The only way to survive in 2009 is going to be with hope and a “yes we can” sense of determination. In 2008, especially during the final quarter, the economy took a big knock with stock market falls, companies disappearing or being bought out, jobs being lost, and ultimately people losing their homes; all this caused a lot of anxiety.

This simply means that we have to accomplish more output, but with smaller budgets and fewer people. Systems Integrators will be under high pressure due to having fewer projects on hand, with end users having less to spend but with the same expectations. Layoffs will put greater burdens on to existing staff and we can expect the complaints of overworked and underpaid employees.

As the economy continues to tighten, competition between the key players in industrial software vending has the potential to escalate. This will bring more hard times to medium-sized and smaller software vendors.

The main reasons why many software applications fell short in 2008 were poorly designed applications, selection of wrong tools/applications, bad systems analysis, development of cumbersome-to-use applications, poor training, and, especially, poor support from software vendors.

Many industry insiders believe that the only way organizations/end users will be able to effectively meet their future needs will be by using proven technologies with sound design and development processes. Plant floors need systems that tap technology in order to create the best solutions for production and business.

The New Year will not be easy for sales due to tough competition between GE Fanuc, Rockwell, Siemens, and other key players. Problems in the auto industry will be certain to impact on some software vendors. However, other vendors will be in good shape due to the type of industry using their software, such as water and waste water plants. This situation will cause very tough competition between software vendors. Rockwell has already started efforts to make room for itself in the water industry, in which GE Fanuc’s software already has a big volume/user base, plus GE’s iFix 5.0 release which has many attractions for the water industry.

Key players who have the resources, who have already invested in next generation software, and have listened to what their customers are saying, will reap the benefits and be in better shape.

One of my New Year resolutions, which I am determined to do everything to achieve, is to write down my thoughts and opinions more regularly. I always have a lot of industrial raw material to share but wish I had more than 24 hrs in a day to do so.

Like others, I am also sketching a graph for the whole year.

Compared with 2008, I will be writing bulletins more frequently. In my next bulletin, I will discuss what is really new in the recent release of GE’s HMI/SCADA - iFix 5.0, which everyone is talking about. We will explore some features ….

Happy New Year!!

Until next time,


Naeem Ismat
Naeem@AutomationMedia.com
AutomationMedia.com