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Executive Director's Message
by Bob Lowe
Hello to all integrator and partner members.
For many of you, the challenging economic times continue. There are tid-bits of good news about economic recovery - and it will happen, but they say it will be slow.
That is as much commentary as I'll give about business conditions because you can get it from a hundred other sources that are in the business of economics. My only commentary is to suggest that integrator members use this slow time to "work on your business" in ways other than marketing and selling.
Has your Best Practices Manual been on the shelf collecting dust? Have you downloaded Rev. 3 from the CSIA Web site? Whether you're CSIA Certified, working toward certification, or an associate improving your business operations, the Best Practices manual is a one-of-a-kind guideline on how to make improvements in your business operations. The good news is that those improvements will save you money through improved productivity. And that productivity increase will no doubt save more money than the cost of CSIA annual dues.
Have you forwarded this newsletter to others in your company? It is beneficial for other employees to understand what CSIA is about, especially with the upcoming online community that will exist via our new Web site. Our plan is to go online around the end of the year. [more info on this below]. |
Feedback Welcome During Visits with CSIA Partner Members
ABB Anixter
In early August, CSIA President Lynda J. Patterson and I visited five partner members in the Milwaukee area. Our meetings with Eaton, Rockwell, ABB, Yaskawa and Anixter provided an opportunity to gain feedback on the perceived value of CSIA membership and the Executive Conference as well as brainstorm ideas on ways to partner in the future to reach CSIA goals.
All of our hosts were generous in giving us time with key people in their system integrator program and other top managers. We are finding many ways that they will support the activities and goals of CSIA and ways that CSIA can and will benefit them.
The key benefit for partners that seems to surface is that CSIA raises the professionalism and improves business practices of the control systems integration industry. That increases the probability of their products being implemented successfully, which saves them money!
They are committed to bringing value to integrator members by, among other things, presenting webinars (a sort of extension of our annual conference throughout the year) on business and technical topics. Some partner members are so convinced of the value of CSIA that they want us to take our association to other countries where they do business so the benefits can be realized there also.
Eaton Rockwell
Yaskawa
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CSIA at ISA 
We encourage you to go to the show to see new technologies at the vendor booths on the ISA Expo floor, experience the many educational opportunities, and attend the ALM presentations which ARC is offering! For complimentary admission, call the CSIA office at (800) 661-4914.
CSIA Executive Director Bob Lowe will be doing two presentations. The first, "How CSIA Improves Control System Integrators and Benefits End-Users," is a 30-minute presentation located in the ISA Technology Exchange Theater. The second will be a two-hour workshop entitled "The Path to Becoming CSIA Certified."
Be sure to stop in the ARC ALM Pavilion to see us! |
Did You See the August Control Engineering? 
Included is a 16-page supplement by and for CSIA. Enjoy!
We owe a big thank you to the partner members that advertised in it. We also thank Control Engineering for introducing the idea and working so well with the partners and the CSIA staff in producing this excellent section to the magazine.
Reprints are available from the CSIA office by contacting Jeanne Rosen or calling 800-661-4914. |
Welcome to the Newest CSIA Members
- CEC Controls - Virginia; Brian Sobczak, Norfolk,VA
- CalAmp; Nate Sherwood, Waseca, MN
- Global Technical Services; Amin Saber, Cairo, Egypt
- MCS Automation; Darrin Valente, Farmingdale, NJ
- CEC Controls - Canada; Jim Beattie, Oakville, ON
- CEC Controls - Illinois; Paul Childress Chesterton, IN
- CEC Controls - Kentucky; Ken Just, Louisville, KY
- CEC Controls - Georgia; Joe Bowen, Forest Park, GA
- CEC Controls - Missouri; Mark Lanigan, North Kansas City, MO
- Chicago Electric Sales; Robert Kaska, Carol Stream, IL
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Our Certified list keeps growing!
Following is a list of companies that have successfully completed their audits and have been officially certified by CSIA in the last month.
CERTIFIED
CEC Controls Company, Inc (all branches)
RECERTIFIED
Mangan, Inc; Long Beach, CA
Wastech Controls & Engineering, Inc; Chatsworth, CA |
CSIA Member News 
Insist Avtomatika LLC, a CSIA certified integrator from Russia, was recently awarded a multi-million dollar contract for supply, start up and commissioning of a control system for the Vankor oil field, one of the largest fields in Siberia.
Under the terms of the contract, the company is to assemble 97 control stations and make the system operational before the field is put onstream later this year. The control system, with the total number of I/O points making up more than 14,000, is based on Emerson Process Management equipment.
Located beyond the Arctic Circle in the north of Eastern Siberia, the Vankor field is expected to produce 25 million tons (175 million barrels) of oil per year.
For more information about Insist Avtomatika LLC (Industrial Automation Systems), visit www.industrialsystems.ru.
Yaskawa Electric American, Inc. is proud to be celebrating its 16th year as a Partner Member of the CSIA. Bill Faber, Yaskawa's Senior Manager Motion Application Engineering, sums up the partnership between Yaskawa and CSIA this way:
"Control system integrators provide value added services and often serve as an extension of our Application Engineering department. Having a qualified control system integrator network allows Yaskawa to focus on specifying product to the right audience. Working with CSIA members qualifies the technical and project execution capabilities to ensure they are representing Yaskawa from a total quality perspective. Our department works with control system integrators by transferring our factory level best practice knowledge providing pre-canned solutions that increase CSIA Member margins."
Yaskawa is the world's largest producer of servo amplifiers and servomotors (rotary, linear, and direct drive). Yaskawa Electric America, Inc. is headquartered in Waukegan, Ill. with manufacturing centers and offices throughout the Americas. For more information, visit www.yaskawa.com.
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| Infrastructure Networks
Here is a slice of survey information from our partner member Anixter that you may find useful. The moral of the story is that you must get to know your client's IT people.
30% of industrial networks are owned by IT, and increasing. There are also shifts in whom management has charged with responsibility for the integration work. In the United States this year, more respondents indicate that internal IT teams - 29.8%, compared with 23.3% last year - are in the driver's seat, coming very close to the nearly one-third, the largest group, saying that a combined IT and automation group is the preferred approach.In Europe, combined IT/automation teams have clearly taken over, with 41.8% of respondents in this camp this year, up significantly from 25.3% last year.
Managing Automation - Integration Reader Poll
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Get to Know Some New Members
BJH Controls Pty LtdRingwood, Victoria, Australia 3134 1300-258-258 www.bjhcontrols.com.au Business DescriptionFor over 20 years, BJH Controls has been servicing the manufacturing sector with our expertise in electrical design, PLC programming, SCADA development, cabinet and machine wiring, system commissioning, system upgrades and turn key applications. We service a wide range of industries including food and beverage, timber and packaging, abattoirs and cold storage, furnace and automotive. Our customers range in size from multinational organizations to small businesses, and our control systems can be found all over Australia and in almost 20 countries around the globe. Our range of product experience and partnerships with key suppliers in the industry including Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens and many others allows us to design the best solution for our customers' needs, rather than having one product that suits all. Our engineering personnel are qualified and experienced in a range of industries and applications and are lateral thinkers who take pride in getting the best result for our customers. Company location(s)Head Office - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Branch Office - Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia What else would you like CSIA members to know about you? We are passionate about improving the automated processes of our customers and assisting them with their goals, which include increasing product output, improving safety, reducing waste, minimizing environmental impact, reducing costs, maximizing profits and improving efficiencies. Why did you decide to join CSIA and what would you like to gain from being a member?We see benefits in networking with a dedicated group of control system integrators from around the world, for the sharing of knowledge and ideas in a non-competitive environment.
507-833-6732
www.calamp.comBusiness DescriptionCalAmp Corp. designs and manufactures industrial wireless solutions for SCADA in water/wastewater, electric, oil and gas, and traffic systems. Portfolio includes licensed and spread spectrum; point to multipoint, point to point and mesh architectures; private network radios and cellular modems for fixed and mobile applications; support serial and Ethernet IP; narrowband to broadband (WiMAX) speeds; frequencies in VHF, 200MHz, UHF, 900MHz, 2.5GHz. Wi-Fi, Zigbee and GPS available on some models; AES encryption and SNMP NMS. Company location(s)Headquarters in Oxnard, California. Operations in Waseca and Chaska, Minnesota; Atlanta, Georgia; and Montreal, Canada. What else would you like CSIA members to know about you?
We offer true narrowband IP router in the VHF, UHF, 900MHz band. We continue to support legacy systems including RNET radios. The company roots are in EFJ Data Telemetry group and Dataradio. We have 25 years of experience and application intimacy in wireless based automation and control systems. Why did you decide to join CSIA and what would you like to gain from being a member?CalAmp Corp. became interested in joining a community of professionals serving the energy and water/wastewater industries. We are hoping to gain visibility to those integrators that would benefit from knowing about our industrial grade wireless solutions.
Global Process Automation
Leland, NC
(910) 262-7374
www.globalprocessautomation.com
Business Description
Global Process Automation (GPA) was established in 1996 as a process controls company. Our target markets are Pulp and Paper, Chemical, Power, Pharmaceutical, and Plastics. We focus on building a unique relationship with our customers to provide turn-key process controls projects, which includes all engineering, configuration, training, start-up and "as built" documentation.
Company location(s)
Bluffton, SC
Wilmington, NC
What else would you like CSIA members to know about you?
Outside of our process controls expertise, we are focused on data acquisition because streamlining the process can result in substantial cost savings and the historical data is important to calculate and display these savings. We always create new tools to inform our customers (in real time) about process upsets, production data and environmental excursions, as well as monitoring uptime on DCS / PLC and Data acquisition equipment.
Why did you decide to join CSIA and what would you like to gain from being a member?
We believe CSIA is an organization that will help us to grow as a business and in return we hopefully will be helping other CSIA members with our ideas and expertise to help them to grow as well.
Global Technical Services (GTS) Cairo, Egypt Tel +202-27055111/+202-27055222 +202-27055333/
Business Objectives
To expand outsourcing business to O&G market for commissioning, start up and engineering activities. To have more flexible entity to expand in the region specifically in KSA & UAE. To have international training and control systems engineering office in Egypt by 2011. To achieve net profit as high as 30% of sales.
Target markets
GTS focuses on oil and gas market to supply technical services & training. The market of oil & gas could be either through direct end user clients or through international suppliers or international EPC contractors. We have potential to enter other markets such as electrical power stations and utilities. For the training service we'll target also the industrial and governmental sectors to provide them managerial training.
Application engineeringPLC, SCADA & DCS engineering What else would you like CSIA members to know about you?GTS provides over 200 engineers & technicians with high qualification skills to support the instrument & control project in any place over the world. We already have a proven track in Europe, Africa and Gulf area. Why did you decide to join CSIA and what would you like to gain from being a member?We decided to join CSIA to increase our globalization to cooperate with the whole world of control systems. We expect to gain good relationships with the other partner and associate member companies in addition to market indications and analysis that will help us plan our business for the future. NOREC AutomationSolon, OH 440-519-1200 www.noreceng.com Business DescriptionNOREC Automation was established in 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio as a specialized automation solutions and services firm, focusing on providing quality and innovation to our customers. We have a broad range of experience in the industrial, institutional and electric utility marketplaces, with specific knowledge of power and process steam generation, and combustion related equipment. Our staff provides our customers with more than 120 years of combined experience in the process, electrical, and control systems disciplines, as well as project management, hardware design, CAD, and computer programming talent. Our goal is to become our customers' "partner in success" by delivering high quality, cost-effective control solutions, on time and in support of both the technical and financial goals of their projects.
Company location(s)
NOREC Automation is located in Solon, Ohio, in a recently purchased 3600 sq ft engineering facility. The Solon, Ohio location offers easy access to Cleveland Hopkins Airport, major local highways and offers a selection of quality hotels and restaurants for our visitors.
Why did you decide to join CSIA and what would you like to gain from being a member?
The decision to join CSIA was influenced by the opportunity to improve and expand our current "best practices," as well as share our overall business experiences with other Control System Integrators with the hope of building a stronger foundation upon which all CSIs can improve their customer business relationships.
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CSIA has a presence on LinkedIn. There are two Groups: Members Only and Public Interest.
Although LinkedIn will be replaced as a network for integrators when our website goes online, we are using it as a launch pad for our own Web 2.0 member community. The intent is to learn what works and prove out methodology. When our new site is up and running the content of LinkedIn will be transported to it. Consider participating in the CSIA Members Only LinkedIn community.
There are two sub-groups under Members Only: Peer and Best Practices. The purpose of the Peer forum is to serve as a matchmaking medium between members interested in becoming a member of a peer group. This has proven highly valuable to our members and provides an opportunity to enhance your individual businesses by consulting with peers who are facing similar challenges and who can provide you valuable insights. The purpose of the Best Practices Sub-group is to serve as a member forum to share and request assistance with Best Practices.
BTW - The Job Postings feature has been disabled so it can't be used for job postings.
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Forgotten your password?
Have you forgotten, or never knew the username and password for the Members Only section of the CSIA website? Email us for more info.
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Attending ISPE?
Will you have a booth in the ISPE show? Due to a scheduling conflict CSIA will not be attending the show. However, member companies who plan on exhibting are encouraged to display CSIA literature and talk to visitors about CSIA when it's appropriate.
If you can help, please contact Executive Director Bob Lowe.
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Webinar on Bonding
Projects that involve public funds always require bonding and they are increasing due to stimulus money allocation. Stay tuned to CSIA for an upcoming webinar on the subject.
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Member Survey Results
Thank you to the 86 Integrator members who completed the recent survey that was developed by a team of partner members. The results provide insight about the integrator community of members to the partners. That insight enables them to better support the Integrators and CSIA as a whole. See the results here. | |
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