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Saturday, January 28, 2006 |
Schneider Electric sweetened its offer for Citect, the Australia HMI/SCADA software company. But, the bidding may not be over. Jim Pinto wrote in his last newsletter that he expects great things from Schneider's vast distribution channel to help Citect's sales grow. I take the opposite view based on past conversations with Schneider executives. I believe that Schneider is just buying top line dollars in its bid to show increased market share versus Rockwell Automation and Siemens. I do not believe that you will see any coordination or collaboration among the sales channels. Schneider will leave it alone, just as it has Elau the motion control company that specializes in packaging applications. The other model Schneider has shown in its acquisitions is with Modicon--which it decimated in favor of replacing (people and most products) with Telemecanique and Square D. Since Schneider has no software already, I think this will be standalone. Citect may benefit from additional capital behind it. Or it may suffer from intrusive management. That will depend upon the strength of Citect management. Stay tuned.
10:05:12 AM 
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Want a "hot spot", WiFi that is, in your factory or process site? ProSoft Technology has released the Hotspot Radio RLX-IH for industrial applications. The company claims a distance of 20 miles coverage for this 2.4 Ghz radio. It supports not only computing devices, but also Voice/IP, video and security cameras. Lots of uses especially for large process facilities. Even has Class 1, Div 2, Group A-D certifications.
9:47:23 AM
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I'm really bummed that I missed the National Instruments Webcast on Intelligent Maintenance with Dr. Jay Lee, director of the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems Thursday. I was in Austin visiting NI and thought I'd catch the Webcast from the airport. Got caught in a series of phone calls trying to get the February issue of Automation World organized and done. When they archive it (I'm sure they will), I'll post the link. I really like what Jay has done with the collaboration of research, government and industry. It's Watchdog Agent appears to be pretty cool, and just released in compiled C so that it can be incorporated in actual products. Anyone see it and care to comment?
9:31:58 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Gary Mintchell.
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