Create value through software reuse

Value of software standards was among automation system integration topics discussed by Callisto Integration at a recent software conference. Video is 3:08 minutes.

By Callisto Integration November 4, 2013

Value of software standards was among automation system integration topics discussed by Mike Peters, director of sales, and Andrew Barker, PEng, director advanced control systems, Callisto Integration, at the Invensys 2013 Software Conference and Tech Support Symposium (demonstrating Invensys products from Avantis, SimSci, and Wonderware) in October. (Video is 3:08 minutes.)

Standards-based software is easier to move from site to site, to upgrade, and to improve incrementally, suggested Peters. 

One customer, in the process of a multi-year software-upgrade project, worked with Callisto Integration to take software developed for a North American facility, put it on a USB stick, and then install the software in the customer’s Asian facility for 20% of the cost of the original, Barker said. In addition, project costs for the commissioning cycle of the project were 10% less than expected. Standard project templates and an organized framework within the software helped decrease the time to adapt already configured applications to the new site, he explained.

Software structures

Structuring software with reuse in mind takes more effort up front than single use, especially if those doing the configuration haven’t done it that way before, Barker noted. The icing on the cake for this application, Barker said, is that when a new product is developed in North America, it can be e-mailed to the Asian plant, where it can be in production there within a 48-hour period.

Food and beverage and SCADA solutions are more easily built in scalable fashion over time, using off-the-shelf offerings, achieving a great return on investment (ROI), Peters noted. And software configuration help is available from system integrators.

For more explanation about the value of software reuse, see the graph and table provided, and click into the related Automation System Integration blog post at bottom of this file.

– Text by Mark T. Hoske and video by Peter Welander, content managers, CFE Media, Control Engineering, Plant Engineering, and Consulting-Specifying Engineer, mhoske@cfemedia.com.

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