Automation and control system integration, project management advice

Representatives of the winners of the Control Engineering 2014 System Integrator of the Year competition provide project management advice to customers and other system integrators in a video interview.

By Mark Hoske, Peter Welander January 15, 2014

Representatives from three winners of the Control Engineering 2014 System Integrator of the Year explain:

  • What a system integrator can bring to an automation or controls project
  • How projects can be divided between in-house staff and system integrators
  • Best-practice working relationships with system integrators
  • Project pricing, scope change, and project quality

In the 19-minute video, Dr. Vance VanDoren, system integration editor for Control Engineering magazine, interviews (left to right in the photo, from the video) Bijan Shams, president, Cogent Industrial Technologies Ltd.; Richard Seale, president, Automation and Control business unit at Wood Group Mustang; and Dr. Vladimir Morenko, director general, Insist Avtomatika LLC.

Each of the three firms was named 2014 System Integrator of the Year by Control Engineering in three revenue categories: Cogent Industrial Technologies Ltd. (up to $10 million annual revenue), Insist Avtomatika LLC ($10 to $18 million), and Wood Group Mustang (over $18 million). As in previous years, the 2014 System Integrators of the Year have diverse technical skills ranging from automation engineering to wireless networking, and industry experience from building automation to water and wastewater. Read the related article, from the 2013 December issue: “Excellence in Automation: System Integrator of the Year Awards.”

– Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, CFE Media, Control Engineering, mhoske@cfemedia.com; video by Peter Welander.