Supporting Europe’s Digital Product Passport vision.

Open, interoperable standards for scalable and trusted data exchange.

A Liaison Agreement with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) has been announced by The OPC Foundation. This marks an important step forward in the standardisation of Digital Product Passport (DPP) solutions in Europe.*

Through this liaison, the OPC Foundation will actively contribute to the work of CEN/CENELEC JTC 24 – Digital Product Passport – Framework and System, providing technical expertise and input through direct participation in the relevant working groups. The cooperation focuses on aligning data modeling technologies and fostering interoperable, system-agnostic and open-source DPP solutions that scale seamlessly from embedded devices to cloud and enterprise environments.

The collaboration supports the development of interoperable DPP solutions that ensure trusted, semantic rich data exchange, regulatory compliance, and scalable deployments across sector-specific data spaces. By combining the European standardisation framework with OPC UA’s proven interoperability technologies, the liaison contributes to a harmonised and future-proof approach to Digital Product Passports.

Although OPC UA is widely known for secure information transport in automation, its true strength lies in its rich, semantic information modeling capabilities. Through the liaison with CEN/CENELEC JTC 24, OPC UA will be used and extended with standardised Digital Product Passport data models and interfaces, supporting system-agnostic and interoperable DPP implementations.

Commenting on the cooperation, Bmstr. Ing. Otto Handle, Convenor of CEN/CENELEC/JTC 24 WG4 – Digital Product Passport – Interoperability, stated: “One aim of the standardisation work of JTC 24 is interoperability beyond all system borders. The standardisation request of the European Commission clearly states that the DPP shall be system agnostic and vendor independent. Integration and Interoperability with the full DPP system shall be possible for any software and any system according to these standards. Therefore, we highly appreciate and welcome OPC Foundation in the Liaison and look forward to the modelling of DPPs with OPC UA and integration of the specified JTC24 API and data models, as well as shop floor integration with OPC UA-enabled embedded systems as DPP data sources.”

Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft, liaison officer for the OPC Foundation “This liaison ensures that Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are built on truly open, standardised, and interoperable foundations. By contributing the very successful OPC UA modelling capabilities to DPPs, including an open-source reference implementation, we help enable seamless integration of DPP data across vendors, platforms, and system layers. What is remarkable is the timeline in which this was possible: From initial concepts to finished implementation, the OPC Foundation only took 2 weeks.”

The Liaison Agreement is established for an unlimited period, contingent on the OPC Foundation’s continued participation in the work of JTC 24. It reflects a shared ambition to advance open, interoperable, and internationally aligned standards that support the European Union’s digital transformation and sustainability goals.

By working together, CEN, CENELEC, and the OPC Foundation reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that Digital Product Passports are built on robust, open standards — enabling innovation, interoperability, and long-term value across industries.

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* CEN strengthens Digital Product Passport standardisation through cooperation with the OPC Foundation  (CEN-CENELEC)

@OPCFoundation  @Standards4EU #PAuto #Europe

Generative AI to boost productivity, efficiency and sustainability.

Solution processes real-time data from multiple sources, providing instant alerts, predictions and recommendations for improvement through an intuitive user interface.

Building on its long-standing collaboration with Microsoft, ABB has launched ABB Ability™ Genix Copilot, a generative AI solution that helps energy, utilities and other industries improve efficiency, productivity, and sustainability by contextualising vast amounts of data and providing actionable insights in an intuitive manner.

Genix Copilot utilizes large language models such as GPT-4, customized for industrial use cases. Unlike traditional natural language processing that works primarily with text, Genix Copilot uses real-world data from the production environment, providing insights that can be immediately implemented to improve industrial operations.

ABB estimates that by embedding Genix Copilot capabilities into its industrial digital solutions, customers can achieve significant cost savings in operations and maintenance, boost production efficiency, and drive improvements in sustainability metrics such as optimised energy use and reduced emissions.

“At ABB, digitalisation and AI are at the core of delivering more value to our customers, with a substantial part of our R&D workforce dedicated to digital, AI and software. Collaboration of ABB and Microsoft on generative AI is an important step in driving innovation and shaping the future of industry, helping our customers outrun – leaner and cleaner,” said Peter Terwiesch, President, ABB Process Automation. “With Genix Copilot, we can bring a new era of user experience, collaboration and consumerisation of real-time actionable insights across roles. By embedding Genix Copilot capabilities in our Genix solutions, we’re empowering customers to make faster, data-driven decisions that help them improve productivity, efficiency and sustainability.”

“Working with ABB, we’re truly pushing the boundaries of what generative AI can do for industry. Genix Copilot has the potential to transform industrial operations, offering customers a practical, easy-to-use tool that enhances efficiency, productivity and sustainability,” said Sonja Meindl, Enterprise Commercial Director, Microsoft Switzerland. Genix Copilot architecture is designed to handle and process data from multiple sources, including shop floor operations, operator conversations, enterprise systems, unstructured data and metadata, to deliver comprehensive insights with natural language support.

The intuitive conversational interface allows users to inquire about various operational parameters, such as asset health, performance, fault analysis and more, receiving clear and concise responses. For example, a maintenance manager can request a summary of the day’s events for their plant, including insights on critical assets that may require attention, root cause analysis as well as the status of the work orders.

Genix Copilot provides a role-based user experience, offering real-time actionable insights to various functions across an industrial organisation – from executives in the boardroom to specialists analyzing performance metrics, and engineers troubleshooting equipment. With a strong emphasis on safeguarding data, the solution enables capturing an operator’s knowledge and facilitates collaborative decision-making across roles.

Three use cases already seeing early adoption:

• Genix Asset Performance Management Copilot delivers an intuitive user experience for maintenance teams in asset-intensive industries, providing real-time insights in natural language, summarising key events, as well as delivering contextual analytics and actionable recommendations. With predictive maintenance insights, it helps to improve asset performance and minimise downtime.
• Genix My Measurement Assistant Copilot streamlines troubleshooting and maintenance for industrial devices by leveraging AI to quickly access relevant documentation, error codes and spare part details.
• Genix Sustainability Insights Copilot supports industries in monitoring and enhancing sustainability efforts by providing actionable insights on energy consumption and emission management.

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 @ABBgroupnews @ABBMeasurement @abb_automation  @admiralpr #PAuto #AI

Connecting industry to the metaverse.

The OPC Foundation has announced the completion and publication of its Metaverse work. After needs for a standardized Metaverse solution being raised by Dr. Holger Kenn, Microsoft, in October 2022 the Board of Directors of the OPC Foundation decided to establish a Working Group to ensure OPC UA is well suited for the Metaverse use-cases.

In less than one year the group, chaired by Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft, finished its work and published the results. The groups quick success was enabled by OPC UA already providing standardized solutions to the important requirements like information modelling, information exchange, cloud connectivity and asset identification.

With this base being available to the working group the main task became bringing the necessary pieces together to provide solutions for the use cases:

• Remote or on-premises condition monitoring using augmented and virtual reality technology
• Remote assisted maintenance of machinery carried out by local workers with the assistance of remote experts.
• Production processes training in safe, simulated environments for real-world tasks in hazardous environments
• Manufacturing logistics planning and execution using head-up display technology for drivers of transport systems.

The code for those solutions has been open-sourced and published on the OPC Foundation GitHub repositories for the industry to get a quick success when establishing their Metaverse concepts and products:

• Condition monitoring sample application built on Unity 
• OPC Foundation UA Sample Client application capable of running on HoloLens for remote assisted maintenance 

The YouTube channel of the OPC Foundation also provides an instructive recording detailing the standardized solutions for public access.

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@OPCFoundation #PAuto #Communications

Partnering for the next AIoT.

The Industrial IoT World Partner Conference hosted recently by Advantech had as a theme "Partnering for the Next AIoT" and launched a two-day series of forums and a new product showcase. Based on its recent sector-driven strategy, the conference emphasizes two core product development directions: Industrial Edge Computing for AIoT Acceleration and Industrial Automation Devices & Solutions. It also focuses on four vertical market applications: Smart Factory, Smart Equipment, Green Energy, and Intelligent Transportation. The conference also highlighted two major technology applications: Accelerated Computing and Video, as well as Software-Defined Network & OT Security.

Linda Tsai, President of Industrial IoT Group of Advantech stated, “Advantech is fortunate to be in the AIoT era. As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we seek to co-create with partners in 'AIoT + Edge Computing' to explore new business opportunities, building upon our respected reputation as a leading brand in the IPC industry.”

Linda emphasized that Advantech recognizes the significant trends within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) field, such as Industrial AI, Secured Edge, Edge as Services, and AIoT Digital Solutions. She stated, "We are firmly committed to sustainability and ESG principles. As a result, we are actively developing sustainable solutions that address the AIoT megatrends. Our primary objective is to enable our customers to harness the power of these trends to enhance their operations and meet the unique needs of various industries. Our solutions are meticulously designed to tackle sector-specific challenges."

The main forum of this conference particularly emphasized co-creation and sustainability. Dr. Deepu Talla, Vice President and General Manager of NVIDIA Embedded and Edge Computing, was invited to share his thoughts about, “Digitalizing the World’s Largest Industries with Edge AI and Robotics.” Cathy Yeh, Principal Group PM Manager at Industry Solution Engineering, Microsoft, also shared her observations about, “Accelerating Innovation with AI and the Industrial Metaverse.”

In addition, the forum focuses on the four major vertical market applications: Smart Factory, Smart Equipment, Green Energy, and Intelligent Transportation. Furthermore, the conference highlights two major technology applications: Accelerated Computing and Video, and Software-Defined Network & OT Security. A series of industry forums based on these topics were launched to share business strategies and cutting-edge technologies among world partners.

The 2023 Advantech Industrial IoT World Partner Conference provided a platform to showcase Advantech's latest developments and strategies in the field of industrial IoT and was also a valuable opportunity to bring together industry experts from all over the world to discuss future industry development trends and market opportunities. The company actively leads industrial IoT innovation, continue to provide customers with more value, and vigorously promote the development of a new generation of AIoT.

This conference included not only the main platform and industry-focused forums but also paid special attention to technology trend forums such as Edge AI, Secured Edge, Edge as a Service, and the industrial IoT cloud platform WISE IoT Digital Solution. In addition, a series of brand-new products were highlighted, and additional activities, such as cultural events, were also be provided.

The conference attracted more than 600 Advantech customers and partners from 60 countries around the world. It also coincides with Advantech's 40th anniversary and the completion of its AIoT Co-Creation Campus. Advantech hopes to take this opportunity to explore and grasp the latest AIoT trends and business opportunities with its partners, while adhering to the principle of sustainable development to realize Advantech's vision of Enabling an Intelligent Planet.

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@AdvantechIA @Advantech_IIoT @proactivefleet #IIoT #Communications #PAuto

Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager.

New solution enables sustainability teams to leverage advanced analytics to accelerate organizational efforts to record, report and reduce emissions.

The Seeq Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager^* has been announced by the company. The solution enables sustainability teams to extend the power of Microsoft Sustainability Manager, a Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solution, to integrate time series process data preparation, analysis, and continuous improvement, reducing the environmental impact of process industry operations.

Analyzing time series data from equipment sensors is critical for measuring sustainability impact at process manufacturing companies. Microsoft Sustainability Manager enables these organizations to unify their data to record, report and reduce their environmental impact. By leveraging the new Seeq Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager, these organizations can extend this experience by radically decreasing data connectivity, preparation, and analytics efforts.

With the solution, the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability data model is incorporated into the Seeq workflow for consistency of emissions data. Process experts leverage Seeq’s live data connectivity and auditable data cleansing and contextualization capabilities to enrich their time series emissions data, reducing manual data preparation time by up to 80 percent. Sustainability teams can seamlessly access this contextualized data within Microsoft Sustainability Manager to track direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) emissions for reports and to set and track accurate emissions reduction goals.

“As a Microsoft Partner, Seeq is committed to help our shared customers navigate their infrastructure and data challenges to achieve measurable sustainability gains,” says Megan Buntain, VP of Cloud Transformation at Seeq. “The Seeq Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager is the latest of our solutions built on the Seeq platform to make time series data insights available to all stakeholders for improved outcomes in process manufacturing.”

In addition to providing access to the operational data for the corporate sustainability teams, Seeq solution empowers subject matter experts to identify root causes of issues and opportunities for optimization on an asset operations level. These insights provide continuous-improvement feedback as reports and system-wide emissions views are assembled and utilized by corporate teams in Microsoft Sustainability Manager. Real-time collaboration capabilities within Seeq enable asset operations teams to streamline communications with the broader organization, improving cross-functional awareness and emissions management.

"Seeq adds value to our mutual customers by integrating their solutions with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability,” says Dominik Wee, CVP, Manufacturing and Mobility Industry, Microsoft. “The Seeq Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager addresses a variety of pain points related to emissions' data availability recording, reporting and reduction and enables customers to accelerate the success of their sustainability initiatives.”

Seeq has been available as a SaaS application in the Azure Marketplace since 2019, with support for many Azure cloud services including Synapse, Azure Data Lake, and Active Directory. Seeq also supports connectivity to Azure Data Explorer, Time Series Insights, and Power BI.

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^* Within the Microsoft stand at Hannover Messe in Hall 17 Stand G06  (April 17-21), the Seeq team are showcasing the Seeq Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager and demonstrate how process manufacturers can leverage Seeq in the Microsoft Cloud to uncover insights to achieve sustainability and reliability goals.

@SeeqCorporation @MSCloud #PAuto #Cloud

Measuring sustainability or re-imagining imaging.

Winners announced from record number of startups worked to a high standard focusing on either Measuring Sustainability or Re-imagining Imaging. 

The winners in this year’s ABB Analytical Measurement Startup Challenge have been announced at an awards ceremony in Ottar, Sweden where 14 finalists from five continents pitched their digital innovations in the fields of measurement and imaging to a panel of judges.

The winner in the Measure Sustainability category was Global Sustainable Enterprise System (GSES), while Unleash Live took the crown in the Re-imagine Imaging category. Each will be awarded a collaboration project with ABB Measurement worth $30,000, with the goal of fast-tracking their solution and launching them to customers through the ABB Ability Marketplace^* in over 100 countries within the year. Winners will also receive mentoring support from SynerLeap (ABB’s startups accelerator) and Microsoft’s startup advisors.

“We had high hopes for this year’s Challenge having selected some high calibre candidates, and we weren’t disappointed.” said Jean-René Roy, Global Business Line Manager, ABB Measurement and Analytics. “We were impressed by the innovative ideas the Challenge yielded. The winning solutions offer interesting potential in improving the sustainability, productivity and performance of our customers’ operations. We look forward to working hand-in-hand with GSES and Unleashed live to bring these game changing ideas to market.”

Giovanna Dughera, Community Manager of Microsoft for Startups Switzerland, explains: “Every year, we are excited to see how the competing startups respond to the Challenges set by ABB. Innovation is at the heart of solving customer issues, and the fact that the ideas shared by GSES and Unleash live are highly innovative yet grounded in the real world makes them a perfect fit for the ABB portfolio of digital solutions.”

The finale came at the end of an intensive 10-day development process, which ran from 2nd-12th December, during which finalists worked with expert mentors from ABB, Microsoft Switzerland and SynerLeap to fine-tune their innovations.

The Challenges and Winners.
Measure Sustainability.
The aim of this challenge was to drive the next level of insights from emission monitoring systems, providing ABB’s customers with more holistic, value-added information on their sustainability footprint. 

Global Sustainable Energy Systems (GSES), the winner in this category, was founded in The Netherlands in 2019. ABB is looking forward to working with the 14-strong GSES team over the next few months to further refine and develop its innovative approach to measuring, verifying and rating the sustainability performance of products and organisations.

Re-imagine Imaging.
The second challenge was about using digital imaging to complement ABB’s analyzer portfolio, providing customers with deeper insights, and improving safety, productivity and sustainability. 

The winner in this category is Unleash live, which was founded in Australia in 2016 and now has 28 employees. ABB is excited by the potential for Unleash live’s video analytics innovation to drive down costs, improve productivity, accuracy and safety for its clients.

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^* The ABB Ability Marketplace™ is a unified subscriber portal where customers can discover, subscribe, manage, and scale across ABB's ecosystem of SaaS services.

@ABBgroupnews @ABBMeasurement @abb_automation @unleashlive #GSES

Smart manufacturing move.

CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute™ has added Microsoft to their ranks of partners and members. "Interoperability and innovation that can scale are essential for a more competitive and resilient manufacturing environment, and it’s a pleasure to welcome market leaders that embody these values to our Smart Manufacturing (SM) ecosystem. A relentless focus on these values is essential to achieving CESMII’s vision to accelerate the democratization of Smart Manufacturing."

Microsoft brings their thought leadership, standards advocacy and enabling technologies to our members and our SM Innovation Centers™ and will engage with other industry leaders to participate in their Standing Committees, adding their insights to the Technology, Business Practices, and Education and Workforce Development efforts driving this ecosystem forward.

“This is a pivotal time for CESMII,” states John Dyck, CEO of CESMII. “We are making great progress on many fronts, addressing the real challenges preventing manufacturers from accelerating their Smart Manufacturing and digital transformation initiatives. Our focus on enabling manufacturing system interoperability will have a dramatic impact on our energy productivity, sustainability, and competitiveness as a nation. A big part of that is defining and enabling the adoption of industry standards that will significantly reduce the cost and complexity of deploying Smart Manufacturing solutions. We’re pleased to see Microsoft take this step with us, advocating for standards, for interoperability, and creating a community of thought leaders that can truly transform this industry.”

“We strongly believe in standards, as exhibited by our work with CESMII on key OPC Foundation initiatives, and we appreciate that CESMII is addressing some of the great challenges preventing the adoption of digital transformation at scale,” says Sam George, corporate vice president of Azure IoT at Microsoft. “The focus on interoperability, openness, and the crowd-sourcing of information models for manufacturing assets is an essential accelerator for our mutual vision to accelerate the democratization of Smart Manufacturing,” continues George. “We’re pleased to engage with CESMII and their ecosystem as an enabling force in this industry, working broadly to bring real transformation to this industry.”

• Plattform Industrie 4.0 and CESMII announced their partnership to address similar challenges and needs related to Industrie 4.0 / Smart Manufacturing earlier this month: Industrie 4.0 and CESMII (14/4/2021)

@CESMII_SM @Azure @plattform_i40 #PAuto #Smart

Combating the hackers.

Seeq has announced that it is co-sponsoring the Microsoft Energy Core Methane Emissions Hackathon virtual event on March 1-8, 2021. The objective of the hackathon is to overlay oil & gas asset and geographic information system data to pinpoint leak location, and to identify the timing and quantify of unplanned emissions.

“Our energy industry customers are improving sustainability and production outcomes with Seeq to create advanced analytics insights on their process manufacturing data,” notes Steve Sliwa, co-founder and CEO, Seeq Corporation. “This Hackathon represents an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the importance of self-service analytics to improve employee insights and innovation."

Microsoft Energy Core Hackathon participants are from energy operators and academic institutions around the world, and they will use Seeq to diagnose and predict methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Participating teams will compete to present final use cases to the Microsoft Energy Core board of directors to share for the establishment of sustainability best practices for the oil & gas and process industries.

Microsoft Energy Core is a global initiative dedicated to digital transformation in the energy sector. Building on AI and cloud-based technologies, Microsoft Energy Core supports organizations developing innovative solutions to improve operational efficiencies, enhance sustainability, increase energy innovation, and drive workforce transformation.

“We are pleased to partner with Seeq, a finalist for the 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year, on this effort to learn and share insights on GHG analytics” says Darryl Willis, Vice President, Energy, at Microsoft Corporation. “Our partners deliver timely solutions to solve the complex challenges energy businesses around the world face, from communicating and collaborating virtually, to helping customers realize their full potential with Azure cloud services, and beyond.”

Also this week, Seeq will participate in the Upstream Leadership Summit at CERAWeek by IHS Markit, the world's premier energy conference. Seeq was a CERA Week Energy Innovation Pioneer in 2016, a designation recognizing companies and entrepreneurs participating in the event to develop technologies and business plans for transforming the energy future. The Upstream Leadership Summit is an invitation-only event for industry CEOs to gather and discuss key issues including innovation, sustainability, and best practices.

Seeq has been available as a SaaS application in the Azure Marketplace since 2018 with support for many Azure cloud services including Synapse, Azure Data Lake, and Azure Notebooks for machine learning integration, in addition to on premise support for Windows Server, Active Directory, and SQL Server. Seeq is now adding connectivity to Azure Data Explorer, the latest release of Time Series Insights, and Power Automate.

@SeeqCorporation @CERAWeek @Microsoft #PAuto #Power #Energy #CyberSecurity

Recognised for energy award.

Seeq Corporation has been named a finalist for the Energy 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“We are very pleased to be awarded this distinction in recognition of our work with Microsoft in serving the digital transformation needs of energy customers,” says Megan Buntain, Director of Cloud Partnerships at Seeq. “Our success is a credit to our team’s investments in integration with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and other Microsoft cloud offerings.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. Awards were classified in several categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,300 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Seeq was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Energy.

The Energy Partner of the Year Award recognizes a partner organization that excels at providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies to energy companies – which include oil & gas, power & utilities, mining and renewables– demonstrating thought leadership in their industry.

“It is an honor to recognize the winner and finalists of the 2020 Energy Microsoft Partner of the Year Award,” said Darryl Willis, Vice President, Energy, Microsoft. “These partners go above and beyond, delivering timely solutions that solve the complex challenges that energy businesses around the world face – from communicating and collaborating virtually to helping customers realize their full potential with Azure cloud services, and beyond. I am proud to honor and congratulate the Energy Award winner and finalists.”

@SeeqCorporation @msuspartner #PAuto 

Excellence in energy innovation & implementation acknowledged.

Seeq Corporation has been named a finalist for the Energy 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award. The company was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“We are very pleased to be awarded this distinction in recognition of our work with Microsoft in serving the digital transformation needs of energy customers,” says Megan Buntain, Director of Cloud Partnerships at Seeq. “Our success is a credit to our team’s investments in integration with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and other Microsoft cloud offerings.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. Awards were classified in several categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,300 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Seeq was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Energy.

The Energy Partner of the Year Award recognizes a partner organization that excels at providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies to energy companies – which include oil & gas, power & utilities, mining and renewables– demonstrating thought leadership in their industry.

“It is an honor to recognize the winner and finalists of the 2020 Energy Microsoft Partner of the Year Award,” said Darryl Willis, Vice President, Energy, Microsoft. “These partners go above and beyond, delivering timely solutions that solve the complex challenges that energy businesses around the world face – from communicating and collaborating virtually to helping customers realize their full potential with Azure cloud services, and beyond. I am proud to honor and congratulate the Energy Award winner and finalists.”

 @SeeqCorporation @msuspartner #PAuto #Energy

Availability of cloud-based advanced analytics applications.

The advanced analytics solutions from Seeq Corporation is delivered via software as a service (SaaS) on Microsoft Azure. Seeq enables engineers and scientists in process manufacturing organizations to rapidly analyze, predict, collaborate, and share insights to improve production outcomes. Customers include companies in the oil & gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, mining, food and beverage, and other process industries.

“The move to cloud platforms for advanced analytics on large manufacturing data sets is clearly underway and will only accelerate,” says Michael Risse, Vice President and CMO at Seeq Corporation. “Our goal is to ensure our customers have the advantages of Seeq insights on their cloud platform of choice.”

Seeq is already run by customers on Azure and includes support for Azure-specific features such as Azure Directory Service. Seeq will now offer its software as a SaaS application on Azure to address customer interest in cloud-based analytics solutions. Shell, headquartered in The Hague, (NL), is an example. Shell will be providing cloud-based access to Seeq for its process engineers and experts working with OSIsoft PI data.

"Easy cloud-based access to Seeq by our engineers will enable faster insights and reporting on our key real-time data," comments Johan Krebbers, IT CTO of Shell. "Our ability to tap advanced analytics offerings for predictive and root cause analysis of assets and process outcomes delivers on our commitment to continuously improve execution results."

“Seeq’s focus on driving advanced analytics innovation in process manufacturing organizations makes it an ideal addition to the Azure ecosystem,” says Julia White, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure. “As Microsoft enables digital transformation initiatives in process manufacturing and IIoT customers, we are excited for the insights Seeq will deliver.”

Recent releases of Seeq have focused on enabling larger deployments through scalability features, and making the Seeq applications easier to use. R20 features, released this summer, include the ability to have live updates to Seeq Topics, which publish insights from Seeq to other users; expanded machine learning functionality for customers doing predictive analytics with Seeq; and an improved query model for customers accessing contextual data from SQL-based data sources to provide faster connections to big data sources.

"Seeq continues to release compelling analytics solutions for customers in process manufacturing and Industry 4.0 engagements," says Janice Abel, Principal Analyst at ARC Advisory Group. "The need for faster and better insights is a consistent requirement for customers investing in IIoT and Smart Manufacturing."

@SeeqCorporation #PAuto @Azure

A smart collaboration.

Copa-Data is inviting plant managers and engineers to register for its upcoming webinar ‘Smart Factory solutions with Copa-Data and Microsoft Azure’. The webinar, created in collaboration with Microsoft, will be held on 7 December 2017 at 10am. Participants are invited to register for the free smart factory webinar in advance via the COPA-DATA website.

zenon, their industrial automation software, provides seamless integration with Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. In fact, the company was named 2017 Microsoft Partner of the Year in the ’Internet of Things’ category. The webinar will be hosted by Lee Sullivan, Regional Manager at Copa-Data UK and expert in zenon implementation. Sullivan will discuss how ambitions of a smart factory can be made a reality by combining zenon and Microsoft Azure.

The webinar is recommended for existing zenon customers, plant managers and engineers curious about the potential of the software for smart factory implementation. It will explain how manufacturing intelligence, such as predictive analytics and preventative maintenance, can be easily achieved with the collaboration of these two systems.

“Storing manufacturing data in the cloud allows organisations to access their information anywhere at any time — which means that they don’t need to eat away at their own infrastructure,” explained Lee Sullivan. “That said, the integration of Azure and zenon can provide a greater benefit than simply saving on-premises storage.

“In the webinar on December 7, we will demonstrate how effective supply chain management, global benchmarking and real-time key performance indicator (KPI) calculations can be put into practice using the combination of this technology.”

• Copa-Data has been an active member of the Microsoft Partner Network since 2005. Its software, zenon, is based on Microsoft’s latest technology, so data collected by the system can be easily integrated into the Azure cloud platform.

@copadata  #PAuto @Azure

Co-operation to help business integrate into IIoT.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation is to work with Microsoft Corporation, FogHorn Systems, Inc., Bayshore Networks, Inc., and Telit IoT Platforms, LLC to integrate their technology into an industrial IoT (IIoT) architecture for the delivery of new services. With this architecture, the company aims to transform its business model, expand its business scope, and help its customers run their businesses more efficiently.

Regarding this business tie-up, Tsuyoshi Abe, a Yokogawa vice president and head of the Marketing Headquarters made the following comments: “Yokogawa has drawn up a long-term business framework and formulated a vision statement that reads, ‘Through Process Co-Innovation, Yokogawa creates new value with our clients for a brighter future.’ The IIoT architecture that Yokogawa will develop under this agreement will revolutionize the way in which value is delivered in sensing and plant information management. By working with these four companies, Yokogawa will rapidly establish its IIoT architecture. Under the corporate brand slogan of ‘Co-innovating tomorrow,’ we will seek to expand partnerships such as these with leaders in each industry.”

Outline of the Tie-up
IIoT technology is now ready for practical use thanks to advances in network technology, the availability of low-cost, large-capacity data communications, and the shifting of corporate information systems to the cloud. However, the use of IIoT technology presents many technical challenges in such areas as sensing, automation, and security, and it is also costly to build such systems and develop the necessary applications. With its wide range of expertise in fields ranging from sensor technology to control logic and applications technology, Yokogawa will be able to help its customers address issues they face in their business by providing end-to-end solutions that incorporate sensing, control, and cloud-based processing.

Through this architecture, business process applications can be configured that enable plug-and-play sensors, sensing clouds with automatic provisioning , database clouds, historian (data storage) clouds, and application development environments to work together. These four companies each possess technologies that will be key components of this IIoT architecture.

This undertaking will be led by the Architecture Development Division California, which was set up in November 2016. Yokogawa’s IIoT architecture will integrate the cloud-based Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, FogHorn’s fog computing software, Bayshore’s security technology for layer 7 of the OSI reference model , and Telit’s communication modules, sensor onboarding, and device management.

@YokogawaIA  #PAuto #IoT

Microsoft honours industrial software developer.

COPA-DATA, took away not just one, but two awards at this year's Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Toronto (CDN). The solutions for Smart City with the zenon software won the worldwide Microsoft Partner award in the ‘Public Sector: Microsoft CityNext’ category. As a founding member of the isv4industry software alliance, the Salzburg-based company also reached first place as ‘Microsoft Partner of the Year’ in Austria.

Gavriella Schuster with Philip Werr

Microsoft's top partners are honoured annually at the WPC. This year, the international expert jury assessed over 2,500 nominations from 119 countries. The finalists and winners were revealed in Toronto, Canada.

Last year, COPA-DATA received the ‘ISV Partner of the Year’ award from Microsoft Austria. This year the company was honoured amongst the top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementing customer solutions based on Microsoft technology across the Globe.

COPA-DATA is the first company from Austria to receive a worldwide Microsoft Partner Award. With the progressive award from the ‘Public Sector: Microsoft CityNext’ category, the international jury acknowledged the capabilities that zenon can offer in collaboration with the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform.

“This is an outstanding award that represents our efforts with zenon for ever-improving technologies and innovation focusing on the Smart Cities and smart infrastructures of tomorrow,” explained Phillip Werr, COPA-DATA Marketing Manager.

“We are honoured to recognise COPA-DATA as this year’s winner of the 2016 Microsoft Partner of the Year award in the Public Sector: Microsoft CityNext category,” said Gavriella Schuster, General Manager, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. “COPA-DATA is a prime example of the excellent talent we see in our Microsoft partner community to deliver innovative and transformative solutions to our mutual customers. ” Basis for winning the award is the comprehensive IoT solution for the Slovenian renewables producer Gorenjske Elektrarne. This project used an innovative solution that combines the possibilities of the zenon Product Family with Microsoft’s cloud services.

Gorenjske Elektrarne is a subsidiary of Elektro Gorenjska, one of Slovenia’s leading energy utility companies. It specialises in the development of power from renewable sources, including solar and hydroelectric power. For the last ten years Gorenjske Elektrarne has counted on zenon for its local control and monitoring system. Furthermore, zenon was established as a SCADA system for decentralised monitoring of a total of 23 photovoltaic plants, 15 hydroelectric power plants and three combined cycle plants across Slovenia. Combined cycle plants use gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50 per cent more electricity from the same fuel as a traditional single cycle plant.

The isv4industry alliance, founded in 2015, was awarded the Microsoft Partner of the Year award for Austria in its first year of existence. COPA-DATA is a founding member together with augmensys, icomedias and PROLOGICS. isv4industry aims to show industrial corporations the concrete value of the newest technological developments in existing infrastructures.

“As successful and sophisticated as the individual technologies may be, it is clear to all collaboration members that only together we can offer our customers comprehensive and lucrative solutions for the Smart Factory in context of Industry 4.0,” explains Johannes Petrowisch, COPA-DATA Global Partner & Business Development Manager, on the success of the project initiated by the four software companies.

@copadata  #Pauto #msPartner @msPartner

Automation company wins ISV partner award from Microsoft.

Microsoft Austria has awarded the internationally operating software manufacturer Copa-Data first place in the partner category Independent Software Vendor (ISV). Microsoft is thereby acknowledging Copa-Data's outstanding software solutions. In the course of this year's Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Orlando, (FL USA), Microsoft Austria General Manager, Dorothee Ritz, handed over the prize to Copa-Data representatives Phillip Werr and Johannes Petrowisch.

Copa -Data's Johannes Petrowisch

The industry, as well as the public sector, are experiencing a flourish in digitalisation. Increasingly important in this context are storage, provision and subsequent processing of data in cloud applications. This establishes new business domains, strengthens companies' competitiveness and innovation capacity, contributes to more intelligent handling of valuable resources and reduces costs. As a long-standing and twofold Gold competence Partner of Microsoft (Application Development and Intelligent Systems), the company relies on the extensive cloud solutions with Microsoft Azure.

 “In the coming years the entire cloud market will see an enormous potential for innovation and growth," explains Jürgen Mayrbäurl, Business Evangelist Azure & Business Manager at Microsoft Austria. "In COPA-DATA we see a highly innovative partner at our side, who is creating a strong bridge between Microsoft Azure and industrial automation as well as digitalisation. This offers great opportunities such as intelligent improvement of production processes.”

The automation software, zenon, created by COPA-DATA in Austria, links data from the sensor level right to the cloud and to mobile devices. Over 300 drivers in zenon ensure connectivity and communication between diverse machines and devices and thereby achieve hardware independence and flexibility. These are core elements for a digital future in automation when considering the Smart Factory of Industry 4.0, Smart City and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“The close partnership with Microsoft is very valuable for us. We are already working on numerous projects with Microsoft Azure," explained Johannes Petrowisch, Copa-Data Partner Account Manager. "It is an honour for us to receive the ISV Partner award. It inspires us to continue developing and introducing innovative solutions to the market for our customers, based on the newest Azure Services with zenon”.

Vertical integration of production plants & ERP systems for consistent Industrie 4.0 infrastructures.

A close collaboration has begun between COPA-DATA and COSMO CONSULT, the leading pan-European Microsoft Partner for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The goal of this partnership is to offer customers a simple and secure real-time connection of the process level with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and thereby create a seamless information flow between the ERP level and the production environment.

In many industrial firms there is still a gap between the planning and administrative level and the production control level. Valuable information such as process and production data are often fragmented or only partially exchanged. Only a complete integration of the two worlds – ERP and process level – can offer a continuous and consistent information exchange between production, planning and control, thereby allowing for well-thought-out planning and a sophisticated corporate structure.

More consistent, transparent information flow
Using zenon software, companies can achieve a simple and secure real-time connection of the process level with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Information from production can be quickly processed at an administrative level and the requirements of the ERP system are implemented directly at the process level.

Flexible interface connects system environments
The Microsoft Dynamics Connector sends data on relevant processes to the ERP level via a bidirectional interface, while simultaneously receiving control instructions. Companies can hereby directly connect their process level with the ERP level and receive a complete information overview. Production data and events are available in real-time and allow quick intervention. This enables optimal staff and material investment, because production data is immediately available. The Microsoft Dynamics Connector can be implemented as an independent tool or in interplay with zenon as an HMI/SCADA system for the visualisation and control of industrial processes.

"We would like to achieve the highest level of integration of all business processes for our customers. To reach maximum transparency over all processes and corporate areas we need a smooth data exchange across all production and logistic zones – whether it is to identify an order in a production process or to examine current key performance indicators. With COPA-DATA we are able to offer this to our customers and interested parties," explains Gerrit Schiller, Executive Vice President of COSMO CONSULT AG.

Bundled competencies
The partnership of the two companies, COPA-DATA and COSMO CONSULT, enables combined activity on the market, the ability to bundle competencies and benefit interested parties and customers with jointly applied projects.

"We are very pleased about the collaboration with COSMO CONSULT. Together we can offer a wide range of customers and interested parties a professional end-to-end solution – from order processing, to production, right up to delivery – and thereby achieve real added value," adds Stefan Reuther, Head of Business Intelligence at COPA-DATA GmbH. "Thanks to the collaboration, our customers can profit from seamless communication, a complete overview of all required information, as well as a more efficient production."

What happens after XP?

Support for Windows XP is no longer available. This means users will no longer receive security updates, fixes or online technical support from Microsoft for PCs still running Windows XP. The security and privacy implications of this event could have significant impacts on your business, if you are running XP you should plan to take action soon.

There are potential business implications

Security Risks
Without critical security updates, your PC may become vulnerable to harmful viruses, malware and other malicious activity which can steal or damage your business data and information.

Downtime
The risks of system failure and business disruption could increase because of the end of support, lack of supported software, and the increasing age of hardware running Windows XP.

No one to Call
When problems arise, online and phone-based technical support will unfortunately no longer be available to you or your IT partner, leaving you on your own to deal with the problem.

Reduced Compatibility
Many software and hardware vendors will no longer support products that are running on Windows XP as they are unable to get the Windows XP updates created to fix issues.

SolutionsPT are helping to reduce business risks as a result of this development.

As specialists in industrial IT they recognise that it is not always practical to migrate systems to a different operating system: sometimes the application is simply not supported, skills are not available or maybe the cost of re-testing is prohibitive.

They aim is to provide the necessary support to match the specific needs of each customer, either by extending the life of the Windows XP install base or working together to implement an effective migration plan to a supported operating platform.

Software supports full performance of Windows 8

zenon 7.10, COPA-DATA's new automation software version is compatible with Windows 8 as of release and supports the complete performance of the new Microsoft operating system.

With the successfully completed compatibility tests, Microsoft has confirmed that zenon 7.10 can smoothly run under Windows 8 and fully meets all quality and security requirements of the operating system. The zenon 7.10 setup has been adapted for use with the new Windows 8 Desktop user interface, enabling users to run zenon directly by way of various tiles (style icons).

Reinhard Mayr, Product Manager at COPA-DATA, explains: "Being a Gold Application Development Partner, we have been able to profit from the strategic partnership with Microsoft for many years now. The confirmed compatibility of zenon 7.10 with Windows 8 once again underlines our continued technological leadership in the industrial automation software market. The new certification signalizes security, reliability and sustainable investment protection for our customers and partners."

To exploit the full performance of zenon under Windows 8, COPA-DATA recommends its customers to use the new version, zenon 7.10, only.

MS sustainability partner announced!

The Microsoft Partner Awards recognize Microsoft partners who have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions throughout the past year.

Iconics has won the 2012 Microsoft Sustainability Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of over 3000 top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of solutions based on Microsoft technology, that help organizations around the world reduce their impact on the environment and reduce their energy costs.

"Iconics is extremely pleased and honored to have been selected for this prestigious global award from Microsoft recognizing innovation and success at providing software solutions that help customers reduce consumption and environmental impact," said Russ Agrusa, President and CEO of Iconics. "Our Energy and Facility AnalytiXTM solutions reinforce the strength of our relationship with Microsoft, as well as our commitment to providing our customers and partners with cutting edge energy and sustainability solutions."

"For its commitment to helping customers increase the energy-efficiency of their operations, Iconics, Inc. is recognized by Microsoft as the 2012 Sustainability Partner of the Year," said Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist for Microsoft. "By using the Microsoft technology platform to harness the power of real-time data from manufacturing and facility operations, Iconics has achieved outstanding results in driving customer sustainability efforts and reducing energy costs across multiple industries."

Alliance to aid cloud development!

Company works with Microsoft to deliver cloud-based manufacturing solutions

Invensys Operations Management has announced an alliance with Microsoft Corp. for migrating some Invensys applications to the Windows Azure cloud. By bringing together industrial thought and technology leaders, the alliance expands the company’s continuing relationship with Microsoft and will afford end users cloud-based offerings in the manufacturing and infrastructure operations space.

“As Microsoft’s Alliance ISV Industry Partner of the Year in 2011, we are excited to enter into this alliance, which further defines our position as a leading provider of automation solutions that help optimise manufacturing business operations in real time,” said Ravi Gopinath, president, Invensys Operations Management’s software business. “Working with Microsoft reinforces the strategic alignment between our two companies, with a mutual goal of using Windows Azure technology to bring leading-edge cloud solutions to the industrial market. By offering cloud-based variants of our existing Historian and business process management solutions, we can help our customers lower costs, reduce systems complexity and cut hardware and software investments, while creating a high-performance environment for more agile operations management.”

Within the alliance, Microsoft will help Invensys accelerate the development of its Wonderware® Historian and Workflow applications to enable them to run on the Windows Azure cloud. Initial development activities will extend existing Invensys solutions with managed history and reporting capabilities, as well as business process management on demand.

“Invensys is an example of how Microsoft continues to work with companies that use our platforms to build the solutions their manufacturing customers need to address the critical operating issues they face each and every day,” said Walid Abu-Hadba, corporate vice president, developer and platform evangelism, at Microsoft. “Providing cloud-based reporting and collaboration services allows these customers to pay for what they use, which means they can better scale and manage their technology deployment costs. It’s an attractive model for any customer that has widely distributed operations, limited IT resources or the need to rapidly scale. Customers will have the choice of different usage models, so they pay for only what they need.”