Manufacturing News South Africa

Invensys extends mobile offerings

Invensys, a focused supplier of industrial software, systems and control equipment to the world's major industries, has released its Wonderware InTouch Access Anywhere software solution.

The new solution enables users to access plant-floor data via Wonderware InTouch software, the world's leading human machine interface software. It runs entirely and securely inside a web browser so users can connect to other InTouch applications at anytime from anywhere, using any mobile device, including Microsoft Surface tablets, iPads, iPhones, Androids and others.

The software also supports Macintosh and Linux-based computer systems, as well as Microsoft Windows PCs and laptops. And because users are not required to install any software on their mobile device, the offering is remarkably easy to deploy, manage and maintain.

Invensys' mobile strategy

"This new offering complements Invensys' broader mobile strategy to provide and improve real-time visualisation, collaboration and execution at multiple levels of an organisation," according to Craig Resnick, vice president, ARC Advisory Group.

"Along with delivering mobile solutions for reporting, decision-support, dashboards, workflow and workforce execution, this new offering also brings HMI visualisation capabilities to mobile devices. These capabilities extend the company's operations management software portfolio by providing plant operators and other key individuals with modern process optimisation tools, regardless of their location or the task being performed, and in real time."

InTouch Access Anywhere software is the newest capability in the company's progressive suite of mobility solutions, which now includes workflow, reporting, analytics, visualisation, maintenance management, operator training, data gathering and procedure management.

In 2010, Invensys released its IntelaTrac offering, a mobile reporting and decision support system that enables workflow, data collection and general task management. In 2011, Invensys released its SmartGlance solution, an industrial reporting application that delivers secure, on-demand access to rich, graphical reports from any operations data source via mobile devices. In 2012, the company released its Work Tasks mobile offering, enabling plant personnel, regardless of their location, to respond immediately to assigned work tasks via the company's ArchestrA Workflow software.

"InTouch Access Anywhere software emphasises the depth and breadth of our capabilities when it comes to mobile and web-enabled solutions," said Norm Thorlakson, vice president of HMI and supervisory software products for Invensys. "Providing this level of unprecedented, secure access to real-time plant information - without compromising functionality - empowers the modern workforce to minimise costs, improve operating efficiencies and drive real-time business optimisation."

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