Managing Automation - March 2008 - (Page 14)

FREE E-NEWSLETTERS SUBSRIBE NOW! news managingautomation.com maonline Go online for daily news updates in perspective growth at the privately held company, went searching for an individual with industrial experience who could move the company forward, he said. “I’m a first-time CEO and my learning curve was going to have to be faster than the company growth, and I’m not sure that was humanly possible,” Lambright told Managing Automation. “I wanted someone who had been down this path before, who knows where the bumps are and can take us to the next level. When I found Mike Bradley Sr. out we could get Mike’s experience on board here, it was a no-brainer.” Bradley announced his resignation from Wonderware, a business unit of Invensys plc, in November 2007, after five years as the software company’s president. At that time, Sudipta Bhattacharya, an ex-SAP executive who had joined the company three months earlier, was appointed as Bradley’s successor. Industry observers saw the changing of the guard at Wonderware as an important step in the company’s future. “Based on Mike Bradley’s feelings of where Wonderware needs to be in 10 years from now, it makes sense to point to someone who has a blend of understanding” because, ultimately, plant floor systems will have to interact with ERP, supply chain, logistics, and other business systems, Craig Resnick, an analyst with ARC Advisory Group, told MA in an interview last year. Similarly, Apprion looks to Bradley to leverage his experience with industrial applications and control architectures to move wireless into mainstream automation. Bradley will focus on building out new channel and solution partners, as well as moving the company into new geographies, he said. “I believe industrial wireless will be one of the fastest-growing segments in all of industrial applications,” Bradley said in an interview. “My skills can help accelerate that growth.” It will be a lot of work to move Apprion into the forefront of what could become a highly competitive space, but Bradley — who said he just wasn’t ready for retirement — is up for the challenge. “This is tremendous and exciting Too much golfing would have been bad for me.” — S.N. Alliances, Executive Appointments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Products Transform your business through technology FREE Newsletters include: • MA Daily News Alert Hot off the press news exclusives written by MA Editorial • MA Membership Alert The latest industry research, products, news and web events Compete in the new global economy for years to come tional products” net ensnares his own software, which is still available on-premises. But he expects most of Boomi’s customers to move to the On Demand offering. “The vast majority of our existing customers are SMBs, and I think this will play very nicely in the SMB tier,” he says. Selling this kind of offering directly to manufacturers and other customers is a daunting prospect, according to research firm Gartner. Boomi has sidestepped that challenge by joining forces with on-demand software providers, such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite, to bundle integration software with those vendors’ products. “Boomi is the first vendor to specifically target SaaS vendors as its primary sales channel as a technology partner to facilitate integration,” Gartner analyst Benoit Lheureux wrote in a September 2007 research paper, adding that the company has “a narrow window of opportunity to secure a foothold in this particular IaaS market niche.” Instead of the traditional per-user licensing method, Boomi charges customers by the connection. If a company wants to integrate an on-demand Salesforce.com CRM system with on-premise Oracle ERP software and a legacy system, Boomi charges for three connections. Monthly per-connection fees are $65 for a smallbusiness connection such as Quick Books; $135 for standard applications, including Salesforce, NetSuite, and Microsoft Great Plains; and $495 for enterprise connections, including Oracle, SAP, and other backbone systems. — C.C. • Progressive Manufacturer • Viewpoint EX-WONDERWARE CHIEF TAKES HELM AT APPRION Provocative and inspirational, features the opinion columns in print with exclusives online J Sign Up Today at: MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM /NEWSLETTERS ® ust a few months after retiring from his post as president of Wonderware, Mike Bradley Sr., 62, jumped back into the fray as CEO of Apprion, an industrial wireless network provider. Bradley succeeds Apprion founder Stephen Lambright, 44, who is moving into the role of vice president of marketing and customer service. The industrial wireless space is beginning to gain traction as automation players such as Invensys — an Apprion partner — and others, including Emerson and Honeywell, roll out solutions that complement their industrial networks. Lambright, who foresees a period of rapid http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.Salesforce.com http://www.Salesforce.com http://www.managingautomation.com/newsletters

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - March 2008

Managing Automation - March 2008 Contents Take 1 Mailbox Mitsubishi, IBM, and ILS Team Up to Make Integration Easy for Automakers Former Agile Exec Takes the Reins at Arena Solutions The Next Phase for 2006’s PM Award Winner Integration Firm Boomi Redesigns for On-Demand Ex-Wonderware Chief Takes Helm at Apprion Notes Cover Story: A Rare Breed Special Report: Where are Control Architectures Heading? Transformation: Back to Reality Integration: Getting Standards Under One Roof Industries: The Quest for the Perfect Order Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - March 2008

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