The summer has been busy for me. Accomplished were establishing a Latin America Advisory Committee with monthly meetings beginning in June, participation in the Iconics event, a journey along the east coast to visit eight members, 2012 conference planning, ISA Expo in Mexico and many regular activities. The fall includes similar opportunities with U.S. and Brazil ISA and our Partner members. 

CSIA is growing and gaining awareness among the automation community. Our goal is to continue domestic and international growth and to add value for our members. Last year, we had 96 percent retention; we are hoping for even higher rate this year. We continue to add value to your membership, with more opportunities for education and recognition in the marketplace, as you will read about in this newsletter. 

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by Ann Massie Nelson, PR/Social Media Manager

Several of the major industry media, including Control Engineering, Plant Engineering, Automation World, Control, and InTech, have approached CSIA about contributing content for their publications and web sites.

Media are no longer restricted by number of pages or column length. The web presents the opportunity for publishers to present more information in a variety of formats. With this limitless opportunity comes a challenge familiar to any editor: finding content that is of value to his or her readers. No matter what format it takes, content needs to be fresh, timely and relevant to a majority of readers.

Two current examples of how CSIA members are making headlines include:

• Richard Phillips of Polytron wrote a column, Global food manufacturer tracks operations,  that appears in the September issue of Automation World
• Ed Diehl, Concept Systems, wrote an article, How CSIA recertification drives growth, that appeared in the July/August issues of InTech

Read more.

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 ECI is located in Bogota, Columbia and is represented by Pedro S. Jidy. Incorporated in 1963, ECI represents American and European manufacturers of instruments, valves and control systems with the largest local support group for systems integration and field service.

Do you have a survey question to suggest? Send your suggestion to Bob Lowe.

Successful Integrators Capitalize on Real-Time Feedback

 

Coverage now available for Canadian, Australian and South American members  
by Paul Barnard, Insurance Program Manager

I am pleased to tell you that coverage is now available to our Canadian, Latin and South American, European, and Australian members. We are in the final stages of selecting a broker to represent us in Canada, but if you have an urgent need please contact me. The coverage available is very comprehensive and reasonably priced.

We are having a great year with our U.S. business and bonding programs with a 100 percent renewal retention rate and substantial new business being written. Read more.

by Joe Martin, Membership Committee Chairman

Controversy regularly creates learning opportunities if we can remember to remain objective. Heated discussion often opens our eyes to perspectives we've either not recognized before or have chosen to ignore. Regardless, CSIA members are about to gain valuable insight into our biggest project partners, and sometimes our largest competitors!

Recently, the Association of High Technology Distributors (AHTD) surveyed our membership with the desire to better understand how our world is changing. AHTD has offered CSIA a reciprocal opportunity to learn about the distributors of the control products we all promote and use. Read more.

by Jeff Miller, Best Practices Committee Chairman

The Best Practices Committee has completed version 4 beta of the Best Practices manual and updated the audit preparation file that goes along with this new version. The auditors are updating their auditors' handbook and will begin conducting pilot audits on the new version with integrators who are up for recertification audits and who have volunteered to be involved in the pilot audit process. 

The goal is to have 10 pilot audits between now and early next year, then review the auditors' feedback on the beta version of the Best Practices and make final changes to the manual prior to its official release at the CSIA conference in April. If your company is planning for a recertification audit in the next five to six months and would be interested in participating in the pilot audit process, please let your auditor know at the time that you schedule the re-audit. Read more.

by Bob Lowe, CSIA Executive Director

One of my responsibilities as Executive Director is to visit at least 12 of our integrator members each year. Typically when I'm near members for an event I'll plan a visit, but I decided to dedicate several days specifically to do visits in July. It was a very enlightening experience to learn exactly what our members do in the field of automation, what CSIA is doing well or not well, and what would they like us to add or change. A large majority of the feedback was good.

The Best Practices manual and the conference remain the most cited reasons for being in CSIA. Most have plans to become CSIA Certified, but some still don't yet see the value in it. All that I asked about submitting procedures or templates for a new library to help said they would participate. Nearly all enjoy the CSIA Open Forum in Connected Community, even if only to read the Conversations but not engage.

As the years go by I'll hopefully have an opportunity to visit you.  

The relationship between CSIA and ISA in the United States, Mexico and Brazil is growing stronger. In the U.S., the close relationship is evidenced by ISA's invitation to participate in ISA Automation Week in Mobile Alabama in October, where our exhibit will be in the Automation Federation pavilion. We owe a great deal of thanks to Mike Marlowe of Automation Federation for orchestrating this arrangement.

At ISA Mexico: Bob Lowe; Ana Laura Lopez, ISA Event Organizer; Carlos Jacobo Vargas, ISA Mexico President; Jenny Garcia, Lider Controls Quality Assurance; Ernesto Lopez, Lider Controls President; Daniela Ramirez, Lasso Automation; Eduardo Acosta, Omnicon and CSIA International Committee Chairman

Bob Lowe and Eduardo Acosta, CSIA International Committee Chairman, attended the Mexico ISA Expo in August at the invitation of Carlos Vargas, ISA Mexico President. A booth was provided as well as a presentation opportunity. In exchange, CSIA promoted the event to our Mexican members and prospective members. CSIA will also conduct three webinars for Latin America CSIs on CSIA Best Practices and has invited Carlos to attend the 2012 CSIA conference. 

Read more.

Attend ISA Automation Week for three days of technical education and networking. The agenda is full of informative sessions that will help automation technicians, engineers and programmers improve their skills. The event is centrally located in Mobile Alabama and the hotel costs are very reasonable. So rev up your career or the careers of your staff by participation in ISA Automation Week 2011.

Read more.

by Todd Youngblood - The YPS Group 

Pretty simple advice. Pretty sound too. Especially when it comes to embracing new techniques, technologies and tactics for selling system integration services (or selling anything for that matter).  

Think about it. Can literally any industrial sector or water treatment company benefit mightily from system integration services? Well, by gosh, the answer is, "Yes." But . . .

Read more.

Taking the audit requires a fair amount of preparation on the part of numerous company employees. Someone has to be appointed to direct these efforts to assure that all of the specified audited items are ready for review. How do you allocate time and personnel toward this effort? What steps do you need to take to get there? What are the audit criteria?

To help answer these questions and more CSIA and Exotek, one of the certification auditors, has developed a two-day Certification Bootcamp - a training session for companies preparing for the audit. Read more. 

Great Minds on Innovation
featuring Dean Kamen of FIRST®  

Brought to you by the Automation Federation, FIRST®, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
Sept. 20, 2011 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. EDT Price: FREE

Dean Kamen will share insights from his personal road to innovation, visionary world changing inventions, and his organization, FIRST®, which was created to inspire young peoples' interest and participation in science and technology.  

Register here.