Volume 2:  March/April 2009

• A New Simple Reporting Tool from Wonderware
• Wonderware Releases InBatch 9.0
• Wonderware Releases InTouch 10.1 & System Platform 3.1
• Wonderware Webinar Series for Water & Wastewater
• This Month's TECHTIP

• STRONGARM - Why Settle for a "Closest Fit"?
• WonderWorld 2009 - Save the Date
• New England Local Seminar - Register Now
• Wonderware Patchfixes, Device Integration Releases & Tech Notes

HMI Reports - A drag and drop reporting tool for users in need of an easy but powerful reporting utility.  Perfect for any small HMI and SCADA application.

For years Wonderware has offered the easy to use ActiveFactory Analysis toolset for power users that want to dig into data and do custom analyses and create custom reports.  Now Wonderware offers the complementary product for the day-to-day user that wants to quickly create visually pleasing reports from a drag-and-drop toolbox of easy to use tools.  With the addition of the recently announced HMI Reports, Wonderware adds to its offering of operations management software solutions a simple, fast reporting tool that can leverage data from Wonderware InTouch HMI, Wonderware Historian, and other plant and industrial data sources.

Wonderware HMI Reports enables customers to transform raw data from multiple data sources into usable information with custom reporting capabilities that can be created easily, quickly and inexpensively. The resulting reports can be made available to anyone, anywhere, anytime via e-mail, printed copies or a Web portal (Including Information Server).  Wonderware HMI Reports requires no IT or programming skills to design, schedule and produce appealing and informative dynamic reports. You can easily configure HMI Reports through simple drag-and-drop operations within the Report Studio. The design Studio also gives you ease-of-use features such as intelligent report objects and friendly dialog boxes.

Wonderware HMI Reports significantly reduces report development time and simplifies report modifications by using simple integration tools for accessing data from InTouch, Wonderware Historian and other vendor HMI applications, as well as other data sourcing programs that support OPC, OLE DB and ODBC standards. HMI Reports also offers enhanced security and report generation features. The software provides integrated security measures that make it is easy to define who can access reports and who can create, modify or generate reports. These can be customized on a per-report basis to further enhance overall data security.

In addition, HMI Reports provides a user-friendly object library for data extraction of statistics, offers customizable report designs, and enables the user to view data in multiple formats such as tables, bars, pie charts and graphs. The software also features an intuitive graphical editor enabling reports to be created and saved as templates for future use.

Key Features:

• Reduce time and effort to create, distribute, and revise reports
• Create reports significantly faster than Crystal Reports
• Quickly and easily consolidate your InTouch or Historian/InSQL data into concise, visually appealing reports to better understand your processes and your business
• Configure through simple interfaces, menus, intelligent report objects, and friendly dialog boxes - Requires no IT or programming skills
• Make reports available easily and securely

Key Capabilities:

• Intelligent Report objects include data-driven Tables, Pie Charts, Bar Charts, Line and XY Plot Charts
• Easily define who has access to reports and who can create, modify, or generate reports with built-in security - customize these settings on a per-report basis
• Generate and Distribute custom reports automatically in Excel, Adobe Acrobat format (PDF), email, and HTML format
• Configure reports to be generated based on Events (e.g. Batch Complete), Schedules (e.g. Shifts) or on demand (ad-hoc)
• Easily extract data from InTouch, Wonderware Historian/InSQL, and any data source using OPC, OLEDB, ODBC, including other vendor HMIs

Perfect for non-technical users, HMI Reports is the reporting tool for anyone needing fast and simple reporting capabilities.  To learn more about this product call us at 215-675-5800 or e-mail us for more information.

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Flexible Batch Management and System Platform Integration.

Wonderware recently announced the release of InBatch 9.0, an enhanced, flexible and scalable batch management solution.  InBatch software addresses the needs of the most complex batching processes that require a high level of flexibility and the ability to easily manage batch operations on top of existing systems. Consistent with the ISA S88 flexible batching standard, InBatch software offers comprehensive batch execution and equipment history, material genealogy, stringent security, Web-based reporting and the ability to facilitate the design and implementation of systems that are compliant with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 regulations.

"InBatch 9.0 represents a continued commitment to the evolving needs of the batch market," said Maryanne Steidinger, MES and EMI marketing program manager for Wonderware. "Wonderware has not only taken flexible batch capabilities beyond traditional offerings, but has also provided customers easier and less costly ways to add these capabilities on top of existing automation system and PLC applications - thanks to new integration with the latest release 3.1 of Wonderware System Platform software for development and Wonderware Information Server for reporting."

Tight integration with Wonderware System Platform enables reusability, scalability and extensibility that facilitate the development and deployment of standardized, multi-plant system implementations. Substantial savings in engineering effort can be realized as InBatch software offers the ability to quickly and easily add additional processing lines, manufacturing cells or operator nodes, and provides remote development capabilities in a very simple and straightforward manner.

ArchestrA technology provides the tight integration of InBatch 9.0 and Wonderware System Platform 3.1, enabling customers to utilize a logical ISA S88 plant model on top of existing PLC or automation system code. Other new features include an enhanced environment display, a new system configuration manager and reporting integration via the Wonderware Information Server.

"ArchestrA technology enables InBatch customers to utilize standard services such as security, common namespace and device integration," Steidinger said. "This provides lower cost of ownership and the ability to develop batch applications on top of existing processes as well as distribute these applications on an enterprise-wide basis."

Timely reporting of equipment downtime and efficiency inside InBatch software is accomplished through the Wonderware Information Server Web reporting and data visualization software. This makes it easy to extend report templates that utilize Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, saving time when creating and distributing batch reports..

Key Benefits:

• Reduce life-cycle engineering costs of batch execution systems, leveraging your investment in InTouch HMI and System Platform
• Enhance batch application flexibility with ArchestrA technology
• Facilitate 21 CFR Part 11 system design along with batch, equipment and security history

Key Features:

• Recipe management using a graphical procedure environment featuring Sequential Function Charts (SFC)
• Schedule and execute batches, including use of a redundant batch server
• Schedule and view reports in a web-based browser
• Comprehensive batch execution and equipment history with full material genealogy
• Reconciliation of material inventory with actual quantities in vessels
• Use of material characteristics during the batch process, including the ability to dynamically adjust and apply formula parameters at runtime
• External phase and scripting engine, reducing the need to change control code and facilitating interaction with third-party databases and systems
• Generation of specific alarms associated with a specific batch
• Automated batch report creation; for example, at the end of each batch

If you are interested in learning more about InBatch 9.0, give us a call at 215-675-5800 or send us an e-mail. 

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 Wonderware Receives the Frost and Sullivan Award for the 5th year in a row - 2009 Global Control Software Solutions & Services Domain Excellence in Customer Value of the Year Award.

The awards continue as Wonderware recently announced the release of Wonderware System Platform 3.1 and InTouch 10.1, featuring distributed SCADA, scalability and user productivity enhancements to the Wonderware core software platform and flagship visualization HMI offerings.  The System Platform has outpaced and outperformed any other comparable system on the market for years now and this new release continues to widen the gap.

"Wonderware System Platform 3.1 and InTouch 10.1 together deliver the software functionality needed today by users in the geographically distributed SCADA application space," said Keith Jones, marketing program manager for Wonderware HMI/SCADA products.

Wonderware System Platform 3.1 now offers significant benefits for users needing highly distributed, networked software solutions. In addition to scalability from 250 to an excess of 1 million I/O points, highly distributed applications can be optimized for peak performance over networks ranging in various sizes and speeds. New configuration options also are available, making Wonderware System Platform software even easier for users to engineer pilot projects and roll out applications across multiple locations. In addition to the major product functionality updates, Wonderware System Platform 3.1 extends the flexibility and configurability of the Wonderware Historian, offering more options to optimize storage for analysis of information from historical data.

InTouch 10.1 builds on the award-winning InTouch 10.0 software and delivers on increased operations productivity, with new features that have been most requested by customers. New .NET controls provide highly flexible trending and alarm management capabilities. Enhancements in internationalization enable a single application to be created, and then reused by personnel in locales around the globe.

"In spite of a turbulent global economy, initiatives such as sustainability are continuing to drive investment in software-based performance and productivity improvement solutions across many infrastructure operations such as water and wastewater, facilities, transportation and power distribution," said Craig Resnick, research director at ARC Advisory Group. "These performance and productivity solutions, such as those built on the Wonderware System Platform 3.1 and InTouch 10.1, provide the return-on-investment and return-on-asset justification required by infrastructure operations, proven out by improvements to key performance indicators (KPIs) such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and energy consumption monitoring that is visualized on HMI software-based digital dashboards configured with InTouch software."

Users are taking advantage of Wonderware System Platform to update the functionality of their existing plants, integrating and extending the life of legacy systems without the need to expensively re-engineer subsystems which are proven and operational. The open, industry standards-based ArchestrA technology inside the Wonderware System Platform and InTouch HMI software deliver the flexibility and extensibility needed by customers to address their strategies for lean operational excellence.

Just Some of the New Features:

• Even greater flexibility in the configuration of data to be pushed into the Historian
• A New Trend Control ArchestrA symbol which enables runtime and history trends to be displayed in a single control
• A New Enhanced Alarm Client ArchestrA symbol is provided as an alarm client, offering all the functionality of the present clients plus the ability to view the current value of a point in the grid
• Runtime Language Switching for ArchestrA Symbols
• Greater flexibility in Node by Node upgrades
• Even faster performance around data communication and application deployments
• More...

And remember, if you are not a System Platform user, you can still take advantage of ArchestrA Graphics and the new enhancements in InTouch 10.1 described above in your traditional InTouch Applications.  There is no re-engineering involved and old and new graphics technology can exist side by side.  The upgrade is just two mouse clicks away.

InTouch 10.1 and System Platform 3.1 provide a unique powerful combination of sophisticated, graphical HMI development and runtime capabilities with object-based application development and centralized server based deployment and management. One single, open and scalable software architecture (ArchestrA) that can be configured once and re-used throughout an application no matter what the need is or the industry it is used in.  To learn more, call us at 215-675-5800 or e-mail us for additional information.

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Ergonomic: 1. (used with a sing. verb) The applied science of equipment design, as for the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort.

For years, STRONGARM designs has been the leader in ergonomic plant floor computing systems.  Our model has always been to not just provide a hardened station for a plant floor terminal but to create a solution that meets industrial requirements while also taking into account the operators using the system, the environment in which it will be used and the application itself.  When these additional aspects of a project are included in the thinking of a system, the result is a custom solution that meets the specific needs of the project and people rather than the traditional "closest fit" options that were typically available.

That sounds interesting so let me see your product catalogue...We hear that with new customers but if you read more closely to what I wrote above, it will become clear that there can be no catalogue for items that are designed specifically to meet your needs.  What we do have are examples.  Our conversations with customers often start by pointing customers to a similar system that has already been designed and proven.  From there, a dialogue starts to really understand your application and needs.  These conversations can result in simple tweaking to an existing design to a completely new system that was built ground-up to meet your needs.

But I need something quickly...Certainly it takes a bit more time to design and build a complete system than to buy a "closest fit" solution from a catalogue but we think you will be surprised at just how small the real difference will be.  We have perfected the customized solution approach and our manufacturing operation is systemized and automated to move things from conception to reality with relative ease.  Additionally, the solution you get is tested and complete so you need only mount it and run wires and everything else is done.  The "closest fit" solution still requires mounting of displays, keyboards, and electronics along with the need to cut out holes and conduit fittings.  So the closest fit solution takes your engineering, fabrication and installation resources to work and in the end, your are still left with something that is just close to what you wanted.

So take a minute and consider some of the scenarios below and call us so we can start a discussion based on a proven example.  We think you will like what we can provide since it should be exactly what you need in the time that you need it.

Form and Function:

• Enclosures are designed to meet your space dimensions leaving minimal waste of space.
• Enclosures are designed to fit your mounting requirements exactly.
• Enclosures can have any cutout or option added that is required to fulfill your project needs (pushbuttons, lights, biometric scanners, card readers, bar code readers, wireless devices, etc.)
• Enclosures can be built to suit any environment (dust tight, general purpose, washdown, hot washdown, hazardous, outdoor, etc.)
• Enclosures are built to consider cleanability and maintenance.

Adjustability:

• Ability to move displays side to side and rotate the display for perfect viewing at the location the unit needs to be used.
• Ability to tilt the display for perfect viewing angle.
• Ability to adjust the unit up and down to meet height requirements of each operator (via adjustable arms or posts).

Mobility:

• Perhaps your application requires more than fixed location repositioning and requires movement from work cell to work cell,
• Tethered Power for mobility through a wide radius from the power source or Ethernet connection.
• Tethered Power at the work cell but the ability to move from cell to cell without shutting down.
• Completely mobile operations for a full shift.
• Completely mobile operations over multiple shifts.
• Mobile power options for use in a completely sealed and air-tight environment.

Meeting Your Exact Needs:

• Special Mounting Solutions.
• Completely new designs.
• Hybrid solutions.
• Anything you can think of, let us work to make your perfect solution.

To learn more about our capabilities, please call us at 215-675-5800 or send us an e-mail.  We are happy to help in any way that we can.

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A new Webinar Series from Wonderware focuses on issues, challenges, and solutions for the Water and Wastewater Industries .

Faced with keeping tighter control of operating costs and the ever-escalating requirements for compliance and regulatory reporting, the water and wastewater business is among the most challenging in the best of times. In turbulent economic times, the challenges are more demanding and the solutions more sharply focused.

Wonderware has joined with industry experts, solution providers and successful water and wastewater organizations to offer a series of timely discussions on critical industry issues aligned with strategies to create long term cost savings while improving operations, service and compliance.

Beginning April 30th and continuing every Thursday through June 4th at 11:00 am eastern time, these sessions offer a great opportunity to bring your team up-to-date on the latest strategies in your industry. The first session, AWWA's State of the Industry Update PLUS Solution Strategies for Optimum Water and Wastewater Operations will be presented by Jon Runge, Director of Communications and Marketing, AWWA and Eduardo Ballina, Industry Manager, Wonderware.

Click here for more information on the complete series and to register.

Webinars in our Series:

• 4/30/09 AWWA’s State of the Industry Update PLUS Solution Strategies for Optimum Water & Wastewater Operations
• 5/7/09 Case Studies: Translating Technology into Cost Savings for Water & Wastewater Facilities
• 5/14/09 Improve Uptime, Reliability, and Efficiency with Intelligent Asset Monitoring
• 5/21/09 Leveraging Mobile Solutions to Improve Operations while Reducing Costs in Water & Wastewater
• 5/28/09 Transforming Data into High-Impact Reports with the Easy-to-Use Wonderware HMI Reports
• 6/4/09 Integrating Critical Data for Greater Effectiveness in Water & Wastewater Operations

Follow this link to register for these webinars.

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Wonderware will be holding our annual WonderWorld conference series this fall and date/location is now set for North America.

With today's difficult economic climate, the focus of this show will be to discuss ways to better position your organization to leverage your current assets to sustain profitability and to strengthen your operations for long term recovery. 

Join Wonderware, industry experts and your peers as we discuss ways to continue to create and drive success within our manufacturing organizations.  Our website will be live with complete conference details in May but please mark your calendar now.

Last Year's Highlights

Below are just some of the highlights from last year's event.

• Keynote Address by Martin Eberhard describing the birth of Tesla motors and the concept for the first electric powered sports car.
• Partner Expo with over 40 Manufacturing and Industrial Automation Partners presenting solutions to help drive manufacturing excellence.
• Presentation by the General Manager for Microsoft's Manufacturing Business detailing upcoming technology and how their partnership with Wonderware will drive innovations that will revolutionize the way we think about manufacturing information.
• Dozens of breakout sessions covering all aspects of manufacturing and Wonderware technology.
• Hundreds and hundreds of customers bringing their own ideas and experiences to one of the largest manufacturing technology forums in the country.

Stay tuned to see how we will make this year's event even better - mark your calendar now to be sure you don't miss it.

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June 4th, 2009 at the Courtyard Marriott in Marlborough, MA - Your local Wonderware Update Event is coming to a location near you.  Please mark your calendar.

HMI Reports, Wonderware Mobile Solutions, InTouch 10.1 and System Platform 3.1...It has been a year of big releases from Wonderware and we want to extend the opportunity to join us as we demonstrate capabilities that your company can leverage today.  Join us in Massachusetts for a day of demonstrations and information.

The theme of our show is getting back to basics.  On our main Stage we conduct our Technical Track where we will show you the best methods and tools for Managing projects, creating easy and visually stunning reports, leveraging your mobile operations workforce, utilizing ArchestrA Graphics in your existing InTouch Applications, appropriately managing plant alarms, and creating robust architectures for the modern plant.

We will have our Operations Track as well to talk about the data that is lying unexposed and unused in your plant.  Data that could increase equipment performance, increase product quality and drive operational excellence...if you had visibility.

Conference Specifics:

Location:

Courtyard Marriott

75 Felton Street

Marlborough, MA 01752

Phone: 1-508-480-0015

Hotel Details

Times and Specifics:

Hot Breakfast will be served from 8AM to 8:45AM

Conference will start promptly at 9AM and end at 4:30PM

Hot Lunch will be served at Noon

Drinks and Snacks Available throughout the day

Registration:

Again, seats are limited so register now by e-mailing Rhoda Beitzel and letting her know your name, company, phone and e-mail address, which track you are interested in, and your desire to reserve a seat.

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Registered Wonderware Customer Support subscribers can download the following Wonderware device integration releases: (www.wonderware.com/Support/MMI):

• KepServer for Wonderware Version 4.3

Registered users can now download the following Wonderware software patchfix releases (www.wonderware.com/Support/MMI):

• Wonderware Industry Application for Packaging version 1.0 Patch 01
• IntelaTrac PKS Version 3.2 SP3
• IntelaTrac Version 3.2 SP3
• DAServer Runtime Components Upgrade 2.0 Service Pack 3
• Wonderware Application Server 3.1 Service Pack 1
• ArchestrA Symbol Analysis and Repair Utility for 3.1

The following Tech Notes and Tech Alerts are now available:

• Tech Note 571 Launching Report Builder from a Different Domain
• Tech Note 572 Upgrading Factelligence Script Libraries for Wonderware Application Server
• Tech Note 573 Using SQL Server Agent to Run Scheduled Reports
• Tech Note 574 Boot Options for the Symbol 9090 Mobile Computer
• Tech Note 575 Adding Your 9090 Wireless Device to a Wireless Network
• Tech Note 576 DAServer Does Not Appear in the DAServer Manager of the System Management Console (SMC)
• Tech Note 577 Tips for Resolving Demo Mode with ActiveFactory and WIS
• Tech Note 578 Migrating DNC Professional™ to a New Computer
• Tech Note 579 Connecting a dbPruftechnik VIBTOOL to a Symbol 9060 or 9090 Mobile Computer
• Tech Note 580 Removing Rounds Scheduled to a Deleted Role
• Tech Note 581 Removing IntelaTrac Web Reports Version 3.1.4 From a Windows Server Node
• Tech Note 582 Recovering Database Storage Space After Upgrading to IntelaTrac 3.2
• Tech Note 583 Adding Applications to Motorola (Symbol) AppCenter
• Tech Note 584 iDockIt Configuration for the Motorola (Symbol) 9090 Mobile Device
• Tech Note 585 Using the InTouch® Compact Log Viewer Utility
• Tech Note 586 Configuring the Compact Panel MODBU Serial Driver to Communicate to a Modicon PLC
• Tech Note 587 Monitoring Communication Between InTouch®, a DAServer and a PLC
• Tech Note 588 Configuring the Compact Panel ABCIP Driver to Communicate to a ControlLogix PLC
• Tech Note 589 Common Application Server Redundancy Causes and Triggers
• Tech Note 593 Empowering Table Weaver Functionality
• Tech Note 594 Converting InBatch Tags to AppServer Objects

Registered users can view and download these and other Tech Notes from the Wonderware Technical Support website.

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