Wonderware Announces First Business-to-Manufacturing System Collaboration Using SAP NetWeaver™

Wonderware Announces First Business-to-Manufacturing System Collaboration Using SAP NetWeaver™

LAKE FOREST, Calif., October 21, 2004 -- Wonderware, a business unit of Invensys Systems, Inc., today announced that it is collaborating on the first customer project implementations that use the latest version of SAP NetWeaver™ in an ISA S95 XML standard-based, plant-to-business integration environment using the ArchestrA architecture. Wonderware is working closely with SAP to simplify the integration effort, lower the implementation and support costs, and enable faster manufacturing agility as their mutual customers’ business needs evolve.

This collaboration is achieved by using the latest plant-to-business XML standards defined by ISA S95 in combination with open integration architectures, which encompasses Invensys’ ArchestrA on the plant side and SAP NetWeaver on the business side.

“Customers have been integrating SAP® business solutions and plant execution systems for about a decade in support of driving towards customer demand-driven manufacturing,” said Mark Davidson, vice president of Wonderware and ArchestrA global marketing. “The significance of this most recent collaboration with SAP is that both companies have evolved their product and services implementations around the reality that customers need sustainable approaches to integration of real-time plant and business information workflows.

Both Wonderware and SAP are leaders in their respective markets and have numbers of manufacturing customers in their own plant and business software spaces, making the potential impact of this collaboration even more significant,” Davidson said.

This first implementation is underway at Arla Foods in Denmark. “The integration of business and manufacturing has a strategic importance for Arla Foods in supporting the challenges the business is facing in terms of optimizing production performance, as well as fulfilling foods safety regulatory requirements,” said Arne Svendsen, production IT manager. “This integration is a key point for a complete, internal supply chain, which includes the transfer of detailed production schedules to the shop floor, as well as the seamless collection of key production figures. With an expansive growth strategy, it is a must to have a clear path on integrating business and manufacturing, not least when new facilities become part of the family due to mergers and acquisitions.”

Svendsen added, “The use of an open standard combined with standard connectors from SAP and Wonderware is expected to dramatically reduce the costs of business-to-manufacturing integration as well as reducing the time to implement. The open B2MML standard, and the fact that key players like SAP and Wonderware now fully back it by product developments, is the key to move from custom-made integration to affordable B2M interoperability.”

About Arla Foods

Arla Foods is a dairy enterprise based in Scandinavia, headquartered in Denmark, with production facilities in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Argentina. Arla Foods has 20,000 employees and 70 production sites in total. Arla produces high-quality products in the categories of milk and yogurt, cheese and spreadables, and powder proteins.

About Wonderware and ArchestrA Business Units

Wonderware and ArchestrA are business units of Invensys Systems, Inc. Wonderware is the world’s leading supplier of industrial automation and information software. Founded in 1987, Wonderware pioneered the use of the Microsoft Windows operating system in HMI automation software for manufacturing operation systems. Wonderware software powers intelligent plant decisions in real time. The hallmark of the ArchestrA architecture is: “Every system in your plant, working in concert.”

Based in Lake Forest, Calif., the Wonderware and ArchestrA business units have regional sales and development offices throughout the North American, European, Latin American and Asia-Pacific regions to provide support to its network of more than 160 distributor offices. Wonderware has approximately 300,000 software licenses in approximately 100,000 plants worldwide, which is about 30 percent of the world’s 335,000 plants with 20 or more employees. For more information, visit www.wonderware.com or www.archestra.biz.

About Invensys

Invensys is a global automation, controls and process solutions group. Products, services, expertise and ongoing support enable intelligent systems to monitor and control processes in many different environments. The businesses within Invensys help customers in a variety of industries perform with greater efficiency, safety and cost-effectiveness. Industry areas of focus include hydrocarbons, chemicals, oil and gas, power and utilities, rail, telecommunications, paper, food and beverage, dairy, pharmaceuticals and personal care.

The Invensys Group is headquartered in the U.K. and listed on the London Stock Exchange. With 39,000 employees operating in 60 countries, Invensys helps customers to improve their performance and profitability, building value for end users and shareholders alike.

Invensys; Wonderware; ArchestrA; InTouch; “Every system in your plant, working in concert.”; APV; Avantis; Eurotherm; Foxboro; Triconex; SimSci-Esscor; Digital Coriolis; and DolpHin are trademarks of Invensys plc, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies. All other brands and product names may be the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.