Managing Automation - February 2008 - (Page 8) INDUSTRY NEWS FULL COVERAGE MA NEWSLETTER TO SUBSCRIBE GO TO OF EVENTS AND ANALYSIS WWW.MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM managingautomation.com Alliances, Executive Appointments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Products news For the maonline in perspective BY JEFF MOAD Record APPOINTMENTS Despite SAP’s Woes, Third-Party Market for Apps Maintenance Appears Strong espite SAP AG’s announcement toreaching end-of-life status, and their users are imward the end of last year that it would plementing interim strategies while deciding seek strategic options for its Tomorwhen and how to replace those systems. The rowNow business — including a posappearance of a new generation of SOA-enabled sible sale of the unit — the market for thirdenterprise applications also is encouraging party maintenance service is alive, well, and transitions to new enterprise systems, as is the growing, according to analysts and ongoing consolidation among vendors in the space. enterprise software vendors. “There’s still a lot of interest in At the same time, Wang says, third-party-provided maintenance, managers see the use of third-party particularly among companies that maintenance as a way to reduce are looking to consolidate multiple overall IT costs. Third-party mainapplications and need a lower-cost tenance providers generally charge maintenance option to tide them half of what software vendors over for the next two to five charge for maintenance, which typyears,” says Ray Wang, an analyst at ically covers patches and some Forrester Research. “Also, as we upgrades and training. head into what looks like a recesSAP’s decision to consider a sale Seth Ravin sionary cycle, it makes sense for of TomorrowNow, Wang says, companies to save money wherever they can, inowes more to legal and management problems cluding enterprise software maintenance.” than to market problems. SAP bought TomorWang estimates that seeking lower-cost mainrowNow, the third-party maintenance markettenance from third-party providers is a preferred share leader with an estimated 250 to 300 cusinterim strategy for 10% to 15% of enterprise tomers, in early 2005. SAP positioned software users. The percentage is growing for TomorrowNow as part of a program, called Safe several reasons, he says. Many enterprise sysPassage, that was designed to attract users of tems deployed in the run-up to Y2K are now Oracle and other applications to its platform. Arena Solutions tapped Craig Livingston as CEO. The Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) named Craig Lathrop chief information officer. Intermec Technologies, Inc. appointed David Jones vice president and general manager, Global Services. The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) hired Mike Levin as executive director. Patni Computer Systems named John Blyzinskyj senior vice president of the Manufacturing Services business unit. D CONTRACTS ABB landed a $30 million contract from Emirates Aluminum Co. (EMAL) to supply power and automation systems for a new aluminum smelter near Abu Dhabi. Automotive supplier Wilhelm Karmann is using Dassault Systemes’ DELMIA Process Engineer and DELMIA Body-inWhite to virtually plan, simulate, and test its production lines. Southeastern Materials is integrating its business processes using DEACOM’s Integrated Accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning Software System. Continued on page 11 Sensor Networks Going Wireless One in three industrial companies uses wireless sensors today, and nearly half plan to adopt or investigate wireless applications over the next 18 months, according to a recent survey of 115 industrial end users by ON World. An intense global marketplace, high energy costs, and environmental demands are driving companies to improve production efficiencies and make their operations “greener.” “Industrial companies are most interested in adopting new wireless solutions, such as machine health, environmental and emissions monitoring, safety, and structural integrity,” Mareca Hatler, ON World’s director of research, says in a report. Thirty-nine percent of interviewees who are planning wireless implementations are targeting machine health, she notes. The research firm pegs total 2011 industrial wireless sensor networking systems and services at $4.6 billion. ON World predicts that emerging markets will make up 65% of global industrial wireless sensor network revenues in 2011, and process control/automation will account for 22% of the total WSN market at that time. NUMBERS BREAKDOWN OF USER GROWTH RATES OVER FIVE YEARS Asset monitoring and machine health are expected to be the areas of fastest growth over the next five years. Asset monitoring Facility environmental Machine health Process monitoring 32% Relief valves/steam traps Safety & security Tank level monitoring 14% 86% 75% Source: ON World 300% 14% 122% ma BY THE 8 2008 February http://managingautomation.com http://managingautomation.com
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