What we do on an IFS Cloud project
Eight things, in plain terms, each with what you get at the end. Ask Olive works alongside all of them; the people stay accountable for the result.
Implementations and upgrades
New IFS Cloud rollouts and version upgrades, planned and delivered with minimal disruption to the business.
Plan the rollout
Scope, phases, environments and the people needed on both sides, agreed before anything is built.
A phased plan with dates, owners and the decisions still open.
Configure first, customise where it earns its place
Standard IFS Cloud covers more than most teams expect. We check before anyone builds something that already exists.
A configured system with a short, justified list of changes.
Upgrade without surprises
Version upgrades planned around your customisations, integrations and test paths, so the business notices the improvements rather than the change.
An upgraded tenant, retested end to end before cutover.
Data migration and data validation
Legacy data mapped, checked and loaded into IFS Cloud with a process you can trace. Nothing is guessed; anything missing is reported as a gap for you to decide.
Land the old data without touching it
Data from old systems, including SAP and Excel or emailed files, is read into a controlled staging database. Every landed row is kept unchanged.
A staging copy you can query, with the originals intact.
Map every field, with the reason recorded
Each source field is mapped to its IFS Cloud field, with a written reason and a draft or approved state, so a reviewer can see why.
A mapping register your team signs off.
Check the fit before loading
Length, data type, format and code-list problems are flagged per field before anything is loaded: OK, convert, length risk, or needs a code map.
A per-field readiness check, with no load failures discovered late.
Translate codes in tables you can review
Old codes become IFS codes through lookup tables, for example payment terms and party types, never hidden in code. Anything unmapped is held back rather than guessed.
Reviewable code maps and a list of what is still unmapped.
Find the same customer or supplier across systems
Name matching and overlap counts by tax number and postcode identify duplicates. One golden identity is kept; the losing values stay as candidates.
A single, de-duplicated party list with the evidence kept.
Build load-ready tables shaped like IFS
One table per IFS object, 49 of them, every row traced back to its source, address lines kept together as a block.
Load files IFS accepts, with full lineage.
Report readiness by object
What is mapped, what has gaps (mandatory IFS fields with no source), and what is blocked on a decision, in one view.
A readiness report you can take to a steering meeting.
Never invent data
A missing parent, code or value is reported as a gap for the customer to decide. Bank details are not copied into the staging database.
Decisions made by you, with the record of each.
| IFS object | Mapped | Gaps | Blocked | Fit check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer | 42 / 42 | 0 | 0 | ready |
| Supplier | 37 / 39 | 2 | 0 | 2 gaps |
| Inventory part | 28 / 31 | 1 | 2 | needs a code map |
| Payment terms | 6 / 6 | 0 | 0 | ready |
Example records, not a live project.
Integrations
Connecting IFS Cloud to the rest of your estate.
APIs, events and files
REST and OData projections, event-driven flows and file-based interfaces, built against the IFS APIs rather than the tables underneath.
Interfaces that survive an IFS upgrade, with a documented contract for each.
Interface designs you can read
Each interface is specified before it is built: what moves, when, in which direction, and what happens when something fails.
An interface register with a design per interface.
Functional and technical consulting
Process design, configuration and custom development across both sides of IFS Cloud.
Can IFS do it?
A requirement is checked against standard IFS Cloud capability, and we flag where it does not fit out of the box.
A gap analysis your project can act on, with the fit and the gaps separated.
Custom development that follows the IFS rules
Every change uses the IFS APIs, never direct writes to base tables, so it stays supported and upgradeable. Anything drafted with AI assistance is reviewed by an experienced IFS developer before it goes anywhere.
Maintainable code, reviewed and specified as a CRIM.
Reports, lobbies and workflows
Quick reports, operational reports, lobby pages and BPMN workflows, configured where configuration will do.
The views and automations your users asked for.
Project tracking
The boards a deployment is run from. All of them live in Ask Olive and read from the same project record, so nobody is maintaining a spreadsheet on the side.
Current phase hub
The phase that is active now, its dates and state, and a summary of testing, CRIMs, flows, training and issues for that phase.
One page that answers "where are we?"
Data migration tracker
Progress per migration object across extraction, transformation, loading and validation, with list, matrix and board views.
Readiness by object, visible to everyone.
Gap portal and CRIM portal
Functional gaps between what the business needs and what IFS does, and the change requests, issues and modifications raised to close them.
Every gap linked to its CRIM and its status.
End-to-end test library
Every end-to-end test path for the project, how each performed on each environment, and where the environments disagree.
Pass rate by environment, not just by test.
Hypercare board
After go-live: what is about to breach, who owns it, and the open CRIMs behind it.
Nothing slips quietly in the first weeks live.
| Test path | Last run | Passed |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase order: release and receipt | UAT2, run 3 | |
| Supplier invoice: match and post | DEV, run 2 | |
| Customer order to dispatch | UAT2, run 4 | |
| Shop order: release to close | TST, run 1 | blocked |
| Voucher: post and approve | DEV, run 1 |
Example records, not a live project.
Process flows and documentation
Flows and documents produced from your own system and your own design, not a template.
Capture processes from your live system
Processes are recorded from IFS Cloud as they really run, then customised per site. Ask Olive turns a described process into a clear, reviewable flow diagram.
As-is and to-be flows your business can review and approve.
Gap analysis and change documentation
Where the to-be flow differs from standard IFS, the gap is written up and the change is documented, ready for review.
Gap analyses and CRIM specifications as a starting point for review.
Reference documentation
Technical specifications, interface designs and reference material written to be read, with the sources they came from.
Documentation that is still correct after go-live.
Training material
Process guides and training content your team will actually use.
Guides generated from your own design
Training guides are drafted from the flows and configuration agreed for your project, then refined with your team.
Role-based guides that match the system people will log in to.
Reviewed with the people who will use it
Drafts are walked through with your key users and corrected before they are issued, so the guide describes what the system really does.
Material your team recognises as their own process.
Testing and UAT support
Test plans, scripted scenarios and hands-on support to get through UAT with confidence.
End-to-end test paths from a real catalogue
Test paths are composed from a catalogue of twelve end-to-end flow families, from Source-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash to Record-to-Report and Hire-to-Retire, using real IFS process names.
Scenarios that cover whole business processes, not single screens.
Run, record, compare
Each run is recorded against its environment. A result belongs to the run, not the test, so the library shows where DEV, TST and UAT disagree.
A pass rate per environment and a list of what still blocks go-live.
Test plans drafted with Ask Olive
Structured test plans and test scripts are drafted from the project design, with happy and unhappy paths, for your testers to refine.
UAT scripts ready for business testers on day one.
Tell us where your project is
Whether you are choosing IFS Cloud, mid-implementation, or planning an upgrade, we can usually say within a conversation where we would help and where you do not need us.