With economic fundamentals in place in the U.S. and manufacturing surging, most companies and associations are feeling pretty optimistic about growth. The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA www.controlsys.org) is no different as they announced a new record of more than 475 attendees on Wednesday to lead off the opening remarks. The event started with positive opening remarks from Steve Goldberg, chairman, CSIA Board, emphasizing the previous year's growth in membership and how a continued focus on global growth for the association is in reach. He added the association will "up the ante in the form of marketing," in the near term with an updated web site and a bigger media relationship, expanding to 250 outlets worldwide. The opening remarks also saw PC Romano, chairman, CSIA Treasury Committee, touch on the growth theme by citing 16 percent revenue growth in 2011 for the association. Romano also cited a recent average of 19 percent annual growth in recent years for the association and said the profits in recent years help make investing in their future easier.
Jeff Miller, chairman, CSIA Best Practices Committee, announced in his presentation, titled, "Roadmap to Certification: How To Become a Certified Member," that the Best Practices manual, version 4 will be released at the end of May 2012. The best practices manual spells out the auditing process in order to become a certified system integrator by the CSIA. The manual was last updated in 2009 and Miller added that the goal of version 4 was to add clarity to the document and the auditing principles. Specifically, Millers says clarity was added to the risk management component in section 1, 5 and 7. Other sections that were updated included general management, human resources, financial management, project management and quality assurance. New to best practices, version 4, is section 9, service and support.
Going forward for current system integrator members, the next auditing process will be based on either version 3 or 4 for the next six months, ending November 30, 2012. Millers added after November 30, 2012, all audits will be based on version 4 and if you become a new member, version 4 will be used for auditing purposes." For more information on system integration auditing, visit
bit.ly/infocsia.
Other announcements included a sneak preview of the updated site design for controlsys.org by Jeanne Rosen, design and communications, CSIA. The upcoming site offered a clean design and navigation to find system integrators, either by industry verticals or applications. Jeanne added the idea for the updated site was to divide it into two tracks for different audiences: clients and system integrators (members). The association estimates the new site launch to be in the next few weeks.
The keynote for the conference was
Alan Beaulieu, president,
Institute for Trend Research (www.itreconomics.com), and he reiterated to the audience that the economy is growing--not in a recession. He cited GDP to be at 4.3% for 2012 and he says the U.S. manufacturing base is picking up speed and that manufacturers should plan on being busy through 2014. He cited leading industry indicators: rising employment, liquidity being a non-issue, exports, stimulative monetary policy and retail sales as reasons why the economy for 2012 and 2013 should be quite strong. The Institute for Trend Research does forecast a mild recession for 2014 and 2015.
>> Twitter Stream from the Control System Integrator Association annual event, April 25-27, annual conference:
> Paul Cherry: Get complete understanding of clients' needs. Instead of 5w's and h, start with "describe your decision process." @CSIA Tweet.
> Check out Craig Eidson's presentation on building business in Renewables and Alternative Energy today at #CSIA2012. @OptimationUS.
> Roadmap to Certification: Find your way to success! #CSIA2012 See Member Resources for Managing Your Business library on Connected Community. @CSIAtweet.
> @ITROutlook is saying N.A. #mfg is STRONG Invest in leadership training & automation, 6yrs of opportunity ahead of us! #goodnews #CSIA2012. @spwilsonQQ
> Jeff Miller (Chair, Best Practices) presenting on the mods to v4 of the Best Practices & Benchmarks #CSIA2012. @LVanPageeJMP
