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Where Invensys Operations Management's Going From Here

ControlGlobal.com
11/18/2009

The dust continues to settle on the recent reorganization of Wonderware and the former Invensys Process Systems brands into a single integrated entity called Invensys Operations Management. At the company's recent North America Client Conference, Rashesh Mody, vice president, portfolio and strategy, and Mark Davidson, vice president, global marketing, explained to trade media members and analysts how the newly integrated company's vision and strategy continue to evolve.

"We have the connecting technologies that glue all these vectors together," said Mody. Meanwhile, Davidson explained how the company's operations management vision can help advance clients' pursuit of environmental, productivity, asset and control/safety excellence.

The company's vision centers on the ability to help its clients to optimize information flows, production activities and, ultimately, operational profit, added Davidson. And while optimization is the vision, the fundamentals of automation, instrumentation and controls are still very much front and center for the company. "We believe automation and controls are the foundation," Davidson said. "If you don't get those things right, you can't do optimization."

As Invensys Operations Management, the company's strategy and approach to execution are based on delivering platform, industry and business value, Davidson explained. The unified automation platform, including core control, visualization, engineering and connectivity tools, is complemented by tightly coupled applications for functions such as recipe management, process optimization and simulation. The company is moving toward "a common platform from very small systems to the very large," Davidson said.

Layered on these functional applications, in turn, are Invensys-built, as well as partner-built solutions for specific industry and application needs. These applications are "loosely coupled, but tightly aligned" to the underlying architecture, Mody added. "This is where Invensys domain expertise and that of our partners comes into play."

Mody and Davidson further explained that the company will focus on two key industry sectors: the process industries, including upstream oil and gas; hydrocarbon processing; power and energy; metals, minerals and mining; and pulp and paper; and hybrid industries, including food and beverage; specialty chemical; life sciences; and infrastructure, such as water/wastewater treatment. Hybrid industries, in particular, are a fertile ground for exploiting the capabilities of Invensys' InFusion enterprise control system platform, Mody added. "Hybrid industries are our strongest, fastest growth area."