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To: John Mansfield who wrote (9336)	1/23/1998 4:30:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 31646

Microsoft-Wonderware-TAVA microsoft.com Yesterday I started reading al the white papers of Microsoft (MS) on Manufacturing. The following has to be kept in mind: - After Windows NT; MS Back Office is the second strategically important product of MS. They will do everything to push it to all different kinds of markets (Finance, Manufacturing, Engineering, Utilities, Retail, Legal etc etc). - There are a huge number of Visual Basic programmers out there ( 4 - 6 million rough estimate); it is the most populkar programming language. So when WW/MS offer a platform on which you can integrate with Visual Basic, it is a very attractive selling proposition. - MS is aggressively attacking the vertical markets. They do this thru selected world wide partners. Wonderware is their premier partner; until today I did not fully realise this (just read the things MS says about WW!. This makes a huge difference for WW, and for WW partners such as TAVA. Sales of strategical important BackOffice products, such as SQL-server can only succeed thru the vertical market approach (think 'highly integrated and easy to install, optimize, and configure'). Statements I liked a lot are: - 'the Wonderware Factory SuiteT manufacturing software tools are "best of breed' - 'Used in tandem, these capable suites allow end users and system integrators alike to create affordable, scalable, and high-performance factory automation applications that easily integrate with office automation' - 'aggressively grow the market for BackOffice in the manufacturing sector.' All in all, too me a tight Wondeware/TAVA alliance effectively means a tight Microsoft/Wonderware/TAVA alliance on the market place. Regards, John --------- Microsoft and Wonderware Scalable Software Solutions for World-Class Manufacturing Applications Microsoft Corporation and Wonderware Corporation have aligned their development and marketing forces to deploy the Wonderware Factory SuiteT of industrial automation software applications integrated with the Microsoftr BackOfficeT family of server software. The goal is to provide cost-effective distributed client/server software solutions that can improve factory productivity and enhance business management and control throughout the enterprise. The powerful but easy-to-use application tools in the Factory Suite address all automation areas within plants: Supervisory control and data acquisition Production management Flexible batch management Mchine diagnostics and repair PC-based "soft" control systems Modular connectivity to sensors and control devices These client applications run on top of the powerful BackOffice family of server products, including: Microsoft Windows NTr Server Microsoft SQL ServerT Microsoft Systems Management Server Microsoft SNA Server Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Internet Information Server Used in tandem, these capable suites allow end users and system integrators alike to create affordable, scalable, and high-performance factory automation applications that easily integrate with office automation, enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial management, and business system applications. <JM: think of front office/MIS <-> plant floor integration!> <snip> ÿ 1.0 The Microsoft and Wonderware Relationship Wonderware Corporation, a long-standing Microsoft Solution Provider Partner, pioneered the use of the Microsoftr Windowsr operating system in the industrial automation industry. <JM: this is what Microsoft is saying of partner WW; partner of TAVA! Now, in 1996, Wonderware and Microsoft have advanced their strategic partnership to a new level. Microsoft has recognized that the Wonderware Factory SuiteT manufacturing software tools are "best of breed" client/server applications ideally suited for use with the BackOfficeT family of server products. Wonderware simultaneously recognized that the BackOffice family provides exceptional performance and a secure, reliable infrastructure for building and implementing manufacturing automation and information solutions. Further, Microsoft's continuing investment in development tools and technologies, such as OLE, ActiveXT, and Visual Basicr, allows Wonderware to leverage these in the development of manufacturing automation software tools. Wonderware is actively supporting and advancing the state of the art in OLE for Process Control (OPC) servers via in-house research and development. <JM: this means that those millions of Vvisual Basic programmers now are also able to integrate and customize applications on the factory floor. This is significant; in the view of shortage of C/assembler etc programmers! > The two companies have created and implemented plans to aggressively grow the market for BackOffice in the manufacturing sector. Joint product development will address several Factory Suite products: Production management Plant-wide data servers Soft logic control Process visualization <JM: might be interesting to know at what level TAVA is involved in the sales program of WW/MS > Wonderware's InTrackT product is one of the first manufacturing software applications to be compliant with the BackOffice logo licensing program requirements, having passed rigorous standards testing conducted by an independent testing facility contracted by Microsoft. Microsoft considers the newly enhanced relationship with Wonderware to be just the right kind of collaborative marketing and product development relationship to help it expand the manufacturing marketplace. <snip> A primary key to winning responses is effective and efficient decision making, which in turn is based on pertinent and timely information. In the past, it was difficult to gather good information because it had to come from so many disparate sources: from dissimilar systems between vendors and customers, from legacy systems within plants, and from division to division within companies, sometimes crossing international boundaries. Information was usually batch oriented and came as weeks-old production reports. <JM: again, think of front office/MIS <-> plant floor integration!> <snip> Through development and marketing alliances with Microsoft, Wonderware is producing Factory Suite software packages that are highly integrated and easy to install, optimize, and configure with BackOffice. The Factory Suite and BackOffice are affordable shrink-wrapped software packages that provide broad functional coverage out of the box, and enable users and system integrators to tailor custom solutions in minimal time.

To: John Mansfield who wrote (9336)	1/23/1998 4:47:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 31646

'The FactorySuite does for industry what the Microsoft OfficeT suite has done for the office.' microsoft.com John ------ White paper Wonderware FactorySuite The launching of the Wonderwarer FactorySuiteT of integrated software development tools signals the beginning of a new era in industrial automation. Just as the company's pioneering use of the Microsoft WindowsT operating system brought new ease of use and high performance features to the human-machine interface (HMI) segment of the market nearly a decade ago, the FactorySuite can provide plant-wide ease of application development for any manufacturing or process operation. The FactorySuite does for industry what the Microsoft OfficeT suite has done for the office. Just as office workers have been empowered with easy-to-use, tightly integrated bundles of applications that let them handle all needs for word processing, spreadsheets, databases and presentation graphics, so industrial workers now have the same ability to handle a range of requirements for process visualization, machine and process control, real-time database management, work-in-process tracking, batch management and even "industrial browsers" for remote viewing of production activities. This new approach benefits everyone. It makes sense for the industrial user because it provides a simple and very cost-effective way to implement multiple, integrated applications that are easily adapted to any company's operations. Plant and process engineers will have the tools they need to solve literally any production automation problem. It is smart business for Wonderware because it simplifies the business of supplying high performance tools to virtually any industry around the world. And it's good for the automation industry because it is a quantum leap forward in providing truly "open" architecture for meeting users' needs without locking them in to a single supplier. User Benefits The primary customer benefits of Wonderware's suite approach are: simplification of application development to meet a far broader range of production needs, and the ability to implement more systems at much lower cost. <JM: lots of cost pressures; not many C/assembler programmers around -> nice proposition! > <snip> "Having all of these development tools in a convenient bundle gives users the ability to create integrated automation applications that make their operations far more productive," said Joe Cowan, vice president of sales and marketing. <snip> "All development tools are bundled to run on a single development workstation, and users will simply buy run-time copies of each application program as needed, for installation on the plant floor," he added. "The suites will have a common install/uninstall capability and we are providing a new license manager that can eliminate hardware keys so customers can implement network applications as large as they wish. Another cost savings is provided by having on-line documentation included in the suites, so that we don't have to print, inventory and ship paper manuals. Anyone who needs a hard copy of particular documentation can simply print out a copy. "The next stage, which will be launched later in 1997, will tightly integrate all of this functionality," he said. "All modules will have common communications capabilities, will provide an integrated development environment, will have many shared components and will provide common application program interfaces (APIs) to other Windows NT applications. <JM: 'other windows NT applications': think plant floor / MIS integration (BackOffice) again!> We also are instituting new third-party developer programs and providing economically priced toolkits so that it will be easier for system integrators and independent software vendors to develop add-on programs and <snip> Industry Benefits In the process of simplifying industrial automation for the user community, Wonderware anticipates creating a new model for the control software industry - by creating a new and broader market definition. In the past, the industry has been so fragmented that even market research companies had trouble drawing boundaries between applications and determining the size of the resulting market segments. <snip> "The use of open automation applications in an integrated suite should bring new order out of what has always been chaos, making it simpler for everyone concerned - the customer, the supplier and the industry overall," Cowan concluded.