Wonderware Confidential: Interviews with the Movers and Shakers within the Wonderware Organization

Geok Kee, Tay; Technical Manager of Wonderware’s Singapore Office

Geok Kee Tay — known best in the Wonderware® community as GK — has been in charge of technical and pre-sales issues in the Asia-Pacific region for the past six years. As Technical Manager for Wonderware Asia-Pacific, GK supports a multitude of countries from the north (Japan, Korea, China), the west (India and Pakistan), the southeast (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam) and down under (Australia and New Zealand). In this issue of Wonderware Confidential, we spend time with GK Tay.

What is your role in the Wonderware organization in Asia-Pacific?

GK Tay: I oversee all the technical activities for Wonderware Asia-Pacific, such as pre-sales and post-sales operations. I basically act as a consultant to the various projects, if they require my assistance. I also overlook the technical operations within Wonderware Asia-Pacific. As Wonderware Singapore is the headquarters for Wonderware Asia-Pacific with regards to technical support issues, I also act as the main liaison for these issues.

In general, what does your department do?

GK Tay: We assist the distributors in their pre-sales activities by providing them with training and pre-sale support. We also take the lead in solution sales activities and help Wonderware System Integrators (SIs) and VAR/OEMs implement the solutions for their customers using Wonderware products.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Asia-Pacific Region in terms of the Automation Software market for 2007?

GK Tay: The biggest challenge is helping our regional offices and distribution channel to move up the value chain by engaging more in solution sales activities, especially in the areas of Production and Performance Management. Another challenge is to get our team up to speed with the latest and greatest products and technology available.

How does your team plan to meet this challenge?

GK Tay: We are in the process of setting up a Solution Team to focus solely on solution sales activities. The application consultants on this team will collaborate with our channel and customers to more fully explain how Wonderware software can be used to address the customers’ requirements. In addition, we aim to provide more promotional and training support to the Wonderware Distributors. This will prepare them to take on the new challenges in this coming year.

Where do you think the major movement will be in terms of the market in Asia-Pacific? What are the factors?

GK Tay: The Production and Performance Management business space is gaining momentum in Asia-Pacific. There are many opportunities, and our customers are beginning to realize that the conventional big bang approach is not going to work very well for them. The functional modules approach from Wonderware is well-accepted, as is the System Platform concept because they provide extensibility as well as scalability to the users. This market space is going to be the area of major movement across the Asia-Pacific region.

China and India still represent the biggest potential for Wonderware in terms of volume product sales. These two large countries are moving at a very fast pace toward industrialization. According to major financial market reports, China is growing at nearly 10% a year. As both of these countries need a lot of support to help them achieve their goals as industrialized nations, many peripheral industries will be called upon to provide resources. Wonderware needs to continue investing in these two countries in order to gain market share.

How do China, Japan and Korea fit into this strategy?

GK Tay: These countries represent close to 75% of Wonderware Asia-Pacific’s revenue. China is the fastest-growing market in the region. As more companies are setting up plants and expanding their businesses in China, there are a lot of opportunities for Wonderware in this region. China will continue to be the major market space for Asia-Pacific. As for Japan and Korea, there are still a lot of high-value industries such as Semiconductors that continue to be the growing markets there. We need to focus more on high-value solution sales in these countries.

Which industries do you think will make a big impact this year?

GK Tay: Asia-Pacific encompasses very diversified industries as it is a big region. In Southeast Asia, Tobacco, Manufacturing, Facility Management and Control Systems (FMCS) and Water Treatment will continue to be the major industries. In East Asia, the Steel, Utilities and Semiconductors industries will continue to be the driving forces.

What kinds of technologies will make an impact in Asia-Pacific in 2007?

GK Tay: Applications for Enterprise Integration will be in demand. More customers are also beginning to realize the importance of unifying the information layer across multiple disparate systems because doing so simplifies reporting and makes application management easier. Distributed control, which enables a common management console across large geographical or wide area networks, will be important as well. Lastly, reliability and security across plant applications will continue to be a requirement from most customers.

Which Wonderware products do you think will make a difference and why?

GK Tay: The Wonderware Application Server and Wonderware System Platform will continue to be the key product to help Wonderware penetrate new market spaces, as will solutions in the area of Production and Performance Management. InTouch® software will also continue to be the product for volume sales.

Is there one particular Wonderware product or technology that you think will make the biggest impact in your region?

GK Tay: InTouch 10 software will have a huge impact here because it truly integrates graphical visualization with object-based process modeling and control.