After a turbulent few years, IBS has become a revitalized business with long-tem and profitable structure. Now in its 33rd year, IBS is still the world leader in distribution resource management with offices and partners in over 40 locations and more than 4000 customers throughout the world.
International Business Systems, IBS, was founded in 1978, when Staffan Ahlberg and Gunnar Rylander decided to turn the IT division of Ekonomisk Företagsledning into an independent company. The company’s first major success was a global assignment to develop an order processing system for all of Alfa Laval’s international subsidiaries. This type of close, long-term partnership set the company on a course of exceptionally close cooperation with customers, which is the backbone of the current strategy for recovery.
The company joined the Stockholm Stock exchange in 1986 and around that time established close cooperation with IBM. IBS became one of the leading suppliers of software for the IBM AS/400 (now Series i). In 2001, IBS set a new record by achieving the highest transaction volumes ever recorded in IBM’s testing lab in Rochester, New York for the AS/400.
During the second half of last year, IBS launched an extensive program to transform inefficiency and loss into a revitalized operation with long-range profit-able growth. A new organization and an extensive cost-reduction program yielded quick results and the last two quarters of the year were much stronger than the first two. This trend has continued into 2011.
The appointment of Johan Bergs as new CEO and the development of a fundamentally new platform for business has turned the company in the right direction and has created a confidence and renewed focus which is characterizing the new IBS.