Operations software: Transpara named ‘cool vendor’ by IT research firm

By Control Engineering Staff April 3, 2007

Pleasanton, CA —Operations intelligence software vendor Transpara Corp . is among the companies listed in Gartner ‘s “Cool Vendors in Manufacturing, 2007” report, released in March. The research and consulting firm’s report called Transpara “a vendor that plays across a broad set of manufacturing verticals.” Its Visual KPI software delivers on-demand data about process manufacturing and utility operations to any handheld or desktop browser, including SmartPhones, PDAs, and Blackberry devices.

Gartner analysts Dan Miklovic, Dale Hagemeyer, Marc Halpern, and Jim Duggan said in the report that: “manufacturers must look beyond traditional large enterprise systems vendors for technology and applications that can provide competitive advantage. Manufacturers that are striving to react in real time to the dynamics of their business need to invest in tools that make key performance indicators available to any user, regardless of location.”

Transpara CEO Michael Saucier said “We believe Gartner’s recognition of Transpara as a Cool Vendor validates the need for applications such as Visual KPI in the process manufacturing and utilities industry, where mobility is becoming pervasive, and the ability to access business critical data on any handheld is a natural extension of organizations’ current technology investments.”

Visual KPI lets users create and customize composite key performance indicators (KPIs) and scorecards using data from any combination of existing systems—including OSIsoft’s PI System, SQL Server, Oracle, OLE DB, and Web Services—and publish them for instant use by anyone in the organization or supply chain. Delivering actionable, decision-support information directly to the responsible user provides real-time insight into organizational performance, increasing uptime and lowering business risks.

The Cool Vendor listing, according to Gartner, does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new, and innovative vendors, products, and services. It defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are innovative , enable users to do things they couldn’t do before; impactful , have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology);and intriguing , have caught Gartner’s interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

—Edited by Jeanine Katzel , senior editor, Control Engineering Weekly News ( Register here and scroll down to select your choice of eNewsletters free.)