Acquisition expands commitment to advanced software!

Leading software provides real-time management and optimisation across the smart grid

Emerson has agreed to acquire Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI Inc.) for $1.6 billion (€1.36 B) in an all cash transaction. OSI Inc. is a leading operations technology software provider that broadens and complements Emerson’s robust software portfolio and ability to help customers in the global power industry, as well as other end markets, in their quest to transform and digitise operations to more seamlessly incorporate renewable energy sources and improve energy efficiency and reliability.

Digitisation is critical for the power industry to modernise and improve the reliability of the electric grid. Incorporating clean and renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, requires balancing the variable nature of renewable energy with the often bi-directional demands of the grid. By combining Emerson’s domain expertise and leading technology in power generation with OSI Inc.’s complementary software and reach within the power transmission and distribution sectors, the acquisition will equip customers with the end-to-end ability to monitor, control and optimise real-time operations across the power enterprise through scalable, software-enabled automation and data management.

“An enormous change is underway as utilities globally are investing to digitise the grid and adapt to rapidly evolving energy sources and new technologies that increase consumer choices,” said Lal Karsanbhai, executive president of Emerson’s Automation Solutions business. “This acquisition will help the power industry maximize the remarkable opportunity to harness renewable energy sources and to accelerate the transformation to the smart power grid. Emerson now has the opportunity to be a leader in this large, rapidly growing market with a compelling and complete software and technology offering.”

OSI Inc.’s advanced modular technology offers customers tailored solutions for their power grid management needs and is scalable to other industries. Combining this technology with Emerson’s Ovation control system, which is a market leader for power generation control, will provide utility customers with increased visibility into the current status of their power system, enabling unparalleled ability to optimize energy efficiency from generation through customer delivery – enabling the broader industry goal of minimising carbon footprint.

The acquisition will complement Emerson’s existing robust portfolio of software and automation technologies that support the world’s essential industries.

“Our $1 billion standalone software and associated engineering implementation services portfolio is quickly growing to meet customer needs and support operational performance, analytics and digital transformation,” Karsanbhai said. “OSI Inc. is a great business with a track record of high growth, strong profitability and long-term customer loyalty. This acquisition builds on Emerson’s software footprint and supports customers in providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to help the power industry continue transforming to meet the needs of tomorrow.”

“Emerson and OSI share a commitment to excellent customer service and offering advanced technologies to help customers manage the reliability and resiliency of the electric grid,” said Bahman Hoveida, President & CEO of OSI Inc. “We are excited to combine our advanced technologies, engineering expertise and unsurpassed customer service not only to better serve our electric power customers but also to expand the reach of this critical software into other industries with the Emerson team.”

OSI Inc. is headquartered in Minneapolis, (MN USA) and has approximately 1000 employees globally. The acquisition is expected to close in early fiscal 2021, subject to various regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

• Centerview Partners LLC served as financial advisor and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal advisor to Emerson. Wells Fargo & Co. and Lazard served as financial advisors and Fredrikson & Byron, PA served as legal advisor to OSI Inc.

@EMR_Automation @Emerson_News @OSI_USA #PAuto  

Advanced analytics solutions.

e-matica, a leading systems integrator and applications development firm and a Select Partner for OSIsoft® and Seeq®, headquartered in Seattle, (WA USA), will partner to deliver advanced analytics solutions to their customers. The partnership will accelerate digital transformation by harnessing diagnostic and predictive analytics to enable greater operational efficiency and deeper insights across organizations.

Seeq software applications, Seeq Workbench and Seeq Organizer, enable manufacturing organizations to rapidly analyze, predict, collaborate, and distribute insights to improve production outcomes. Seeq is designed to run on-premise, on Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services cloud platforms, or in mixed on-premise and on-cloud deployments.

e-matica has provided innovation and process improvement to their clients for over 20 years in industries like power generation, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, and others. Combined with Seeq’s advanced analytics solution, the partnership is a natural fit that will benefit e-matica customers as they strive to get more value from their operations data.

"The decision to enter into a partnership with Seeq is in line with our growth strategy aimed at offering innovative solutions to help our customers improve their operations. Our customers work with data from different sources and have the need to analyze them effectively and efficiently—time is a key factor! Seeq makes it possible to find insights and share critical information quickly,” says Luca Spingardi, e-matica Business Development Executive. This sentiment is shared by Ernesto Bove, CEO, and Giuseppe di Bartolo, Sales Director, who have deployed many systems based on the use of historicized data for important Italian customers.

“Thought leaders like e-matica, with local customer and vertical market expertise, are critical to the success of Seeq,” adds Will Knight, Head of Partner Sales for Seeq. “Our customers rely upon them to deliver advanced analytics solutions that provide insight and drive results.”

#PAuto @SeeqCorporation @OSIsoft

Analytics solutions for process manufacturing companies highlighted.

Seeq was a Gold Sponsor at OSIsoft PI World Barcelona, the largest gathering of OSIsoft customers and partners outside the United States. 

Seeq builds on machine learning and big data technologies to speed time to insight for diagnostic, descriptive, and predictive analytics. Their presentations and partner discussions covered results typical of the benefits that customers are realizing in the oil & gas, power, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, mining, food and beverage, and other process industries.

"The passion to generate even more value from data in the OSIsoft PI System and deliver customer-centric solutions from our partner community is truly remarkable," says Tim Johnson, Senior Director of Partners and Resellers, OSIsoft. "Together, Seeq and OSIsoft can help companies improve their operations and production outcomes through advanced analytics as demonstrated by our shared customers and partners."

In addition to the Gold Sponsorship of PI World and having presentations in the Oil & Gas and Marketplace tracks, several of Seeq’s European partners showcased their support efforts for Seeq as system integrators and independent software vendors. Seeq’s partner network now includes dozens of partners on six of the seven continents.

Featured partners attending PI World with Seeq included Amitec of Oslo, Norway, Wersys of Cologne, Germany, Servelec of Great Britain, and Magion of Den Haag, The Netherlands.

“Building on our strong and long lasting 20-year partnership with OSIsoft, we have seen our customers store and manage increasing volumes of data in the OSIsoft PI System,” says Børre Heggernes, CTO of Amitec. “They need faster, smarter ways to leverage this data to improve operations, and Seeq lets them do just that.”

Seeq presentations included a shared session with OSIsoft in the Oil & Gas industry track, with Seeq CTO Brian Parsonnet discussing use cases for Seeq. In the Marketplace track, Managing Director for EMEA Mike Purcell of Seeq provided an introduction to Seeq.

“The benefits of OSIsoft and Seeq collaboration demonstrate how our customers achieve improved production outcomes from our products,” notes Steve Sliwa, Co-Founder and CEO, Seeq Corporation. “Their success and feedback on product requirements has led to the innovative and easy-to-use advanced analytics application that Seeq is today."

Recent releases of Seeq have focused on enabling larger deployments through scalability features, and making the Seeq applications easier to use. R20 features, released in June 2018, 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.

@SeeqCorporation #PAuto @OSIsoft

Software enables faster adoption in expanding enterprise deployments.

R15 is the newest version of Seeq, the application for engineers and operations analysts in process manufacturing to rapidly achieve insights from asset and operations data. R15 accelerates all aspects of the user and organisation experience with Seeq, enabling broader adoption of current deployments in the oil & gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, and food and beverage industries.

Seeq R15 delivers features and capabilities addressing the span of requirements for larger and broader deployments for existing users, as well as making Seeq easier to deploy for new users. These features include: Easier for new users: As deployments expand, Seeq R15 delivers easier to use search, customized trending views, date manipulations, and asset comparisons. New Functions and Arithmetic Operators: Seeq R15 end-user improvements include data cleansing and regression functions for modeling multi-variate analysis, as well as improved variable and operator functionality for process calculations. Enterprise Data Support: Seeq R15 expands process historian support to include Honeywell PHD, Wonderware Historian, Yokogawa Exaquantum Historian, and GE Proficy Historian. This adds to existing support for the OSIsoft PI System, Emerson Automation Solutions DeltaV Continuous Historian, and Inductive Automation’s Ignition SCADA system. Relational Database Integration: Seeq R15 simplifies integration with relational database offerings such as Microsoft SQL Server and its open-source alternative MySQL, as well as CSV file formats, to create batch and state context from manufacturing applications. Data Wrangling: Seeq replaces the hours of manual effort required to aggregate, cleanse, and contextualize data in spreadsheets. R15 adds improved support for data export via an OData interface for reporting and dashboards. Enterprise Scalability: Seeq R15 now supports multi-node deployments for high availability deployments in distributed enterprise environments.

At the OSIsoft European User Conference recently in The Hague (NL), Abbott Nutrition showed their use of R15 in the “Productivity and Quality Improvements Through Continuous Contextualisation of PI” presentation. In this use case, Seeq enabled insights into production and asset optimization, eliminating hours of tedious and manual work to create production reports. For Abbott engineers, Seeq is the first offering in a new generation of application software available to engineers in the process industry. Using Seeq resulted in improved asset availability and optimised yield metrics on product measurement metrics.

R15 is the 4th release of Seeq software in 2016, and is available to subscribers immediately.

“Our software subscription and delivery model means we are delivering new features and value very quickly,” says Steve Sliwa, CEO and co-founder of Seeq Corporation. “R15 delivers on our efforts to rapidly address user feedback to enable new levels of insight and efficiency for our customers."

To accelerate awareness and familiarity of Seeq features and functionality, Seeq has also created a new playlist on its YouTube channel. Called “Seeq University,” this set of videos demonstrates the capabilities of Seeq features across all aspects of the product including search, trending, data-search, formulas, and more.

In addition to OSIsoft’s European User Conference, Seeq plan also to participate at multiple OSIsoft regional events across the United States, as well as the Yokogawa User’s Conference in Orlando, Florida (US); the Emerson Exchange (EMREX) user conference in Austin, Texas (US); and the Honeywell User Conference (HUG) in The Hague, (NL).

@SeeqCorporation #PAuto 

Co-operation enables managing streaming sensor data in real-time.

Emerson Process Management and OSIsoft have introduced the OSIsoft PI Connector for HART-IP, a link between HART field devices and OSIsoft’s PI System enterprise software infrastructure for managing streaming sensor data in real-time.

The PI Connector for HART-IP automatically and seamlessly maps wired and WirelessHART® devices to the asset structure in the PI Server, eliminating effort and chances for error. It enables end users to gain benefits from their intelligent field networks faster, more easily, and at lower overall cost.

Emerson is developing and deploying numerous diagnostic and optimisation packages that analyse field device information to help improve process management, energy consumption and plant safety and reliability. The PI Connector for HART-IP leverages the widely used PI System to serve up information to these application suites.

The connector was jointly developed as an integral extension of OSIsoft’s capability. The PI Connector for HART-IP reduces the cost and effort needed to access and use information from Emerson’s Smart Wireless Gateways and HART multiplexers. Prior to this release, some information from HART devices was only available through OPC connections that had to be made on a time consuming point-by-point basis. With the PI Connector for HART-IP all of the necessary linkages populate to their respective applications automatically, giving the user instant access to valuable process and diagnostic information.

The software is based on the widely used Microsoft operating system and is both modular and highly scalable. It can run on its own server or on the PI System infrastructure hardware. Information from wireless gateways and multiplexers goes directly to the PI System and is not dependent on the plant’s basic process control system.

“The PI Connector is part of a much larger and comprehensive Pervasive Sensing strategy,” said Bob Karschnia, vice president of wireless for Emerson. “It will be critical in the support of a myriad of essential asset monitoring, energy, performance, overall equipment effectiveness and asset reliability modules that deliver significant value to our customers.”

“Emerson is a strategic OEM Partner of OSIsoft,” said Martin Otterson, senior vice president of sales, marketing and industry at OSIsoft. “We are excited to work together to support the growth of the Industrial IoT, utilising each of our strengths to maximum effect. Drawing on Emerson’s experience with intelligent field devices and their software applications and OSIsoft’s expertise in software data infrastructures for sensor-based real-time data, this connector provides an essential building block for IoT that will significantly enhance operational intelligence in the processing and manufacturing industries.”

OSIsoft EMEA Users meet in Portugal!

Tatsoft is a sponsor/exhibitor for the 2014 OSIsoft EMEA Users Conference in Lisbon (PT); September 23-26. They are joining OSIsoft, LLC, provider of the PI System and the leader in real-time data and events infrastructure solutions, and over 700 OSIsoft customers and industry experts to engage and network with. Tatsoft llc is excited to learn how OSIsoft customers are extending the value of the PI System in many new and innovative ways and to contribute to the discussion regarding collaborative remote and tablet access to key decision supporting information.

“We are very excited to have our partners join us in Lisbon at the 2014 EMEA Users Conference,” stated Timothy Johnson, Director, Partners & Strategic Alliances with OSIsoft. “Our customers are doing innovative things with the PI System – gaining efficiencies, improving operational performance, driving safety and compliance to new levels – and our partners are empowering and extending these capabilities.”

According to Marcos Taccolini, “Leveraging the OSIsoft PI AF SDK, FactoryStudio interfaces to OSIsoft PI Servers directly using high-speed access allowing for distributed collaboration on custom real-time displays, charts and annotations, data entry and validation, custom reports and mobile devices.

Using FactoryStudio, OSIsoft PI System Tags and Assets are automatically and immediately available for use in your graphical displays, SQL integrations, data entry, custom .NET C#, VB.NET scripts, and more.

FactoryStudio Enterprise now provides the first .NET real-time framework designed specifically to natively integrate with PI Servers, PI Asset Framework, and PI Event Frames through a deep-level native communication layer interface.”

#ISAwk Partnership upgraded

OSIsoft, LLC, will be one of the elite companies featured in ISA’s Corporate Partnerships Program during 2011.

ISA’s Corporate Partnerships Program offers companies customized packages, bundling ISA products and services with marketing opportunities across all channels, providing a streamlined approach to corporate sponsorship. ISA’s program features three main levels of sponsorship: ISA Strategic Partners, ISA Corporate Partners, and ISA Automation Week Partners. The program, in its second year, is limited to a select group of companies at each level to maintain the highest level of visibility for each partner.

OSIsoft, a privately held company with operations worldwide, was an ISA Automation Week Partner in 2010 and made the decision to sign a higher level partnership, the ISA Corporate Partnership, in 2011. “We’ve seen the value of working with ISA,” said vice president of marketing Jon Peterson. “ISA’s members and customers are a dedicated, highly qualified group of industry professionals, and we look forward to building a great relationship with this community.”

OSIsoft delivers the PI System, the industry standard in enterprise infrastructure, for management of real-time data and events. The PI System is used in manufacturing, energy, utilities, life sciences, data centers, facilities, and the process industries. The system enables users to manage assets, mitigate risks, comply with regulations, improve processes, drive innovation, make business decisions in real time, and to identify competitive business and market opportunities.

OSIsoft’s partnership includes the sponsorship of several key ISA events
• ISA Safety and Security Symposium, held 13-14 April in League City, TX;
• ISA Power Industry Division (POWID) Symposium, held 6-10 June in Charlotte, NC;
• ISA Water and Wastewater Symposium, held 22-23 June in St. Louis, MO;
• ISA Automation Week, held 17-20 October in Mobile, AL.
The company will showcase its PI System and discuss industry specific implementation with conference attendees at each event.


“I have personally attended OSIsoft events, and I’ve been really impressed with its technology and its customer-focused approach,” said ISA President Leo Staples of Oklahoma Gas and Electric. “OSIsoft is a company that’s truly moving forward, and we’re excited about this partnership.”

Partnerships announced

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has announced the signing of four new partners to its Corporate Partnerships Program, after just one year on the market. The partners are: Fluke Corporation; GE Energy; Honeywell Process Solutions; and OSIsoft, LLC.

The ISA Corporate Partnerships Program offers companies a customized, tailored approach to sponsorship within the organization. Partnership packages include year-round promotion, prominent association-wide access and recognition, and turnkey service from a dedicated team of professionals. Companies can bundle ISA products and services with marketing opportunities, providing a more streamlined approach to corporate sponsorship.

“Integrating marketing tactics and campaigns across events, publications, face-to-face opportunities, and digital communications translates into increased efficiencies for companies,” said ISA Corporate Partnerships Manager Jennifer Infantino. “Our partners utilize their sponsorship programs to maintain consistent messages, leverage the power of frequency, and achieve top-of-mind awareness among a highly qualified group of professionals.”

The program has three levels of partnership opportunities: ISA Strategic Partners, ISA Corporate Partners, and ISA Automation Week Partners.
Fluke Corporation is an ISA Strategic Partner, the highest level of partnership within the program. Fluke’s 2011 partnership will focus on a test and measurement platform, with marketing and educational opportunities centered on Fluke’s line of electronic test tools and software.
GE Energy, Honeywell Process Solutions, and OSIsoft are ISA Corporate Partners. OSIsoft, an ISA Automation Week Partner in 2010, made the decision to renew its partnership at a higher level in 2011.

"Our partnership with ISA is an important part of our overall marketing strategy, and we have seen significant value in the first year of that partnership," said OSIsoft VP of Marketing Jon Peterson. “ISA connects us with the right audience, and the partnerships program allows us to focus and leverage our marketing outreach."

GE Energy also decided to renew its partnership at the ISA Corporate Partner level, with an increased focus on customized web seminars and technical resources that the company can share with its customers.

“We are proud to announce our 2011 partnerships with these key industry leaders,” said ISA Executive Director and CEO Patrick Gouhin. “Each of our partners offers a distinct value proposition to the automation community. We look forward to working with each company to maximize their return on investment and further develop their relationship with ISA and the professionals we serve.”

Discussions are underway with several companies interested in ISA Automation Week partnerships, a three-month intensive marketing package focused around ISA’s annual event in October. In 2010, ARC Advisory Group, OSIsoft, Schneider Electric, and Wind River were ISA Automation Week Partners.
ISA works with world-renowned sponsorship organization IEG to analyse and evaluate sponsor needs and develop strategies for increasing sponsorship’s return on investment. IEG is a leading provider of consulting, valuation, measurement, research and training to the global sponsorship industry. IEG’s 5,000 clients include the NFL, UNICEF, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Credit Suisse, Diageo, and Subway. The organisation works to help properties and sponsors make the most of sponsorship dollars, and features a division focused on evaluating the true value of sponsorship packages.

In May of 2010, ISA rolled out a partnership dashboard web site to help partners stay up-to-date on their benefits and exposure opportunities. The dashboard is a 24/7, password protected, customized web site that provides partners with extensive information on contract terms, deliverables, opportunities, and upcoming action items.

The dashboards were recognized as an innovation in partner fulfillment and servicing by IEG in an internationally published article in August 2010. “Demonstrating that best practices don’t have to come from pro sports or other large, high profile properties, the International Society of Automation has launched an online dashboard as a servicing tool for partners…such tools can play an especially important role for partners who are not heavily involved in sponsorship and/or don’t have large marketing staffs,” the article reported.

2011 partnership opportunities will be limited to a small number of companies at each level in order to give the highest level of visibility to each of ISA’s partners.

New partner announced

OSIsoft® is now an ISA Automation Week 2010 Partner. OSIsoft is the provider of the PI System®, the industry-standard enterprise infrastructure for management of real-time data and events. The new partnership with ISA offers OSIsoft a high level of visibility at ISA Automation Week 2010 through specialized and intensive promotional opportunities that will provide recognition before, during, and after the event.

ISA Automation Week 2010 Sponsor packages, which are part of the ISA Corporate Partnership Program, are limited to a small number of companies. The ISA Corporate Partnership Program offers each company a customized, tailored approach to sponsorship. The different packages allow companies to bundle ISA’s products and services with marketing opportunities, resulting in a streamlined approach to corporate support.

ISA Automation Week 2010 is the knowledge-driven technology and solutions event designed to deliver a stimulating and highly relevant educational experience to automation and control professionals who work within continuous process, discrete, and hybrid manufacturing environments. It will be held 4-7 October, 2010 in Houston (TX US).

OSIsoft, with operations throughout the world, has completed more than 14,000 installations in industries such as oil and gas, power and utility, pharmaceuticals, data centers, chemical, pulp and paper, and metals and mining. OSIsoft’s PI System provides a flexible foundation for establishing a culture of continuous improvement at the plant, across the enterprise, and throughout the value chain.

The company will showcase two important new product releases at Automation Week: PI System 2010 and PI for Office 2010. PI System 2010 continues to build on scalability and security as well as offer a consolidated package of all components required to run businesses in real-time. PI for Office 2010 is a natural evolution of OSIsoft’s products built on the Office platform. PI for Office 2010 supports Microsoft’s Business Intelligence products that are part of SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint Server 2010. Integrating manufacturing and operational data with business intelligence has never been easier. PI for Office 2010 also continues to build on OSIsoft’s successful products PI DataLink for Excel, PI DataLink for Excel Services and PI WebParts.

“OSIsoft was very pleased to learn about ISA Automation Week’s focus on technical education and training. Supporting this event is a great way for OSIsoft to bring our message of driving business improvements through leverage of operational and manufacturing data,” said Jon Peterson, OSIsoft VP Marketing.

“Sponsorship of ISA Automation Week 2010 is an effective way for OSIsoft to connect with a well-qualified base of motivated automation professionals in its marketplace,” said ISA Executive Director and CEO Patrick Gouhin. “It gives the company excellent opportunities to maximize its visibility with the right audience.”