10 by 10: Leading system integrator engineering specialties by vendor
-- Control Engineering, 7/3/2008
Oak Brook, IL – When you need specific engineering expertise on short notice, an online resource can provide a quick list of options. The 1,737 automation system integrators listed in the Control Engineering Automation Integrator Guide identify, among other parameters, their engineering specialties and vendor product experience categories. Crossing the two data points allows sorting by leading engineering specialties first, then by vendor. The multi-parameter online search function offers eight such ways to sort and refine the listing of system integrators to find just the right one.Vance VanDoren, Control Engineering consulting editor for the Control Engineering Automation Integrator Guide points out that sorting the statistics in this way “do not necessarily imply that integrators use a particular brand for a particular engineering specialty. The results only tell us how many integrators use a particular brand and profess a particular engineering specialty.”
The 10 engineering specialties specified most often by system integrators in the guide are:
1. Programmable logic controllers (including installation and programming);
2. Automation and control engineering (including designs and implementation);
3. Human-machine interfaces;
4. Process control and automation;
5. Systems engineering (including design and integration);
6. Instrumentation and data acquisition;
7. Motors, drives, and motion control (including ac, dc, and variable frequency drives);
8. Control panels (including fabrication, installation, and UL listing);
9. Installation and start-up; and
10. Factory automation. (Also see: Top 50: Engineering specialties among system integrators.)
For system integrators citing those specialties, the following are the top 10 vendors' products with which system integrators say they have experience, ranked by the sum of the specialties above:
1. Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation);
2. Siemens Energy & Automation (including RVSI Acuity CiMatrix);
3. Wonderware (Invensys);
4. Rockwell Automation;
5. Schneider Electric (including Modicon, Square D, and Telemecanique);
6. Rockwell Software (Rockwell Automation);
7. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms (including Intellution);
8. Microsoft;
9. ABB; and
10. General Electric (other than GE Fanuc).
Systems integrators in the guide list experience with a wide range of specific vendor's products. Rounding out the top 50 vendor affiliates mentioned are:
Phoenix Contact
Emerson Process Management (including Fisher, Rosemount, and Bristol-Babcock)
Opto 22
Omron Electronics
Autodesk
Dwyer Instruments
Rittal
Honeywell Process Solutions
Fluke (Danaher)
Baldor Electric
Hewlett-Packard
Mitsubishi Electric Automation
Hoffman
National Instruments
Action Instruments (Invensys)
Pepperl + Fuchs
AutomationDirect
Foxboro (Invensys)
Elo Touchsystems
Parker (including Parker Hannifin and Parker Compumotor)
Datalogic
Analog Devices
Endress + Hauser
Nematron
Turck
Cognex (including DVT)
Pro-face America (including Xycom)
IDEC
IBM
Intel
Yokogawa Corporation of America
Toshiba
Eurotherm (Invensys)
Oracle
Magnetek
Mettler Toledo
Yaskawa Electric (including Motoman)
Digi International (including Rabbit Semiconductor)
DALSA (formerly Coreco Imaging)
Texas Instruments.
– Mark T. Hoske, editor in chief
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