Invensys Operations Management Sharpens Aim
At its latest user conference, CEO Bhattacharya portrays the new Invensys division as the automation supplier best-positioned to provide solutions for today’s manufacturing challenges.
“We have set some really ambitious targets about where we want to take the manufacturing world,” declared Sudipta Bhattacharya, president and chief executive officer of Invensys Operations Management (IOM, www.iom.invensys.com), Plano, Texas, in a keynote address at the company’s OpsManage’09 user conference Nov. 3-5 in Anaheim, Calif.
The OpsManage event replaced the annual conference previously known as WonderWorld, sponsored by Wonderware—one of four units of London-based Invensys plc that were merged last May to form IOM. Other units that make up the new IOM division include Invensys Process Solutions (IPS, which includes Avantis, Foxboro, SimSci-Esscor and Triconex), along with U.K.-based Eurotherm and IMServ.
Will it stick?
Partners exhibiting on the OpsManage Expo floor expressed mixed opinions about the reorganization. “Let’s see how long they stick with this one,” said a representative at one systems integrator booth, in a reference to past uncertainties involving Invensys strategies and organizational structures. But Bhattacharya, who most recently served as president of Wonderware, portrayed the IOM reorganization as one that brings the right focus to the market at the right time.
IPS is “one of the largest and most successful automation companies,” and is strong in safety, control, and advanced optimization applications, he said, while Eurotherm is “very strong in mid-sized controllers.” When combined with Wonderware, which is strong in manufacturing software and infrastructure, and IMServ, which serves the energy monitoring space, the IOM division is well-positioned in both hardware and software to provide solutions for a new set of “macro problems” faced by process and hybrid manufacturers today, Bhattacharya said.
The IOM employee base seems to be on board with the changes. Since the reorganization, an “adversarial” relationship that existed previously between Wonderware and IPS has been replaced by a new spirit of cooperation, one Wonderware manager told Automation World...
Read more |
