Getting More Value from IFS Customisation

With IFS Cloud comes a common challenge: how best to deploy system changes and avoid unnecessary complexity, delays, or costs.

IFS uses two environments for development and deployment:

• Use Place: the environments your end users see — from configuration testing and UAT through to production-ready environments.

• Build Place: a behind-the-scenes environment used to check that your customisations and modifications build successfully over IFS Core code before they’re pushed into Use Place.

This process helps keep your system stable, but it introduces an order-of-operations issue. API packages and core code modifications are validated before configuration items like custom fields or tables. That means if a modification references a field or table that exists in the configuration layer, the build fails.

Modification Layer vs Configuration Layer

Traditionally, in previous versions of IFS Applications, much development work happened in the configuration layer. With IFS Cloud, many projects are now pushing more into the modification layer, which ensures dependencies compile in the right order. The trade-off? While it gives you more control, it often requires more consultant and developer input, introduces risks of code conflicts, and drives up project cost.

But the configuration layer still has real business value, particularly when paired with BPA Workflows.

Faster, Smarter Solutions with Workflows

Here’s an example: a client needed to manage a returns process within preventative maintenance actions in the maintenance module. Historically, this requirement would have meant days of configuration and custom development.

Using the configuration layer with BPA Workflows, we delivered the solution in half a day.

By contrast, another client who tackled the same need through the modification layer required over 10 days of consulting and development to achieve the same outcome.

That’s the difference between an agile, cost-effective proof of concept, and a long, expensive development cycle. This one example could represent savings of around £8000.

The Business Case

Choosing the right layer for your development isn’t just a technical decision, it has a direct impact on your project timelines, costs, and flexibility. The benefits of using the configuration layer with workflows include:

• Save time: deliver working solutions in hours, not weeks.

• Reduce spend: cut down on expensive development cycles.

• Increase agility: quickly test and refine requirements before committing to heavier modifications.

• Stay flexible: keep simple requirements in the configuration layer while using the modification layer only when truly needed.

Where to Start

The key is understanding your exact use case. Not every requirement needs deep modification. By exploring the configuration layer first, you can:

• Quickly validate an approach with a proof of concept.

• Clarify requirements and reduce gaps in your specification.

• Make more informed decisions about when (and if) to move into the modification layer.

At Techris Consulting, we help clients strike the right balance, so you get more value out of IFS, faster.

Interested in saving time and reducing development costs on your next IFS project? Let’s talk.