New IFS MD ANZ managing director sees Australia as a “strategically important” channel market

New manging director for the industrial AI company, Paul Butterworth discusses his channel plans.

New IFS managing director for IFS in the ANZ region, Paul Butterworth said Australia is one of their most “strategically important channel markets”.

Speaking to CRN Australia, Butterworth said “Largely because it is dominated by asset-intensive industries where operational outcomes matter more than anything else.

“In these sectors, technology decisions are judged on uptime, safety, service quality and productivity, not simply on whether a system goes live.

“That’s why partners are so critical here: they are embedded in customers’ day-to-day operations and understand the realities of field work, asset management and service delivery.”

Butterworth explained that this is directly aligned to the direction they’ve set globally.

“Taking Industrial AI out of the lab and putting it into real operational workflows like planning, maintenance, inspections, outage response and project execution,” he said.

“Delivering that in Australia depends on partners with deep industry capability, and our focus is on enabling them to deliver meaningful, measurable outcomes for customers.”

In his managing director role, Butterworth will be leading the expansion across the region strengthening customer and partner relationships.

Butterworth said IFS deliberately works with a focused group of partners in ANZ rather than trying to build a large or high-volume channel.

“Our priority is capability, credibility and industry depth - not quantity,” he noted.

“Our core ANZ channel RSIs include InfoConsulting, Enterprise Analytics, Platned, Opportunity Box and 2MG, each of whom brings strong delivery capability across ERP, EAM, service management and emerging Industrial AI use cases.

“ We also work with global GSIs - particularly Microsoft, Deloitte, Accenture, Infosys, PwC and TCS - where the customer requires scale, multi-tower transformation capability or integrated cloud programs.”

The priority in Butterworth’s first year is to strengthen and deepen existing partner relationships.

“This is not a year where we widen the channel for its own sake,” he said.

“It’s a year where we invest in the partners who already have the capability, discipline and industry focus that our customers expect.”

He continued, “This includes clearer alignment on where each partner adds the most value, joint pursuit planning, practice enablement, certification pathways and building Industrial AI expertise into their delivery models.

“A big part of this is helping customers move from pilots to production - ensuring that AI is applied directly to operational workflows, not sitting in isolation.”

On the GSI side, Butterworth said they will continue to drive structured governance, account mapping and co-sell motions.

“Particularly with Microsoft, where our Marketplace presence and co-sell eligibility are strong accelerators.”

Prior to this role, he was the CFO at Lighthouse Industries.

Challenges and opportunities in the market

Looking at the Australian channel market, Butterworth said capacity and skills remain a challenge.

“Customers are managing ageing infrastructure, workforce constraints, and rising operational complexity,” he said.

“At the same time, there’s healthy scepticism around AI because many organisations have invested in pilots that never progressed beyond experimentation.”

The opportunity is that Australian organisations are done with experimentation, Butterworth noted.

“They want practical, embedded technology that improves day-to-day operations and delivers measurable outcomes,” he said.

“This is exactly where our partners play such a central role. They are the ones who take Industrial AI from a concept to something that improves scheduling accuracy, reduces downtime, enhances safety or shortens maintenance cycles.”

He ended, “That shift aligns directly with our global proof points, 2025 was the year we showed industrial AI working at operational scale, and the Australian market is leaning into that momentum.”