their evergreen journey with IFS. They are true innovators in their field, and we share the same important value of service and of creating great customers experiences. Jotun have remained uncompromising when it comes to quality and reliability, the fact that IFS is able to power this commitment and support their growth plans is tremendous to see.”
“Jotun is a long-term thinking company. Everything we do aligns with our longer-term vision. By continuing to invest in forward-thinking technology we are able to empower our large and global workforce with modern and intuitive tools that can drive profitability,” said Jotun CEO Morten Fon. “We consider ourselves a true challenger brand that is prepared to take strategic risks, finding innovative ways to achieve growth. We have, for many years, been among the fastest-growing paint companies in the world. We like to move into new spaces and develop new solutions.”
Trond Aune, Jotun’s Global ERP Manager, is very clear about the wider value IFS adds to the global enterprise. “Jotun’s strategy is firmly centered around innovation and building sustainable business growth. Over the last 10 years the Group has achieved an impressive growth and we have used IFS to streamline our operations, standardize business operations and master data. We need to standardize even more than we have done so far. We were sure therefore to partner with a software vendor that invests in its research and development, to help us continue to innovate while respecting the local requirements in all the markets we operate.”
