I've had many conversations last night and today with people trying to understand just what Invensys has really done with its new product InFusion. I"m on the plane home from Boston and finally have some time to type.
First, InFusion is a software application that runs on a server/PC. It can be applied to a small process or scale up to an enterprise-wide multi-plant capability. It incorporates all the drivers that Wonderware has developed over many years such that it will connect to just about any hardware control platform. By the way, it's not a process control software application, but is an "enterprise control platform." And, the I/A series is still its control platform.
Why enterprise control? Its basic mission is to help managers--from plant managers to operations directors to CEOs--make decisions based on real-time facts, rather than guesses. Capitalizing on Peter Martin's multi-year, painstaking research, the application lets companies turn engineering data into financial or cost data so that operations can make decisions not just on optimizing a process, but on fine tuning process optimization with profit optimization. This is probably the true differentiating feature. The intent is a true "shop floor to top floor" application.
If you tired of "shop to top" talk, the problem has been that it is possible to make the connection today, but it's usually too expensive and hard to accomplish. Invensys says that InFusion will be easy to install and easy to use. I warned them that it had better be, or people just won't use it.
The real-time demonstration was powerful. Unfortuneately, the user who spoke at the event, even though he has carefully studied it, is still in the implementation process. They did say that it is available now.
One last caveat concerns ArchestrA. Wonderware has been running an extensive advertising campaign branding ArchestrA. That's somewhat unfortuneate because few people know what it really is. If you are in IT and I say "SOA" (service oriented architecture), and say that ArchestrA is an SOA, then you'd know. If you're not an IT geek, then for simpliciy's sake, let's say that it is a set of software services that run in the operating system that provides the foundation for all the connectivity. It supports XML and all its extended technologies. ArchestrA is the unifying principle that allows all the parts of InFusion to work together and further allows it to talk to all manner of control and sensing devices.
Invensys is investing in an entirely new type of sales support group that will be comfortable talking with "C" level executives and senior IT professionals. That is the place where this product will be sold, while the current sales force convinces engineers and operations personnel that this will also be good for them.
My take on this is that it is a bold move by Invensys that give it an opportunity to increase its presence in the overall manufacturing market and perhaps increase penetration and market share. It also lays a foundation for many more extension in the future. But, it's not a done deal. so we'll just have to see how the adoptions go.
8:25:31 PM 
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