Managing Automation - January 2008 - (Page 29) ing Execution by Visiprise. SAP has closed a handful of deals since the reseller agreement was set in place last summer. But the agreement, which basically gives SAP an MES solution, helps Visiprise, too. Having that tight connection to SAP is a dealmaker, says Carter Johnson, senior vice president of corporate development at Visiprise. “There have been deals that we won through SAP that we otherwise would not have been involved with,” he says. But it’s more than just a marketing and sales agreement. There is coding and integration happening in the background as well. “The benefit to the customer is that we are taking the burden of integration on ourselves,” Johnson says. Indeed, that’s what end “The benefit to the customer is that users are asking for. “I we are taking the burden of integradon’t want to do any more tion on ourselves.” — Carter Johnson, integration,” says Mike Brooks, staff technologist senior VP of Visiprise at Chevron. “What’s more company established an ecosystem of dozens germane is interoperability.” Chevron looks of partners, including most of the MES comto the vendors to do that as well as stanpanies — but not all (see sidebar, p. 28). dards, he says. SAP established three levels of partnerIn fact, standards could be even more imships. The basic level is NetWeaver Certifiportant than industry alliances, Brooks says. cation. Siemens, for example, has five certified That’s because they can provide the real frameSAP interfaces for SIMATIC IT. It is what work that allows application plug-and-play. In SAP calls a “low-touch” engagement” but is reality, “this stuff should just work together still a worthwhile notch on the MES belt. “It without [our] having to do anything,” he says. shows a commitment to make sure the applications are using the most effective ways of communicating with SAP’s MARKET SNAPSHOT: ACQUISITIONS ABOUND infrastructure,” says Mar yanne SteiFewer than a dozen independent MES companies remain following automation compadinger, in Siemens’ discrete industry nies’ buying spree, an acknowledgment that the capabilities included in these shop-floor execution systems are key. Here’s a look at the MES acquisitions to date: marketing group. The second level is a joint-developMES VENDOR ACQUIRED BY PRODUCT OFFERING/ ment ef for t, involving integration TARGET MARKET roadmaps and co-marketing agreeBrooks Software Applied Materials PROMIS/semiconductor industry ments. Wonderware sits in this categor y, having jointly developed three FACTORYworks/semiconductor, high-tech, medical devices composite applications using xMII to unite aspects of MES and ERP within Cimnet Invensys Wonderware Production and Performance/all industry segments the same data model. iBASEt, too, has built composite applications, investing Citect Schneider Electric Ampla/most industry segments lots of time and money in development Datasweep Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Production Centre/ for the sake of integration. automotive, CPG, electronics industries “We can’t have it be that integration Mountain Systems GE Fanuc Proficy Plant Application/ scares off everybody and detracts from most industry segments the value proposition,” says Conrad Orsi Group Siemens SIMATIC IT/all industry segments Leiva, vice president of product marketing at iBASEt. UGS Siemens Tecnomatix Production Management/ most industry segments The third type of SAP partnership is a reseller agreement, which SAP, to Propack Data Rockwell Automation RS PMX MES/life sciences date, has only with Visiprise. SAP’s POMS Honeywell POMSnet/life sciences own staff sells and maintains the prodSource: Managing Automation reporting uct, under the name SAP Manufactur- ficiency, better data models, and better collaboration across multiple plants and multiple time zones,” Colyer says. To get that scalability across the organization, a large number of MES players have built out solutions on .NET Web ser vices under a partnership program with Microsoft. That same group is also lining up behind SAP to become NetWeaver-certified or to build composite applications based on SAP’s xApp, Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (xMII). SAP tried to break into the MES domain a few years ago and quickly realized it does not have the industry expertise required to deliver a robust end-to-end solution. As a result, the Photo courtesy: Visiprise 29 January 2008
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