Front Lines: Meet the Solution Providers That Operate on the Front Lines with Wonderware Distributors and Customers Worldwide

To date, there are more than 3,500 worldwide system integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) enrolled in the Wonderware® Solution Provider Program.

This quarterly newsletter will introduce you to some of the companies upon whom Wonderware relies to provide exceptional solutions to over 100,000 plants in a wide range of industries spanning the globe.

In this issue, we interview Dan Amsden, President of the Automation Alliance Group LLC. A firm believer in the old adage "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," the Automation Alliance Group comprises ten (10) systems integrators who have banded together to provide turnkey control system solutions. The Automation Alliance Group has been using systems and solutions based on ArchestrA® technology for several years.

What's the history of the Automation Alliance Group?

Dan Amsden: The Automation Alliance Group (AAG) was formed in September 2002 by a group of ten system integration companies, all of which were Certified Members of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) who'd already been sharing best practices and project leads through a peer group that they had founded in 2000. A President was hired in July 2003, and the company began immediate full-fledged operations at that point. The group had very broad industry and technology experience, which included two ArchestrA Certified developers in Wonderware's SI Program.

In September 2004, Wonderware representatives met with AAG owners at an AAG Board of Directors meeting in Seattle, to discuss the possibility of a relationship between Wonderware and AAG as a whole. Then, in January 2005, Wonderware invited AAG to hold its Board of Directors meeting at the Wonderware headquarters in Southern California. At the conclusion of this meeting, in which Wonderware executives including Wonderware's President Mike Bradley participated, AAG decided to enroll most of its personnel in Wonderware's SI Program. This program facilitates the achievement of expert product knowledge and certification in the effective use and application of Wonderware products.

Why was the Automation Alliance Group formed?

Dan Amsden: The Automation Alliance Group was formed to combine the resources of all AAG Members into a single offering to our clients. Together, we offer extremely broad technological capabilities, wide-ranging vertical market experience and a large resource base. Working as an alliance enables us to serve a single client in numerous geographical locations with a common set of performance standards and procedures, while simultaneously providing local service in many locations. Our slogan is: "Local service, global coverage."

What are the advantages of being an alliance of ten SIs, as opposed to working as individual companies?

Dan Amsden: A client of the Automation Alliance Group can access almost any technology, almost any market experience and understanding, and a very large resource base that a single integrator cannot do. Working together gives us the ability to perform in multiple locations as a local integrator, while maintaining the client's corporate standards. We can therefore execute sizeable projects that a single integrator would not be large enough to staff.

How do you distribute the projects that you win to the different members of the alliance? Does each integrator have specific expertise?

Dan Amsden: Each Member has particular market specializations or technological capabilities that the others do not maintain. One Member is assigned as AAG's Managing Partner — or the company that services that specific client — based on the market experience requirements, technology requirements, geographical requirements or other specialized project needs. The other Members then support the Managing Partner as necessary.

How many employees do you have?

Dan Amsden: Automation Alliance Group employs nearly 1,000 people who perform control-system integration work both domestically and internationally. The personnel provide a complete list of functions that they offer to provide process-control systems to our clients on a turn-key basis. Examples include system design experience, master planning, control-system architecture development, programming, system configuration, startup and commissioning, 24/7 technical support, validation-protocol development, project management, panel building, installation specialists, MES consulting, and many other functions.

What is AAG's expertise with Wonderware products? How many of your engineers are certified per product?

Dan Amsden: Members of AAG have experience and certification for using the following Wonderware products:

• Industrial Application Server
  Version 2.0 - 13 certifications;
  Version 1.5 - 4 certifications;
• InTouch® HMI
  Version 9.0 - 29 Certifications;
  Version 8.0 - 3 certifications;
• IndustrialSQL Server™ 8.0 historian - 28 certifications;
• SuiteVoyager™ software - 1 certification;
• InBatch™ 8.1 software – 1 certification;
• SCADAlarm 5.0 software - 4 certifications;
• Device integration (General) - 2 certifications; and
  I/O Servers (FactorySuite® 2000) - 3 certifications.

In addition, an AAG system integration company called Total Systems Design (TSD) has three projects in house that will utilize Wonderware's MES tools. For these projects, TSD will soon acquire training on Wonderware's Production Events Module (PEM), the Enterprise Integration Application and paper-on glass (POG) applications.

What industries does your company support?

Dan Amsden: AAG serves a broad range of industries including: Consumer Products (a.k.a., CPG); Food & Beverage; Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology; Refineries & Pipelines; Chemical & Petrochemical; Discrete Manufacturing; Power Generation; Pulp & Paper; Water & Wastewater; Wood Products; and Mining.

Who are your major customers?

Dan Amsden : Major customers for AAG include many of the largest and well-known customers in the industries listed above, such as: Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson, Anheuser-Busch, Ciba Geigy, Con Agra Foods, Kraft Foods, Unilever, Glaxo Smith Kline, Pfizer, Wyeth, Amgen, Genentech, Valero, International Paper, Duke Energy, Colonial Pipelines, Kellogg's, CGEP, Ciba Vision, Ameren and AT&T.

When did you first start working with Wonderware?

Dan Amsden: Automation Alliance Group has worked with Wonderware since AAG's inception in 2002. But individual AAG Member companies have been working with Wonderware since the early 1990s.

What was AAG’s first Wonderware installation?

Dan Amsden: Given that we are an alliance made up of 10 different SI companies, it is difficult to say what the very first Wonderware installation was. But here are a couple of examples. TSD's first Wonderware installation was the Lycoming County Landfill, a landfill gas power generation project in 1993. Stone Technologies' first Wonderware installation was Johnson Professional in Racine, Wisconsin. The project was to create a just-in-time batching system for cleaners and floor finishes. Both Total Systems Design and Stone Technologies are ArchestrA Certified system integrators.

Do you have a favorite Wonderware Success Story?

Dan Amsden: Rohm & Haas, Taiwan. TSD worked with Wonderware and Wonderware Distributor Q-mation in a collaborative effort to convince Rohm & Haas that Wonderware was the correct choice for its MES project. Because of TSD's experience with the Wonderware Industrial Application Server, ArchestrA technology and Wonderware MES applications, and because Total Systems Design had a presence in Taiwan through its TSD-CNA division, we convinced the client to go with Wonderware. TSD was a valuable team member in this process.

Are there any unique challenges that you have had to overcome in your region, industry or vertical market? If so, what are they and how have you overcome them?

Dan Amsden: Working in the life sciences industries, Total Systems Design must be concerned with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance and data security. Until Wonderware and its competitors offered software tools for regulatory compliance and data security within the InTouch HMI and other products, TSD needed to develop custom tools. Today, TSD uses the Wonderware tools within the products. For Stone Technologies, its challenge in the CPG industry was to tighten up the supply chain, which often means close integration between the plant floor and ERP systems. Many companies are looking for solutions to this very complex problem. Now, Wonderware offers the Enterprise Integration Application and other software tools to fill this need.

Stone Technologies is working with Wonderware to help design solutions based on Wonderware and ArchestrA technology.

Do you have any experience in the CPG market?

Dan Amsden: AAG has done considerable work in the Consumer Products market, as it is one of our largest vertical markets. Typically, we serve a major national/multi-national company in numerous locations with process and utilities control system services, MES services, OEE services, and on-going 24/7 support services. Clients such as Procter & Gamble, Kellogg's, Ciba Geigy, Wyeth and numerous others comprise our client base.

What is the customer response to Wonderware products?

Dan Amsden: Our customers generally see Wonderware products as being at the forefront of the marketplace. They're also responding very favorably to the Wonderware approach of teaming with system integrators to deliver solutions. They like it because they don't feel like they're being held hostage by a vendor who insists on doing it their way and only their way.

Are you involved in projects that leverage ArchestrA technology?

Dan Amsden: AAG companies Stone Technologies and Total Systems Design alone have completed more than 15 successful projects featuring ArchestrA technology, with eight (8) others currently underway. Both are ArchestrA Certified companies as well as Wonderware Strategic Integrators. Other AAG companies are also working toward ArchestrA Certification and using ArchestrA technology in their projects.

So far, how are AAG's clients responding to ArchestrA technology?

Dan Amsden: Our clients who are really interested in improving their operations and want a platform to build on understand and embrace ArchestrA technology.

What are the major advantages of using solutions based on ArchestrA technology in your projects and products?

Dan Amsden: I think the major advantages are reusability in multi-site applications, close integration of MES functionality and compatibility with Microsoft technology.

What is the business benefit for solution providers in the adoption of Wonderware technology and toolkits?

Dan Amsden: After a solution provider develops the expertise and an object library, it becomes a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This is especially true in multi-plant and MES applications.

Do you have any projects that incorporate or update legacy systems at this point in time? What's the motivation, from the solution provider's viewpoint, to migrate legacy systems to the current technology?

Dan Amsden: We do have considerable work involving legacy systems. The motivation to migrate these legacy systems to the current technology is that it's easier to develop and install these systems before the legacy systems become excessively obsolete. It's also easier to provide ongoing support for the current technology. Personnel do not maintain familiarity with the legacy systems over the long haul and keeping them operational for a customer becomes more and more difficult. In addition, the functionality of the legacy systems does not necessarily support MES systems and other corporate functions that are becoming more and more important in the marketplace.

What do you think the future holds for Wonderware products?

Dan Amsden: The future for Wonderware products looks very good as long as Wonderware continues to move forward as they are currently doing. This includes offering a complete solution to customers through partnering with system integrators, rather than being a product company only. Customers today are looking for solutions and do not wish to be sold individual products offering ambiguous benefits. The good outlook also assumes that Wonderware will continue to develop new products and improve the existing ones at the current pace.

Do you think that your experience in any particular market sector or vertical domain will lead you to offer a specialized "standard solution" for that market based on Wonderware products?

Dan Amsden: Several years ago, TSD developed a Facilities Monitoring System based on Wonderware’s InTouch HMI in which environmental data fed into the IndustrialSQL Server historian to be combined with batch data. TSD also developed a custom reporting tool to extract this batch process and environmental data from the historian. Customers in the life sciences industry use these applications.

Shortly describe strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Wonderware solutions in your country and region.

Dan Amsden: The strength is the platform, modules that are designed to work in the platform, and the single development environment for process control and SCADA applications. The weakness is the lack of available product in the short term. The opportunity is to find a method for users and integrators to share objects without worrying about losing their competitive edge or intellectual property (IP). The threat is other competitors who sell on being able to deliver a complete solution from one source and with eye candy instead of real functionality.

Where are your offices located?

Dan Amsden: Automation Alliance Group, LLC have offices in the following U.S. locations: Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Groton, Connecticut; West Chester, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Orlando, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Wooster, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; St. Louis, Missouri; Texarkana, Arkansas; Shreveport, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Brea, California; Napa, California; and Seattle, Washington.

We also have international offices in Dublin, Ireland; Singapore; Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, China; Taipei, Taiwan; Manila, Philippines; Bangkok, Thailand; and Malaysia.

For more information on the Automation Alliance Group, please contact:

Dan Amsden
President
Automation Alliance Group LLC
Tel.: 636-527-4031
Fax: 925-892-5013
E-mail: damsden@automationalliance.net