IFS to boost share in eastern seaboard with two senior appointments

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announced the appointment of Duncan Robertson as Business Development Executive and Ben Harkin as Pre-Sals and Functional Consultant both based in Brisbane, Queensland.

Robertson previously worked in the SAP partner community, first at Extend Technologies and then at IBM as a business development manager after spending over ten years at JD Edwards where he was recognised and awarded as one of the most successful sales executives globally for JD Edwards. Robertson will be responsible for driving growth in both Queensland and New South Wales, focusing on industries such as utilities, construction, manufacturing, aviation and oil and gas.

“IFS has a very strong applications suite which has come from many years of working with and listening to its customers. Based on open standards, IFS offers companies the freedom to mix technologies from different vendors which is very appealing, particularly to those who have been locked into vendor agreements for many years. In a market that is relatively untapped, this is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate to those companies that there is a real alternative,” said Duncan Robertson, Business Development Executive, IFS.

Harkin joins IFS from Visy where he worked as a Reliability Systems Engineer for four years, responsible for implementing the IFS asset management system into Visy’s Pulp and Paper plants. As Pre-Sales and Functional Consultant, Ben will support Duncan working closely with well advanced sales prospects in order to increase market share in the eastern seaboard of Australia.

“Having known and worked with IFS for a few years now, I’m really pleased to be joining the IFS team in Australia. They were a pleasure to work with at Visy and I look forward to demonstrating to other organisations the many benefits that the IFS Applications suite can deliver,” said Ben Harkin, Pre-Sales and Functional Consultant, IFS.

IFS has a strong customer base in Australia and New Zealand in the manufacturing, asset management, aviation and defence markets. In September, Babcock was the latest to sign IFS up to support its Australian operation.

“We are very pleased to welcome Duncan and Ben to our growing team to help grow our customer base in the northern states of Australia. They are both highly experienced in the enterprise applications market and following the recent appointments we made in Western Australia, I’m confident we can challenge the status quo and grow our market share further,” said Rob Stummer, Managing Director, IFS, Australia and New Zealand.

Both Robertson and Harkin will report to Sales Director Trevor Fell.