PAS wins the ultimate chutzpah in marketing award

A while back, Eddie Habibi and Bill Hollifield of PAS wrote and self-published a book on alarm management. I reviewed it. It was a pretty good book. Later they sold the book to ISA, which re-published the book. I reviewed it again. It was still a pretty good book. Today, I received a press release from PAS (reprinted below in full) touting their newest product as "the only commercially available product that meets the complete set of recommendations outlined in the ISA standard text,  Alarm Management: Seven Effective Methods for Optimum Performance." Guess who the authors of the referenced book are? Right you are, Habibi and Hollifield! I am in awe of the chutzpah! Nicely done, guys. So, marketers, here's the plan. When you have a big new product in development, write a book around all the features you're building into the product, sell the book to ISA, and then use the fact that ISA published your book as a way to increase the saleability of your new product. It works, it does! This kind of thing is done all the time, with white papers, with presentations at conferences. It is rarely done with such chutzpah and elan as Eddie has done it here. End users are used to this kind of thing, really. One little niggle. The press release seeks to imply that the text has something to do with an ISA Standard. You will note that the tag line on the press release ("PAS unveils world's only software to meet all recommendations by the ISA for Alarm Management.") clearly states that. End users should be aware that this is not the case. Just because ISA Press published the book doesn't mean it is part of, or endorsed by, an official effort of the Standards and Practices Board of ISA or the SP18 Standard Committee. I've exchanged emails with Erwin Icayan, the Managing Director of the SP18 committee for a comment on this, and he confirms that the book has no connection with SP18. From the release: PlantState Suiteâ„¢ 6.0 Launched PAS unveils world's only software to meet all recommendations by the ISA for Alarm Management - new version further strengthens PAS' #1 industry position   Houston, TX - October 9, 2007 - PAS today announced the release of PlantState Suite version 6.0, the world's leading solution for Critical Condition Management in the process manufacturing industries.    The new release continues the seamless integration of alarm and control performance management with new features and enhancements to support PAS' #1 market position across all industries.   Most importantly, PlantState Suite is the only commercially available product that meets the complete set of recommendations outlined in the ISA standard text, "Alarm Management: Seven Effective Methods for Optimum Performance".   Eddie Habibi, Founder and CEO of PAS and co-author of the ISA text on Alarm Management commented, "The latest version of PlantState Suite offers customers a complete and step-wise approach to meeting ever more stringent industry standards for Alarm Management - from simple benchmarking on any system to comprehensive real-time, state-based alarm management solutions that retain design philosophies and prevent the degradation of implemented systems."   With Version 6.0, operations personnel are now provided with a complete and seamless view of Alarm Shelving, Alarm Audit & Enforcement, Alarm Viewer, and State-based Alarm Management tools - directly on the control system for full integration with established operator workflow processes - significantly enhancing productivity and plant reliability.   PlantState Suite, long the world's #1 Alarm Management product, provides the full range of Critical Condition Management functions - including alarm analysis, documentation and rationalization, real-time alarm management, performance metrics management, control loop performance assessment and scheduled reporting.