Looking for a way to increase your marketing exposure? Consider a premium package on the Exchange!

The original Premium Integrator Packages sold out quickly. (These are the 12 "Featured Integrators" that rotate on the home page.) Because of the high level of interest, we are reintroducing the Premium Integrator Package with one difference: a category ad in place of the featured integrator spot.

The Premium Integrator Package ($2,500/12 months) includes:

• Gold Profile
• Unlimited categories
• Category ad

A category ad is a tower ad that will always appear first when a visitor to the Exchange searches for a particular industry, specialty or product. This ad can be linked directly to your website. This is ideal for integrators that specialize in a particular industry or technology.

Partner members can also take advantage of this bundled package. Premium Partner Packages ($5,000/12 months) include:

• Gold Profile
• Upload unlimited system integrators (the SIs in your partner programs) with your program logo
• Category ad (See above.)

If you currently have a Gold profile and upgrade to the premium package, your 12-month subscription restarts, effectively extending your investment well into 2015.

Contact Eric Huemmer, 608-310-5575, to learn more about these opportunities.

by Ann Nelson and Bob Lowe, Integrator Marketing Committee co-chairs

A new CSIA committee, the Integrator Marketing Committee, was recently commissioned to:

• Grow the number of new integrator members
• Retain current members by marketing all the benefits that CSIA offers and providing members with opportunities to become fully engaged with CSIA
• Learn of new benefits that would help our integrator members and then establish a plan to create them

At our first meeting in September, we set priorities among approximately 20 projects that had been identified by members and staff. The following three projects were selected.

1. Conduct research to quantify the value of CSIA certification by collecting "before" and "after" certification metrics.
2. Conduct research to obtain baseline metrics for before and after the application of CSIA best practices. This would apply best to members of just a few years that can easily make the comparison. The Statistics Committee will collaborate with this committee for items 1 and 2.
3. Develop a best practice for CSIA to promote events and media engagement of our integrator members. Additionally, develop a best practice for members to promote CSIA at events they attend, such as trade shows.

The Integrator Marketing Committee will also be asked to review the potential presentations at the 2015 conference. Their perspective is priceless!

The committee is made up of representatives from two small integrator members, two mid-sized and three large integrators so as to have a broad perspective. Serving the needs of all system integrators is our goal, regardless of size.

by Bob Lowe, Task Force Facilitator

The Cybersecurity Task Force is developing a whitepaper that will be a guide to help navigate the standards and frameworks addressing cybersecurity for industrial control systems. The whitepaper will not attempt to replace IEC 62443, the NIST framework or any other document, but will be an overview with references to them. The whitepaper will be structured after IEC 62443-2-4.

The intended audience of the whitepaper is engineers and programmers (integrators), procurement personnel (those looking for an integrator with good cybersecurity best practices), and operations personnel (industry clients).

The whitepaper will be integrated with Revision 5 of the Best Practices and Benchmarks manual. It will impact best practices for the integration environment (those internal to the system integration company) and best practices in the target environment (the deliverable to the client). However, the initial focus will be the "integration environment" because target environments are quite varied so are complex.

The task force consists of people from six integrator members and six partner members. We are grateful for their contribution. Currently the table of contents is being refined, with content to follow. Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2015.

COMING UP:

Daniel Roessler, Owner/Consultant at DANR Consulting)

Successful project teams do not happen automatically; staffing projects with the right resources is critical. However, even when you have the correct technical expertise, how your team members communicate with one another, handle transition responsibility areas, respond to the client, etc., will help determine project success. Project managers have the responsibility to not only manage the project, but also lead the team. This presentation will examine common challenges for technical teams, outline key project staffing considerations, and present several approaches PMs can use to facilitate strong teamwork and deliver efficient project execution.

Daniel Roessler, author of Control System Migrations: A Practical Project Management Handbook (Momentum Press, 2013), has a career spanning over 20 years, beginning as a process control engineer and project manager for a major chemical company. His background also includes roles as a project proposal manager and a marketing manager. Daniel is currently the owner of DANR Consulting, which provides content marketing, business optimization, and project management services to engineering, software and manufacturing companies. 

Webinar series hosted by Software Toolbox, a CSIA Partner member.

As announced in September, CSIA has launched a new program for CSIA partner members to present webinars on technical topics. The webinar series begins Oct. 23. (See registration information below.) Please forward the webinar announcements to the appropriate technical personnel in your company.

All partner members are invited to participate. The Partner Webinar Best Practice document is in the new Partner Resources library in the Connected Community so please download it for all the details. The current plan is for webinars to be held on three-week intervals in partnership with CSIA. The webinars will be mostly educational in content, but may include some explanation of partner product(s) that meet the technological need. Including a business perspective in addition to the technical content is strongly encouraged. Case studies and co-presentation by system integrators and end-user clients add value and are also encouraged. Contact CSIA Executive Director Bob Lowe, with questions or if you'd like to host a webinar.

Watch live demos and see how simple it is to implement these alarming best practices. Whatever your level of experience, this webinar will help you get the alarms in your SCADA system under control and keep them that way.

Here's what you'll learn about:

* Organizing & filtering alarms
* Prioritizing alarms
* Shelving & disabling alarms
* Consolidating alarms
* Escalating alarms
* Using alarm notification pipelines 

 
This webinar is hosted by Inductive Automation. 

_______________________________________________

 

Report and Dashboard Solutions

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, 11 a.m., EDT (New York)
Roy Kok, Global Sales and Marketing for Dream Report,
Ocean Data Systems

Addressing report generation and dashboard needs with a purpose-built solution beats integrating Crystal Reports, Microsoft SSRS or rolling your own. 

This webinar is hosted by Ocean Data Systems.

Registration opening soon.

New insurance program available for subcontractors

by Paul Barnard, CSIA Insurance Program Manager 

As I previewed in last month's newsletter, our new insurance program in which we are partnering with the International Society of Automation is now up and running.

This program has two objectives. First, the program offers independent subcontractors an affordable option to buying broad and very cost effective general liability and professional errors and omissions liability coverage and thereby protecting themselves in the event that they cause a loss. Many such contractors believe that they are insured by their prime contractor. This is not the case. The initial responses have been very positive and we are saving people lots of money, which is always good.

The second objective is to provide CSIA members with a tool whereby they can get their subcontractors insured. Having your subs insured is a basic "best practices" tool. Why would they wish to have their insurance pay for a loss caused by an uninsured subcontractor? I encourage all CSIA members to have written contracts with their subs that includes the requirement that they have general and professional errors and omissions liability insurance.

For more information regarding this valuable new benefit, direct your subcontractors to the ISA website. Your subcontractors can within a few minutes complete a simple application on line, obtain a quotation, bind the coverage and get their policy.

Any questions regarding this or the CSIA Insurance Programs in general please contact me at: [email protected] or 610-507-6595. 

Training survey deadline extended to Oct. 31

Integrator members, you now have until the end of October to complete the Training Survey. We need many more respondents to understand your wishes regarding training. The reason for keeping it open until the end of the month is to give you adequate time to complete the J.P. Morgan/CSIA System Integration Survey. Both surveys are critical!

Those who travel may find "11 Ways To Keep Data Safe When Traveling Overseas" from Manufacturing Business Technology to be helpful.

Schneider Electric/Invensys was a Platinum sponsor of the 2014 CSIA Executive Conference 

Within the Schneider Electric/Invensys system integrator community, the most successful partners are well aware of the value of demonstrating their expertise by using their product and project methodology certifications as a key differentiator in winning business. According to Luigi De Bernardini, CEO of Autoware in Italy, working in partnership with a vendor and an association to drive best practices in process methodology and delivery in the field is an integral part of how they do business.

"We have put a lot of effort into reorganizing the company to follow the CSIA best practices. This was a journey started five years ago when we joined CSIA. We started immediately improving our processes, and I have to say that our company today is very different. This was possible only with the support of all the CSIA members. I believe no other community has the same willingness to share information and experiences and help each other to become better," he said.

"Through our long-term partnership and participation in Schneider Electric's Wonderware SI Partner Program, we have developed new skills and the ability to implement best practices with MES solutions.  Seeing results leads us to train more of our technicians to take our organization to a higher level of delivery expertise. I have to say that our success is also due to the close collaboration our company has with the CSIA and Schneider Electric Wonderware SI Program teams and the knowledge they have shared with us over the years." 

Schneider Electric has had a long-term association with the CSIA, and with its recent acquisition of Invensys, also a long-term CSIA member, now offers clients access to a worldwide community of Wonderware SIs with the skills and expertise to deliver what the client needs. Combined with the new CSIA Exchange and Schneider Electric's Software Partner Solutions Directory, clients have the ability to find the right system integrator with the competencies, experience and location for their project.

For further information about Schneider Electric's Wonderware SI Partner Program and for two related white papers - Value of Certification for System Integrators and Selecting the Right Delivery Partners for Projects - visit the Partner Ecosystem area of software.invensys.com. Also, see the Schneider Electric area within the new CSIA Industrial Automation Exchange.

Industry in Transition: The Information Driven Enterprise in a Connected World is the theme of the ARC Industry Forum in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 9 - 12, 2015. This is ARC's 19th annual industry forum. Although ARC has forums in other locations, including Europe and India, this is its largest forum and is attended by industry clients and suppliers from around the world. All attendees from CSIA-member companies receive a 10 percent discount on the registration, a value of about $200. In addition to the educational sessions, opportunities to meet industry clients and network with suppliers are substantial.

What does it mean to be "information driven?" New information technologies such as internet of things, predictive analytics, wireless, additive manufacturing, cloud computing, mobility and 3D visualization have the potential to disrupt and radically change the way manufacturers and process industries do business. An information-driven enterprise leverages these new technology solutions to achieve agility and sustain a competitive edge.

Join ARC at the forum to learn how an information-driven strategy can better position integrators' and suppliers' clients to succeed and how to best approach critical technology decisions. Here is a sampling of topics:

• Industrial internet of things
• Analytics for industry
• Asset performance management
• Cloud computing
• Cybersecurity
• Latest innovations in automation
• Energy management
• Workforce development and training

(l to r) Keith Jones, Prism Systems, CSIA Integrator member; Carl Henning,
PI NA Deputy Director; Michael Bryant stand-up; the real Michael Bryant,
PI NA Executive Director; and Bob Lowe, CSIA Executive Director

by Bob Lowe, Executive Director

The 20th Annual PI North America (PI NA) General Assembly Meeting in September was two days of presentations on the past, present and future of PI NA, with some social activities mixed in. This was my first PI NA meeting and learned that it is a growing, vibrant trade association in the United States as well as the PROFIBUS-PROFINET organization globally.

The integrators and suppliers at this North American meeting were from Europe and Latin America along with PROFIBUS-PROFINET leaders from Europe. Their three-prong focus of "help and educate and promote" the PROFIBUS-PROFINET standard, certification and users will continue. With a North American membership roster of 152 members, it's obvious that much has been accomplished since their humble beginnings in 1994. (Hmmm - looks a lot like CSIA!) Being the 20th annual meeting, Executive Director Michael Bryant's staff decided to have some fun, so they provided three life-size stand-ups of Michael. The stand-ups resulted in lots of comedy throughout the meeting. One was included in the accompanying photo.

Autoware
MES/MOM: Time for a Change?
Automation World

Concept Systems Inc.
How Laser Scanners and Non-Contact Encoders Are Changing Robotic Applications
Automation World

ILS Technology
Automation Software Helps Move Honda Into the Manufacturing Fast Lane
Tooling & Production

Interstates Control Systems Inc.
RFID: Getting the Best Read
Automation World

Loman Control Systems
Data Collection Basics: Start with OEE
Automation World

RedViking
Are You Spending too Much on Automation?
Automation World

Pruning the roots and vines from aerospace manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing & Design

Vertech Industrial Systems
In search of process perfection
Mining magazine

CSIA
Five minutes with Bob Lowe
Mining Magazine