Invensys Workforce Enablement Solutions

http://iom.invensys.com/campaigns/Pages/Workforce-Enablement-home.aspx

Wonderware IntelaTrac guiding remote task management

Workforce Enablement can encompass many aspects, from task management to decision support to greater visibility of operations. Without adding people, how can you effectively increase productivity, transparency and capabilities of your workforce?

One of the ways we've seen that is most effective, especially for companies in heavy industry, is using a combination of mobile solutions, based on remotely gathering data and providing feedback on real-time conditions, and collecting in a central repository for subsequent analysis and improvements.

Wonderware IntelaTrac has hundreds of customers in the oil and gas, chemical and even food industries, providing them with a tool to track and manage tasks and repetitive routines. It uses mobile handheld devices for data capture, collecting conditions, images and asset behavior that are important operating indicators for good manufacturing practices.

For more information on our Workforce Enablement solutions, click here.

Have you considered IntelaTrac for Workforce Management? New Updated Features!

http://iom.invensys.com/EN/Pages/IOM_NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=617

Wonderware IntelaTrac is a mobile asset management and workforce enablement solution. Using handheld devices, it informs, manages and enables collaboration of a remote workforce.

Version 4.3 of IntelaTrac was just released. Key features include:

• Dynamic assignment of assets
• Image mark-up

Dynamic Asset Assignment allows for the configuration of Task Groups and Tasks within Procedure Builder to allow for the “Field Assignment "of the asset, in lieu of creating a separate procedure for each asset beforehand. This is especially useful when doing rounds or maintenance inspections.

Image mark-up has the ability to annotate and mark-up the image at the job site. As found, as left or any other note can be captured and saved for further review and analysis. This makes real time situation updates possible for more accurate condition management.

What You Missed: Invensys Expo Showcased Operator Effectiveness, Mobility, Big Data and the Cloud

http://www.automationworld.com/expo-showcases-operator-effectiveness-mobility-big-data-and-cloud

Invensys' Rob Kambach speaks of Operator Effectiveness through new generation InTouch HMI

 

 

What did you miss at last week's Invensys Software Conference & Technical Support Symposium?  A lot!  Besides stellar presentations, a riveting general session, and outstanding keynote speaker, futurist Jack Uldrich, there was an interactive Expo area featuring the latest offerings from Invensys and its partner community.

 

Offerings around big data, the cloud, mobility and operator effectiveness underplayed the theme of #SoftwareRevolution. From new SmartGlance features to situational awareness capabilities from InTouch 2014, this year was all about looking at industrial software in a new way--as a partner bringing you more productivity, profitability, and empowerment.

Invensys and Microsoft, Together Again at the LATAM CIO Leadership Forum 2013

From Sept 30 through October 3, 2013 Invensys joined Microsoft’s Latin America CIO Leadership Forum in Miami, FL.  This event was created for CIO’s from government, industry and education, and offered a full program for both peer networking and deep-dive presentations.

Covering key IT topics as the cloud, devices and apps, mobility, big data, the forum also featured a case study from HP, and product updates from their CRM, Office and ERP teams.

Building on the interest for big data, the cloud, and mobility, Invensys showed solutions for food and beverage and CPG, water/wastewater and oil and gas.

Invensys Solutions for Food and Beverage, CPG were shown at the CIO Summit, based on Microsoft's technology stack

Bill Schiel and Marcelo Zaremba discussed with attendees scalable solutions based on Wonderware MES, SCADA as well as Consulting and Services offerings.

Invensys' Marcelo Zaremba discusses manufacturing operations solutions with CIO

For CIO’s, key care-abouts are keeping up with the pace of technology that is occurring today.  The cloud offers opportunities for cost savings, scalability, and ubiquitous access to applications enterprise-wide, but it also brings with it needed policies for security and standardization.   Mobility and the “Bring Your Own Device” momentum challenge CIOs with creating policies for compliance and multi-platform support. And Big Data feeds the needs for better analysis, knowledge management and decision making, but CIO’s must face multiple data source consolidation/acquisition and visualization.

Microsoft and Invensys, together have created solutions that build on the base technologies of big data, mobility and cloud.  For more information, please visit http://iom.invensys.com/EN/Pages/IOM_PartnersMicrosoft.aspx and for our cloud solutions based on Azure,  http://global.wonderware.com/EN/Pages/InvensysCloudforManufacturing.aspx

IDC lowers global IT spending forecast to 4.6% this year

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130813/ADVERTISING13/308139997/idc-lowers-global-it-spending-forecast-to-4-6-this-year&utm_source=bboe&utm_medium=email&utm_content=editorial&utm_campaign=bboe#

A sobering, yet hopeful view of IT market spending.  Net net, although the industry as a whole is flat, there are some glimmers in the cloud, and mobile.  That will drive SaaS (Software as a Service) from a delivery perspective, and also encourage new development of traditional software, such as HMI, EMI, MES, to take advantage of this new model.

Invensys understands this, and has fully embraced both mobility and cloud, bringing the best to our customers from a form factor and costing perspective. You'll see more offerings in cloud (spanning reporting, visibility, information management, workforce enablement) and mobility (reporting, analysis and visibility). Why?  Because, at the end of the day, you need to have software that matches the way you work--and it's exceedingly shown to not be at a desk.  You are at the plant, you are on a line, you are boarding a plane, but the work doesn't stop.  So, your automation software has to bring you that real-time information, regardless of your location and regardless of the device that you choose to use.  We call it "on demand" and it has become a must have means of delivering and using industrial software. We get it, and you'll see a continuing stream of products reinforcing that vision...

Megatrends: The Cloud, Big Data, Mobility: Why Should You Care?

I've written a lot over the past year on the 2013 Megatrends that we see for industrial automation: The Cloud, Big Data, and Mobility.  When we first started talking about the cloud more than a year ago, the overall response we got from our customer base was "please no." There was no interest in the cloud--it was seen as disruptive technology that had no relevance to an industrial environment.

Why IT and Automation Go Hand in Hand

I recently responded to a post on LinkedIn in the Automation & Control subgroup. There, a young engineer was asking the question, "if I am in automation, why do I need to know IT." 

That is a great question and over the years that I have been in automation, I've experienced first a chasm between IT and automation (one company I visited 15 years ago had a CIO that had never gone on the plant floor!) to a gradual alignment and now, cross over between the two practices.

Repost, with comments: CPG marketing differs for boomers and millennials

http://www.smartbrief.com/08/02/13/cpg-marketing-differs-boomers-and-millennials

An interesting commentary on the differences in buying habits of boomers and millenials--tried and true versus try anything.

How can we take this knowledge and better attract a new audience for our automation products?  I'd say, in the same way that they buy CPG products.  Tout the new stuff, versus the stuff we do now that highlights the safety, security, and standardization of our products.  Not that it's not important, but it doesn't tip the scale.  It's a given.

Apparently, the newer generation isn't afraid to try new things, make mistakes, push the envelope.  And that's great from an industry momentum perspective.  Because we have long been wrestling with an industry that is slow to change, and rightfully so, because productivity and lives have depended on that thoughtful, rational approach to process control and industrial automation.

This definitely has me thinking--mobility, cloud, usability of our apps--is that the way to go?
What do you think?  Let me know: maryanne.steidinger@invensys.com

Repost: 10 Mobile Trends to Embrace

http://howtomobile.apps.gov/2013/07/02/trends-on-tuesday-10-mobile-trends-to-embrace/

Did you know that the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies in the U.S. General Services Administration has a program office?  Their job is to help agencies build a citizen-centric path for mobile access to government.  They do that by:

• finding and sharing resources and capabilities through the mobile-gov community of practice
• building relationships with the private and non-profit sectors as well as state and local governments
• helping agencies understand and resolve policy issues
• championing mobile solutions from loosening data to developing mobile development guidelines to app and website development to best practices and policy
• promoting mobile gov efforts

To get plugged in to their blog/efforts:

• Check out practical mobile resources on the website howto.gov
• Follow on Twitter @Digital_Gov. They're using the hashtag #mobilegov
• Sign up for e-mail alerts 

 This blog post outlines the 10 mobile trends you should be aware of...it's a good source of information for those of us that are following mobile trends.

Smart grid challenges: Annual survey reveals a worried industry

Smart grid challenges: Annual survey reveals a worried industry

An interesting survey by Black & Veach indicates that the utilties industry is concerned about costs, availability, economic stability--ie, status quo.  What can we do, as automation providers, to ease these concerns?  Certainly, providing access to information to help them make better decisions, gain more operational visibility, and fine tune operations, are critical.  Taking advantage of the latest technologies (mobile, cloud, big data) gives them more knowledge and collaboration. It's a start.

I'm now an Americas Board Member At Large for MESA International!

I'm now a voting Board Member of MESA International, Americas Board, representing Invensys.  You may recall a post I did last month, introducing (or in some cases, re-introducing) you to MESA, its charter, and its purpose.

MESA has been in existence for almost 20 years, and I personally have been involved, in some manner, since 1996.  MESA has always fostered open cooperation between industry participants, be them collaborators, or in some cases, competitors, by providing a forum for bettering the state of the operations management industry.

Mobility is Paying Off

http://mobileenterprise.edgl.com/top-stories/Mobility-is-Paying-Off-85455

The Yankee Group reports that 2013 is the year for mobility.  We at Invensys couldn't agree more.  In the past year, we've introduced:

• ArchestrA Workflow Work Tasks
• Wonderware Intelligence support for the iPad
• IntelaTrac enhancements for new hand held devices and form factors
• SmartGlance connectors, Win 8 support, and choices of cloud hosting

What You Want to Read-- A Recap of My Top Posts

You, my readers, are the ultimate determinator (is that even a word??) of what we write.  When I look at the posts I've had over the past year or so, the content that you seem to respond to isn't necessarily the heavy duty, technical specs and product details of the wonderful portfolio of software products that Invensys Operations Management offers.  Instead, it's a higher level, socially conscious view of what's going on in the world of industrial automation.