Atlanta, Ga.— ABB Automation began its first integrated Elsag-Bailey/ABB user group meeting in North America on Oct. 3 by explaining how its new IndustrialIT platform for software and hardware will integrate disparate ABB systems. About 600 customers learned that IndustrialIT will move users from existing systems, as upgrades are needed, with seamless backward compatibility.

Dick McAllister, president of ABB Automation's instrumentation and control products division, says IndustrialIT is the vision it uses to plan and develop products, the business direction it uses to deliver value, as well as a set of products, platforms, and services. "Imagine a business where your plant automation, asset optimization, and collaborative business systems are seamlessly linked in real time," he says.

Products and systems, scalable upward from a few thousand dollars, will be released over the next one to five years throughout ABB to make this vision a reality, adds Mr. McAllister, starting with five to seven products this year. ABB's size will bring this unified platform's customers added economies of scale, he says.

"Numbers aren't good enough anymore. This transformation from running a plant to running a business is what's been promised for many years; it's like the Messiah is coming," says Mike Zaharna, ABB Automation's president and ceo. "It doesn't make a difference if it connects to our system or the other guy's system. One of the things that never goes away is the knowledge attached to algorithms, the migration of knowledge from the plant to the global enterprise."

For more information, visit www.controleng.com/freeinfo.