Invensys Showcase 2002: Wonderware debuts information portal

By Control Engineering Staff September 12, 2002

Orlando, FL— To give users access to information anytime, anywhere, Wonderware (Lake Forest, CA), is demonstrating the latest version of its SuiteVoyager industrial information portal at the Invensys Showcase 2002 user conference and exposition, Sept. 8-12, at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. Wonderware is an operating unit of Invensys plc (London, U.K.)

Wonderware reports that SuiteVoyager 2.0 portal leverages new Internet technologies—web parts and web services—to extend the amount and breadth of information available to users. It enables people at any level of an organization to view information pertinent to them, understand what’s driving it and improve the way it is managed throughout the organization.

SuiteVoyager 2.0 manufacturing information portal is scalable, extensible and multilingual. It enables clients to visualize real-time and historical information from industrial processes over the Internet/intranet using only a thin-client browser.

‘The SuiteVoyager portal delivers information users need, anytime they need to see it, from anywhere in the world,’ says Renee Robinson, Wonderware’s product marketing manager for visualization products. ‘The portal removes the need for engineers to spend time learning new technologies. Instead, it enables them to focus on running their business. We intentionally designed this product with Wonderware’s ‘ease-of-use’ technology so that the same engineer who designs Wonderware InTouch graphical windows can easily design, configure and deploy a SuiteVoyager 2.0 portal. Knowledge of web design or HTML is unnecessary. Developers can use simple point-and-click, drag-and-drop technology to build a powerful, useful portal. It is an easy, elegant solution for cost-effectively organizing, securing and segregating information to various users.’

SuiteVoyager portal can host information from InTouch graphical windows, Wonderware’s IndustrialSQL Server historian, alarm information, third-party and Microsoft web parts, and any web-designed application. Data sources can include I/O servers, ADO/ODBC-compliant databases, InTouch WindowViewer software and the IndustrialSQL Server historian.

‘SuiteVoyager 2.0 includes an SQL web service, which means users can access any database information located anywhere in the world, through an existing firewall. This portal also can be placed inside a DMZ because it can communicate through firewalls. Protecting corporate information is a top priority for Wonderware. SuiteVoyager keeps information secure through Microsoft authentication technology,’ says Ms.Robinson.

In addition, SuiteVoyager 2.0 portal is a component of Wonderware’s industrial intelligence offering, which includes a rich client tool set, desktop reporting and data mining tools, downtime and statistical process control analysis, and customized content visualization. It also is compatible with Invensys’ ArchestrA platform, a comprehensive plant automation and information architecture designed from the outset to extend the life of legacy systems by leveraging the latest software technologies.

SuiteVoyager 2.0 portal has also been released in a developer’s edition to enable software programmers to create new applications and web services that embed directly into the portal and integrate all customer information.

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jim Montague, news editor
jmontague@reedbusiness.com