The IT guys are coming! The IT guys are coming!

As a side note, Shari Worthington, my co-author on EBusiness in Manufacturing (available from ISA press), and one of the most brilliant PR minds in automation, slid me a note during the CSIA meeting just now: "Have you done a column on "The IT guys are Coming"? We got a call from a $billion company from India that does outsourcing of IT who's now going after the manufacturing system integrator market. Manufacturing has spent years trying to avoid the IT department, and now IT companies are after them. Kinda funny... Shari's comment is right on target, and is very complimentary to a comment that Nic Gihl made, that there is an increasing blurring between automation and IT in the plant environment. Comments? --Walt Boyes