Thursday, July 27, 2006

Interview with Citect's John Ross I had an interview with John Ross the new CEO of Citect last night. For those who don't remember, last winter Citect (a public company) was the subject of a bidding war between Schneider Electric and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners an investment firm that has invested in other manufacturing software companies. Schneider won, and Ross led the charge. Now, he's got to make it work. He is certainly excited about the potential Citect has for growth. With Schneider's capital and marketing organization behind it, Ross feels that Citect is ready to break out. He has his eye on becoming number 3 in SCADA in the near term. (He declined to say who is 1 and 2--smart guy). A plan is in place, but under review since his coming, to push the company's MES platform, named Ampla. A performance management product is in beta testing. Ross says to watch for a lot of product announcements over the coming months. With Rockwell Automation, GE Fanuc Automation and Siemens investing in the MES and performance management spaces along with Invensys investing internally in both Foxboro and Wonderware, and all the process systems companies that tend to stay within process (such as ABB, Emerson, Honeywell and Yokogawa), the software business could get to be very interesting. I am not willing to count Schneider/Citect out. I did ask Ross point blank about what I consider Schneider's spotty acquisition record. I guess I still remember the Modicon acquisition fiasco that led to the end of Modicon and a lot of automation representation in the field. In fact, the only person within Schneider who still talks (to me at least) about automation is a loyal reader of this blog. Attempts to set up meetings in Palatine have failed. (I did interview Nic Gihl when he was the VP in charge of automation, and he was shuttled aside shortly after never to be heard from again. Maybe his successors link me to the situation? I hope not.) Ross, though, pointed to the acquisition of computer and display manufacturer Digital in Japan. The company was known as Proface America and now Xycom in the US. That company has been left to operate independently and has grown significantly, according to Ross. So, maybe Schneider is learning as it goes. I hope so. 3:13:11 PM    comment []

Public speaking I just read and saw this great teaching on speaking. The blog is from Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist and first silicon valley "technical evangelist." I go to enough conferences to know that many people would profit from this ;-) 10:30:14 AM    comment []