Recently, after a lengthy and painstaking soul-searching exercise, Invensys plc, the global automation and controls group with headquarters in the UK, created a new group within its Production Management Division (PMD) called Invensys Production Solutions (IPS) (www.invensysproductionsolutions.com). The group will include the PRISM and Protean process ERP products plus the resources of Invensys Validation Services group (www.vtc-usa.com), a Montreal, Canada-based provider of regulatory compliance, validation, and consulting services encompassing the entire validation project life cycle and a range of validation services for the regulated supply chain.
While the newly formed unit should have much strength, since the PRISM and Protean products contain functionality that at least challenge the leading products in the process manufacturing arena, it also has liabilities that must be addressed, in a great part because existing users of its above solutions have suffered from frequent product strategy changes as a result of vacillations by the Invensys parent company.
In the past three years, Invensys process solutions' customers have experienced the displeasure of witnessing several radical changes of strategy, causing some of them to begin to seriously doubt the vendor will ever deliver their market-specific product capabilities. In July 1999, Invensys bought the outstanding shares of then struggling Marcam Solutions, and folded it initially into its Wonderware factory automation division. Further, in August 2000 Invensys acquired then also languishing Baan Co. (see Baan Yet Another ERP Vendor to Find a Sanctuary Under Invensys' Wing) and made it a part of the former Invensys Software Systems (ISS) division.
The initial strategy for the products, which was announced after the Baan acquisition was to release a unified Baan product that combined functionality for discrete and process manufacturing (see Process ERP Market Loses PRISM and Protean). After hearing existing customers' less-than-pleased feedback and after another reconsideration of its past investments, Invensys then modified that strategy to one of creating the Baan Process division (see Invensys Announces New Division - Baan Process) which included five process ERP products coming to Invensys through Marcam and Baan acquisitions: Baan IV Process, Baan Dimensions, PRISM, Protean, and Baan Cable & Wire. The announcement was a departure from rewriting all the products into one core iBaan ERP product the unit was not going to provide an integrated solution any longer, but would rather provide combined applications capabilities via an integration framework.
Finally, given Invensys has recently yet again put all its assets/investments under the magnifying glass, it has now allocated the PRISM and Protean products into their own profit-based division, called Invensys Production Solutions. Sanjay Razdan will be the newly formed group leader, and will be responsible for the development, marketing, sales, and support of the Protean and PRISM process ERP software solutions and the Invensys Validation Technologies. By joining the Invensys Validation Technologies group with PRISM and Protean, IPS should be able to offer enhanced regulatory compliance solutions for the process and regulated industries. Validation Technologies has been a part of Invensys Pharmaceutical Solutions, another group within the Production Management Division of Invensys, and one of the leading suppliers of validation, pharmaceutical, engineering, and regulatory-compliant solutions. Founded in 1994 and with over 110 dedicated consultants, the group is currently one of the largest suppliers of regulatory-compliant solutions in North America and Europe, dedicated to the pharmaceutical, biological, biotechnology, and medical devices industry.
Given the Baan product line focuses on the discrete and hybrid (with only simple process requirements) manufacturing sectors, this move should enable both organizations to fully leverage their strengths in their respective industry sectors. Under the new setup within Invensys PMD, well over 80% of revenues will now likely come from process industries, since, in conjunction with solutions provided by sister Invensys companies such as Wonderware, Avantis, Foxboro, Eurotherm, APV, and Powerware, Invensys Production Solutions also provides a broad set of capabilities for the process sector. Thus, Baan might now be singled out as the possible discrete manufacturing black sheep' in the family, causing Invensys to likely occasionally review the carrying value of its investment in Baan. Still, while Invensys does not plan to integrate iBaan ERP functions with PRISM and Protean, it does plan to leverage Baan's collaborative supply chain management (SCM) or customer relationship management (CRM) software, using Baan OpenWorldX enterprise management level integration framework, which, together with the ArhestrA framework at the plant automation level and Production Engine (PE) framework at the production management level, still represents a part-and-parcel of the Invensys Real Time Enterprise (RTE) framework (formerly referred to as the "sensor to boardroom" strategy).
This is Part One of a two-part note.
Part Two will address Invensys Liabilities and Strategy and make User Recommendations.
Historic Strengths
The company, although constantly morphing from Marcam to IPS, has a good track record and a heritage of selling solutions to manage divisional or autonomous plant sites within selected process industries. The products are very strong in plant level management functionality, given the IPS' progenitor, former Marcam Solutions, headquartered in Newton, MA, was one of the first global providers of ERP and enterprise asset management (EAM) software exclusively for process manufacturing enterprises and large corporate divisions. Marcam Solutions was created after the 1997 breakup of Marcam Corporation, a company that had struggled to manage the business of two product lines that targeted the two completely different markets of discrete and process manufacturing. Namely, the dissolution of Marcam Corporation had then created two new ERP software companies, Marcam Solutions and MAPICS Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPX), the latter of which is still going strong in its original form.
Paul Margolis and John Campbell founded Marcam (a name derived from their last names) back in 1980 to provide then IBM's MAPICS ERP product installation and customization services. In 1983 Marcam began developing its own planning and control software for process manufacturing companies such as food, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The result was PRISM, which was first licensed in 1987. Marcam went public in 1990 and acquired ShawWare (maintenance management applications, whose Avantis product is now a part of a different unit within Invensys) in 1991, and the MAPICS product line from IBM in 1993. Marcam launched Protean ERP software in 1994, and during 1995, it all but halted major development of a client/server version of PRISM to focus on its similar but technologically more advanced and seemingly more prospective Protean line.
The PRISM and Protean software suites both automate tasks such as resource planning, production model development, and quality control management. Marcam sold its product primarily through its direct sales force in close to 20 offices worldwide. The Company also partnered with a number of industry-leading vendors including Hewlett-Packard, NEC (as a reseller and a developer of earlier versions of Protean in the Japanese market), IBM, and PeopleSoft, to name some. Marcam Solutions had approached its financial management functional gap by partnering and offering warranted integration to major financial applications such as SAP R/3, PeopleSoft and CODA. By 1999, the Company had approximately 1,400 customer sites in over 40 countries before it was acquired by Invensys' Wonderware division.
As mentioned earlier, the PRISM product is a veteran of the Process ERP market with many considering it the pioneer in this segment, and it can arguably be called the most widely installed plant-level process ERP product available. The company claims that 100% of its 1,200 sites (i.e., with its own server unit) are running plants with many installations running multiple plants, given these sites originate from little over 600 corporate customers. IPS' management estimates that PRISM currently has over 85,000 users worldwide, out of total 100,000 users for both products together.
SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/invensys-production-solutions-can-historic-strengths-and-the-protean-boost-overcome-its-liabilities-16954/
While the newly formed unit should have much strength, since the PRISM and Protean products contain functionality that at least challenge the leading products in the process manufacturing arena, it also has liabilities that must be addressed, in a great part because existing users of its above solutions have suffered from frequent product strategy changes as a result of vacillations by the Invensys parent company.
In the past three years, Invensys process solutions' customers have experienced the displeasure of witnessing several radical changes of strategy, causing some of them to begin to seriously doubt the vendor will ever deliver their market-specific product capabilities. In July 1999, Invensys bought the outstanding shares of then struggling Marcam Solutions, and folded it initially into its Wonderware factory automation division. Further, in August 2000 Invensys acquired then also languishing Baan Co. (see Baan Yet Another ERP Vendor to Find a Sanctuary Under Invensys' Wing) and made it a part of the former Invensys Software Systems (ISS) division.
The initial strategy for the products, which was announced after the Baan acquisition was to release a unified Baan product that combined functionality for discrete and process manufacturing (see Process ERP Market Loses PRISM and Protean). After hearing existing customers' less-than-pleased feedback and after another reconsideration of its past investments, Invensys then modified that strategy to one of creating the Baan Process division (see Invensys Announces New Division - Baan Process) which included five process ERP products coming to Invensys through Marcam and Baan acquisitions: Baan IV Process, Baan Dimensions, PRISM, Protean, and Baan Cable & Wire. The announcement was a departure from rewriting all the products into one core iBaan ERP product the unit was not going to provide an integrated solution any longer, but would rather provide combined applications capabilities via an integration framework.
Finally, given Invensys has recently yet again put all its assets/investments under the magnifying glass, it has now allocated the PRISM and Protean products into their own profit-based division, called Invensys Production Solutions. Sanjay Razdan will be the newly formed group leader, and will be responsible for the development, marketing, sales, and support of the Protean and PRISM process ERP software solutions and the Invensys Validation Technologies. By joining the Invensys Validation Technologies group with PRISM and Protean, IPS should be able to offer enhanced regulatory compliance solutions for the process and regulated industries. Validation Technologies has been a part of Invensys Pharmaceutical Solutions, another group within the Production Management Division of Invensys, and one of the leading suppliers of validation, pharmaceutical, engineering, and regulatory-compliant solutions. Founded in 1994 and with over 110 dedicated consultants, the group is currently one of the largest suppliers of regulatory-compliant solutions in North America and Europe, dedicated to the pharmaceutical, biological, biotechnology, and medical devices industry.
Given the Baan product line focuses on the discrete and hybrid (with only simple process requirements) manufacturing sectors, this move should enable both organizations to fully leverage their strengths in their respective industry sectors. Under the new setup within Invensys PMD, well over 80% of revenues will now likely come from process industries, since, in conjunction with solutions provided by sister Invensys companies such as Wonderware, Avantis, Foxboro, Eurotherm, APV, and Powerware, Invensys Production Solutions also provides a broad set of capabilities for the process sector. Thus, Baan might now be singled out as the possible discrete manufacturing black sheep' in the family, causing Invensys to likely occasionally review the carrying value of its investment in Baan. Still, while Invensys does not plan to integrate iBaan ERP functions with PRISM and Protean, it does plan to leverage Baan's collaborative supply chain management (SCM) or customer relationship management (CRM) software, using Baan OpenWorldX enterprise management level integration framework, which, together with the ArhestrA framework at the plant automation level and Production Engine (PE) framework at the production management level, still represents a part-and-parcel of the Invensys Real Time Enterprise (RTE) framework (formerly referred to as the "sensor to boardroom" strategy).
This is Part One of a two-part note.
Part Two will address Invensys Liabilities and Strategy and make User Recommendations.
Historic Strengths
The company, although constantly morphing from Marcam to IPS, has a good track record and a heritage of selling solutions to manage divisional or autonomous plant sites within selected process industries. The products are very strong in plant level management functionality, given the IPS' progenitor, former Marcam Solutions, headquartered in Newton, MA, was one of the first global providers of ERP and enterprise asset management (EAM) software exclusively for process manufacturing enterprises and large corporate divisions. Marcam Solutions was created after the 1997 breakup of Marcam Corporation, a company that had struggled to manage the business of two product lines that targeted the two completely different markets of discrete and process manufacturing. Namely, the dissolution of Marcam Corporation had then created two new ERP software companies, Marcam Solutions and MAPICS Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPX), the latter of which is still going strong in its original form.
Paul Margolis and John Campbell founded Marcam (a name derived from their last names) back in 1980 to provide then IBM's MAPICS ERP product installation and customization services. In 1983 Marcam began developing its own planning and control software for process manufacturing companies such as food, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The result was PRISM, which was first licensed in 1987. Marcam went public in 1990 and acquired ShawWare (maintenance management applications, whose Avantis product is now a part of a different unit within Invensys) in 1991, and the MAPICS product line from IBM in 1993. Marcam launched Protean ERP software in 1994, and during 1995, it all but halted major development of a client/server version of PRISM to focus on its similar but technologically more advanced and seemingly more prospective Protean line.
The PRISM and Protean software suites both automate tasks such as resource planning, production model development, and quality control management. Marcam sold its product primarily through its direct sales force in close to 20 offices worldwide. The Company also partnered with a number of industry-leading vendors including Hewlett-Packard, NEC (as a reseller and a developer of earlier versions of Protean in the Japanese market), IBM, and PeopleSoft, to name some. Marcam Solutions had approached its financial management functional gap by partnering and offering warranted integration to major financial applications such as SAP R/3, PeopleSoft and CODA. By 1999, the Company had approximately 1,400 customer sites in over 40 countries before it was acquired by Invensys' Wonderware division.
As mentioned earlier, the PRISM product is a veteran of the Process ERP market with many considering it the pioneer in this segment, and it can arguably be called the most widely installed plant-level process ERP product available. The company claims that 100% of its 1,200 sites (i.e., with its own server unit) are running plants with many installations running multiple plants, given these sites originate from little over 600 corporate customers. IPS' management estimates that PRISM currently has over 85,000 users worldwide, out of total 100,000 users for both products together.
SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/invensys-production-solutions-can-historic-strengths-and-the-protean-boost-overcome-its-liabilities-16954/
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