IFS’s Copperleaf Acquisition Demonstrates Commitment To Broader Asset Management Offering

IFS’s Copperleaf Acquisition Demonstrates Commitment To Broader Asset Management Offering

On June 11^th 2024, IFS announced the CA$1 billion acquisition of Copperleaf Technologies, an asset investment planning software provider headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The firm has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with particular success in North American and European utilities.

Asset investment planning (AIP) software integrates data from asset performance management (APM) and enterprise asset management (EAM) systems, along with environmental, social and economic data sets. Through asset performance modelling, value and risk frameworks, scenario simulation and optimization, AIP software devises long-term capital investments to better manage assets, reduce the risk of failure and meet strategic objectives. Copperleaf emerged as a leader in our 2023 Green Quadrant for asset investment planning software. Verdantix analyst Kiran Darmasseelane noted that “Copperleaf combines a market-leading value framework with powerful bottom-up asset modelling and top-down strategic planning capabilities, to enable data-driven decision-making”.

Copperleaf was already onto a winning formula with its product suite. But where does it fit into IFS’s portfolio?

Since the beginning of 2022, IFS has undertaken three other high-profile acquisitions. It bolstered its EAM proposition through absorption of Ultimo in mid-2022, before expanding its connected worker capabilities by acquiring POKA in August 2023. The purchase of Falkonry was announced shortly afterward, bolstering its APM capabilities through Falkonry’s anomaly detection and predictive analytics.

Asset management software customers have long demanded a single platform to access several use cases in a singular UI; IFS’s purchase brings this vision closer to fruition. In our view of the asset management software market, there are three constituent parts: (1) APM, (2) EAM and (3) AIP. As such, Copperleaf had been – until now – the missing puzzle piece in IFS’s asset management portfolio.

Investment into AIP software has grown significantly in recent years, as industrial organizations with aging assets look to maximize useful life ahead of potential phase-outs owing to looming net zero targets. Of 301 Verdantix global corporate survey respondents, 11% plan double-digit increases on spend on AIP software in 2024, and a further 37% plan single-digit increases.

With its acquisition of Copperleaf, IFS can bring in new customers with its AIP capabilities, while providing existing clientele with a new product that offers a data-driven approach to long-term business investment, such as optimization of existing assets and future planning for a green transition.

For more information on AIP, read our report Green Quadrant: Asset Investment Planning Software 2023.