PAS Musings

Global Warming is Real!

Here's a just for fun posting....

In America, there’s a lot of back and forth controversy on whether global warming is real and caused by human activity or not.

Apparently, most Republicans say it is not caused by man and may not even be real.

Meanwhile, most Democrats say it is caused by man and is real.

Top scientists from all over the world are studying the shrinking ice floes, the swimming patterns of polar bears and more…

Most of them write big reports on the topic, apparently to justify additional research funding, and maybe their own salary increase.

Meanwhile, the rest of us engineers and practicing technical types, scratch our heads and wonder why the winter is so cold, whether the groundhog is right, and what’s for dinner tonight.

But winter days and groundhogs aside, we all do see evidence of rising global temperatures, and maybe soon, rising sea levels.

But as has been the case through much of history, simple and straightforward observations are often the best – and most accurate.

So without further ado, here’s what a lady friend of mine – who is not a scientist nor and engineer – sent me.

The trend is obvious...

Thank you, Irene!!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

 

Top Trends for 2007 - Part 3

Concluding a 3-part posting on the Top Trends for 2007, check out ARC’s prediction of a rosy future for this business:

"Adoption of automation change management solutions will see a sharp increase in 2007 as users strive to mitigate the risk of not having current optimal configuration, up-to-date documentation, and proper change control methodologies established."

What’s motivating clients to deploy these type of solutions?

Again, in ARC’s own words:

And finally, ARC’s recommendation:

I love it!

Click here to download ARC’s white paper from Control Magazine.

What a ringing endorsement of the investments by PAS over the last 15 years!!  First, DOC3000, then Integrity and most recently Automation Change Manager…

© Copyright PAS & ARC 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Top Trends for 2007 - Part 2

Recently, I referenced the Top Five Trends report from the ARC Advisory Group – click here to read that posting.

The trend first listed by ARC as the one to watch in 2007 was Automation Change Management… 

Some of you have asked about ARC means by Automation Change Management, so I am pasting a portion of their Insight Report #2007-06M in this blog posting. In that report, ARC writes:

Automation systems have evolved to include many disparate technologies from sensors and field devices to Programmable Automation Controllers, PLCs, Distributed Control Systems (DCS), historians, advanced controls, and planning and scheduling.

The heterogeneous nature of automation technologies delivers best-of-breed functionality, but it also creates a complicated web of connectivity between disparate automation assets that requires considerable maintenance and upkeep by domain experts.

Rapidly changing market demands along with continuous improvement programs force companies to make frequent changes and upgrades to their automation assets to improve operations.

Making, controlling, and keeping track of all these changes is a difficult task, but one that is crucially important for maintaining the reliability and performance of production systems.

For those of you wanting to learn more - click here to access the entire ARC report.

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Penetrating Analyst Questions

Continuing from my last post, here’s the scoop on why the stock market analysts are calling PAS….

Since these guys follow other (public) companies in our space, they call on us from time to time to gain a broader sense of the marketplace as described to them by the companies they follow.

These days, analysts are much more dubious of anything that any CEO, CFO, etc tells them about the market and what it means for their company’s future success (see prior blog)

This week, therefore, there were questions and interest about PAS’ success in the power industry, especially in Alarm Management….

Our capture of the Ameren business away from a competitor was therefore of special interest… click here to read more

But right behind their questions on PAS successes was a series of probing questions about a specific competitor from up north.

Apparently, Matrikon is on their fourth CFO in just over 2 years - Shafin, Nimal, Tariq and now Nizar.

So these analyst guys ask us for our comment.  Exactly how successful is PAS?  What markets did we serve?  How did our solutions out-rank the others? etc etc

And then the strangest question of all – did we have any idea why Nizar, who retired as CEO in December 2005 would come back as CFO?

Nope.  Sorry, can’t answer that.  All I can speak to with authority is PAS.

Maybe they ought to ask the employees…

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Power Market Leadership

Yesterday, we issued two press releases – one on our upcoming User Conference and the keynote by Dr. Pat Kennedy of OSIsoft (see prior blog) and one on our competitive alarm management success at American power company, Ameren.

Yesterday, we also held a press conference with the editors of number of leading industry magazines and journals at the ARC Conference in Orlando, Florida.

And, yesterday, three independent stock market analysts called our offices to find out more.

A busy day indeed.

And the stock analyst calls were particularly interesting – more on that tomorrow.

Today, I want to give you the inside scoop on the Ameren release.

A year ago, PAS was a virtual nobody in the power industry.

No customers.  No partners.  No references. 

This year, we are market leaders.

Our win at Ameren is the just tip of the iceberg.  There are others that we are  working with (but have not announced) and many more to come.

Our win at Ameren is especially significant, since it was the leading, premier, most important, strategic account for one of our competitors. 

Search for “Ameren” on the Matrikon website and you’ll see what I mean.

And now Ameren buys from PAS.

How is it that they changed their mind?

Simple, really.  Ameren had never heard of PAS – not until we woke up our sales and marketing machine.

And then, when they finally met the company that “wrote the book” on Alarm Management, when they finally saw our software in action, when they finally met our experts… then, the choice was obvious.

Too bad that those other guys beat us to the punch with slick marketing… 

But this is not going to happen again – at least not in the power industry!

And that makes an interesting story for editors and analysts.

Especially for the analysts – who are looking for blood…

More on that tomorrow - stay tuned!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Top Trends for 2007

The ARC Advisory Group – www.arcweb.com – the thought leaders for manufacturing and supply chain, put out a listing of the top trends to watch each year.

This year’s list is especially rewarding to the investments we’ve made at PAS over the past decade and more…

Here are the top five automation technology trends to watch in 2007, taken from last week’s ARC Insight Report #2007-06M, in reverse order as presented by ARC:

#5.  High Availability Control & Safety Systems – common hardware, software and network infrastructure for control & safety systems

#4.  Standard Plant Data Model from EDDL & OPC Foundation – the Electronic Device Descriptive Language and OPC Unified Architecture join forces to make sure none of our plant data models are too skinny – just like the current catwalk talk in New York  :)

#3.  Industrial Wireless – new wireless applications explode as the industry moves towards ISA-SP100 standard and the major hardware vendors jump on board

#2.  Advanced Analytics – you need to know the details of your plant operations to gain the competitive edge – such as the real-time performance management functionality offered by OSIsoft’s PI System

And, last but not least, the trend first listed as the one to watch in 2007 is…

#1.    Automation Change Management – you absolutely need to manage all those disparate systems, devices and applications controlling your plant – with solutions like Integrity and Automation Change Manager software offered by PAS

I love it!!!!

The #1 Ranking for our most key investment!

Given our newly-refined focus, our strong track record – 2007 looks like its going to be a phenomenal year for PAS!

Maybe a growth plan of 67% is too little…?

© Copyright ARC 2007 and PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of ARC or PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

OSIsoft & the 2007 User Conference!

The PAS User Conference – “Process Matters” – was a great success last year – read the blog about that – and set to be even more of a success this year.

As a scoop to loyal blog readers, this year’s conference features Dr. J. Patrick Kennedy – CEO and Founder of OSIsoft – as the keynote speaker.  Pat is an industry legend, having led the way for real-time historians and real-time performance management for over 25 years!

Innovation is high on the PAS value set – see my previous blog on that – and Dr. Kennedy will be speaking to our conference theme of “Innovate, Integrate, and Illuminate” in his keynote address.

But why have Dr. Kennedy deliver the keynote?

Because right after innovation, partnering is high up on the list as a means for PAS to deliver more value to more customers – see my previous blog on that – and OSIsoft, with its 10,000+ customers is a perfect complement to PAS.

More on that later…

For now, the important thing is to note the date of our User Conference and get yourself signed up.

Have a great day!

And, if you’re up for a giveaway, click here to request one of the yo-yo’s we’ve been sending out to last year’s customers to encourage their return.

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!