IFS and AVEVA Position CADI as a Missing Link Between Asset Performance and Capital Planning

KEYWORDS: Artificial Intelligence, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), IFS, AVEVA

Executive Summary

When AVEVA and IFS announced their partnership at AVEVA World earlier this year, the message was framed around a simple but powerful concept: "from sensor to boardroom." Behind that message is an effort to address a challenge that has persisted across asset-intensive industries for decades. Organizations have invested heavily in operational technology, asset performance management, enterprise asset management, and investment planning platforms, yet critical decisions often remain fragmented across these domains. Operational insights may identify emerging risks, but they do not always translate into coordinated maintenance actions, service execution, or investment decisions.

According to both companies, the partnership emerged directly from customer demand for better alignment between operational intelligence and business decision-making. The Continuous Asset Decision Intelligence (CADI) initiative is intended to bridge these traditionally separate domains and provide a more connected approach to asset-related decision-making across the lifecycle.

Based on recent discussions with executives involved in the initiative, this ARC Insight examines the AVEVA-IFS partnership and the emerging CADI concept, exploring its potential to better connect operational, maintenance, and capital-planning decisions across the asset lifecycle.

The partnership emerged directly from customer demand!

Key takeaways from ARC's discussions and analysis include:

• The partnership is intended to address a longstanding disconnect between asset condition monitoring, maintenance execution, and capital planning.
• CADI is built around connecting three traditionally separate domains: operational technology, enterprise execution, and investment planning.
• The initiative moves beyond traditional OT-EAM integration by focusing on decision-making rather than data exchange alone.
• The broader vision is captured by the phrase "from sensor to boardroom," connecting operational events to enterprise-level decisions across the asset lifecycle.

Partnership Rationale and Vision

While the AVEVA-IFS partnership was announced earlier this year at AVEVA World, recent discussions with Stephen Jeffs-Watts, SVP Industry & Portfolio Strategy at IFS and Solution Lead for CADI, and Tom Rahder, VP of Marketing, IFS Copperleaf, provided additional insight into the strategic rationale behind the collaboration. The conversation focused on the market challenge the companies are attempting to address, the vision for CADI, and the potential next steps in the evolution of the partnership.

The Three-Layer Ownership Challenge

A central theme of the discussion was what IFS describes as the "three-layer ownership challenge."

Industrial asset decisions typically span three domains:

• Operational technology and asset condition monitoring
• Enterprise execution, including maintenance, service, and work management
• Capital planning and portfolio optimization

According to IFS, these domains have historically evolved as separate technology stacks and organizational functions. Operational systems generate large volumes of condition and performance data, maintenance systems manage work execution, and capital planning platforms support portfolio and investment decisions. While interfaces may exist between these environments, decision processes often remain fragmented.

The CADI architecture reflects this view. AVEVA contributes operational data, engineering context, industrial data management, and digital twin capabilities. IFS provides enterprise execution through EAM, service management, and AI-enabled workflows. Copperleaf adds capital planning and investment portfolio management.

The significance of the approach lies less in the integration itself and more in the attempt to establish common context across operational, maintenance, and investment workflows. Whether that context can be maintained consistently across different organizational functions will likely determine the long-term value of the initiative.
 

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