Sumi Agro Europe secures seamless operations with Platned managed hosting

Sumi Agro Europe, the agricultural arm of Sumitomo Corporation operating across six European countries, has shifted its enterprise software hosting to Platned’s managed services. The result? Dramatically improved uptime, speed, and flexibility for its IFS Apps 10 platform.

With over 200 users depending on IFS for critical tasks – like order fulfilment, invoicing, and inventory management – any disruption could significantly impact the business. After ending a vendor hosting contract in November 2024, Sumi Agro engaged Platned not only for hosting but also to unify support, monitoring, and upkeep within a single solution.

Highlights of the transformation include:

1. Ultra-reliable performance: achieved 99.9% uptime backed by 24/7 proactive monitoring in a Microsoft Azure environment.
2. Smooth transition: a three-month testing regime ensured data and integration continuity across six offices. The final migration took place over the weekend, with systems fully operational by Monday morning.
3. All-in-one managed service: Platned now oversees backups, routine maintenance, patching, plus seamless provisioning of test environments—eliminating tiered vendor restrictions.
4. Flexible growth path: with modular hosting, Sumi Agro plans to extend coverage to Turkey and Slovakia in 2025, ahead of a full-scale upgrade to IFS Cloud in 2026.

Kam Saran, Group IT Manager at Sumi Agro Europe, praised the results: “Platned’s expertise meant that we experienced a seamless transition, and their proactive system monitoring ensures any potential issues are addressed before they impact our business.”.

Why it matters for US companies:

1. Critical uptime guaranteed – 99.9% availability means your core systems stay online around the clock.
2. Consolidated service – single-provider model streamlines support, upgrades, and maintenance.
3. Risk-free migration – thorough testing protocols ensure integrations and data security throughout the process.
4. Scalable hosting on demand – expand into new regions without overhauling infrastructure.

Bottom line

US businesses using IFS – or planning to – can look to this case as a playbook. By combining robust cloud infrastructure (like Azure), proactive system management, and flexible hosting plans, firms stand to gain operational stability, clear scalability, and future-ready support – all with minimal disruption.

Read the full case study