Managing Automation - November 2008 - (Page 15)

news managingautomation.com maonline Go online for daily news updates in perspective Quote of the Alliances, Executive Appointments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Products MONTH Life As An Entrepreneur. And he is looking to make an impact with Cordys Software, the company he founded in 2001 and now leads as chairman. Cordys specializes in business process management software that relies on Web standards, such as XML, to deliver adaptable components that allow individual users to configure their own application mash-ups to fit business needs. “Forget developers; [users] can be their own composers,” Baan said. The Cordys technology could be considered an evolution of what Baan Co. set out to do with Baan Web, which allowed a network of strategic partners to collaborate within an open IT architecture. The idea was a bit ahead of its time, considering that licensing models based on closed architectures prevailed in the 1990s. Since then, Baan has honed his views on ERP, which forms the backbone of many companies’ information systems. “ERP was for the department level, and it was never designed for the Internet,” Baan told Managing Automation in an interview. And even with today’s services-oriented architectures, he claimed, “IT can’t meet business [requirements], because it is still point-to-point integrations.” “I believe BPM will replace ERP,” Baan said during his keynote presentation at the MESA conference in Orlando, FL, in September. The new wave, he said, involves a collaborative workspace that integrates IT and business functions, a form of business process management where Cordys has looked to carve out its niche. Cordys, however, is not your typical BPM provider, according to Baan, since its technology is designed in a way that reduces reliance on IT or current software suppliers. It gives everyday users — not IT departments — the ability to adapt applications to the required business process, according to its founder. That’s not to say companies should throw out their SAP, Oracle, or even Baan implementations (Baan still has a strong presence in the aerospace industry). Rather, Cordys technology can be layered over legacy installations as a way to align IT and business, because ultimately it’s humans — not technology — that drive business. “The logic of ERP is driven by a data model,” Baan said. But next-generation BPM, he added, can move enterprise applications from being data-centric to business-process centric. — Stephanie Neil EMERSON TALKS WIRELESS AT ANNUAL USER GROUP EVENT “I’d love to move faster.” — Sudipta Bhattacharya, who in one year as president of Wonderware, has taken the company in a new direction to empower people on the plant floor. E merson Process Management used its annual Global Users Exchange in late September — during which 2,500 attendees gathered at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington, D.C. — to extol the virtues of wireless technology, both within the plant and in the enterprise at large. At a press conference at the start of the event, six Emerson customers described how the company’s wireless products have made a positive contribution to their operations. Panel member Natalia Kroutikova, technology leader at oil and gas giant BP, said her company is using Emerson’s Rosemount wireless transmitters to monitor suction, discharge pressures, levels, flow, and temperatures throughout a tank farm at its R&D technology center in Naperville, IL. BP has also expanded its deployment of wireless transmitters and installed an Emerson Smart Wireless gateway at its Cherry Point, WA, refining facility, the site in 2006 of the first industrial wireless mesh network field trial. Another customer, specialty chemicals manufacturer Croda Inc., received the most creative application award in Emerson’s Smart Wireless Innovators contest. Croda’s winning application, anonymously judged by a panel of end users, involved temperature measurements in moving rail cars at Croda’s Mill Hall, PA, plant. Denny Fetters, instrument and electrical designer at Croda, estimated the company has saved $14,000 annually in reduced operations and maintenance costs, although, he said, the biggest gain was in safety, as the wireless equipment eliminates the need for employees to physically scale the moving rail cars to make measurements. Other presentations at the press event were from customers Boise Paper, biotech manufacturer Genzyme Corp., Brazil-based steel producer Usiminas, and the Lab Analysis group at Mexico’s Federal Electrical Commission. Emerson also announced availability of a host of products that support the WirelessHART standard, officially approved by the HART Communications Foundation in September 2007. Emerson products that support WirelessHART include the Smart Wireless For the Continued from page 10 Record selected PTC’s Windchill for product lifecycle management (PLM) initiatives in its Industrial Products Group. PTT Retail Management, formerly Conoco (Thailand) Ltd., purchased performance management software from RedPrairie, in the vendor’s first sale outside North America. Siemens installed an integrated MES system in the Cherepovets production complex of Russian steel producer CherMK OAO Severstal. FINANCIAL Alien Technology, an RFID company, secured a new round of financing led by existing investors Advanced Equities, New Enterprise Associates, Rho Ventures, and Sunbridge Partners. M&AS Azima bought DLI Engineering and formed a new company, Azima DLI, a provider of predictive machine maintenance services. RFID systems provider Datalogic SpA acquired DATASENSOR SpA, a maker of photoelectric sensors and devices. PA R T N E R S H I P S Astea International Inc., a provider of lifecycle management and mobility products, signed a partner agreement with Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd., a global IT services company. ILOG and French integrator Sodifrance are collaborating on a solution for legacy modernization. Open source database management software provider Ingres Corp. has joined the OW2 Consortium, which develops open source code middleware. Kepware is working with Industrial Defender on integrated cyber-security technology for use with KEPServerEX. Kewill, a trade and logistics software company, signed a worldwide marketing agreement with Oracle to integrate the Kewill Flagship multi-carrier shipping management software with Oracle Transportation Management. 15 November 2008 http://www.managingautomation.com

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

Managing Automation - November 2008 Contents Take 1 At One-Year Mark, Wonderware President Focuses on Empowering Plant Operators Oracle Demos Fusio Apps, Reveals Delays Baan Founder Says BPM Will Replace ERP Emerson Talks Wireless at Annual User Group Event Merger Complete, Intercim Focuses on Collaboration Notes Cover Story: The New Supply Chain Reality Special Report: Keep Out Integration: The On-Demand Interchange Industries: Ending the Endless Waves of Paper Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - November 2008

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