Integrator Highlight: MCS Integrations

SACRAMENTO, CA DECEMBER 11, 2007 - This month we interviewed Pat Callaghan of MCS Integrations about his experience with Inductive Automation software in the field of water/wastewater.

IA: Tell us a bit about your company - do you have a focus on any particular industry?

Pat: MCS Integrations is a systems integrator working primary in the Water/Wastewater Treatment industry. We create control systems used in the treatment and distribution of drinking water and the processing of wastewater.

IA: Why did you choose Inductive Automation software?

Pat: We were looking for a web based SCADA application. Some of our customers require access to their SCADA application through the Internet. This has been possible in the past but we were looking for a product that better accomplishes this. The more we started working with IA’s software the more pleased we were with it.

To start FactoryPMI is a web launched application running in a Java environment. This gives us two benefits: 1) we do not have to install software on every client that needs to access the application this is handled automatically by FactoryPMI and 2) since the visualization part is processed on the client’s hardware this allows for the server to be smaller saving on overall system cost. Note that it is possible to run IA’s software as a standalone application, a central server is not required, but most of our customers have multiple clients accessing the system in which case a central server makes the most sense.

IA software has superior database support. We don’t have to create some crypt procedure in order to have the SCADA application access a database, all we need to do is write a simple SQL statement. IA’s software was created with database access in mind, not as some add-on.

Licensing, what could be easier? Whether you want 100 tags or 50,000 tags, whether you have 1 client or 100 clients, it’s all the same cost. In the past we would have to determine how many tags the system would need and how many clients would need to access the system in order to determine the cost of licensing; now it’s just one simple price. Plus there’s no separate cost for runtime licenses and development licenses, they are both part of the licensing.

IA: What have you and your customers found to be the main benefits of the software?

Pat: As an integrator the main benefit that IA’s software offers is freedom. We are able to create the application as we see fit. We can create the database (data storage) as we see fit, this allows us to optimize the application based on each customer’s needs. The development can be as simple as drag-and-drop to complex scripting, this allows us to create an applications look and feel to exact customer requirements. The inclusion of Python in FactoryPMI gives us access to a real programming language which allows us to create some complex applications; we no longer have to say ‘We can’t do that with this software’.

IA: How do you plan on using IA software in the future?

Pat: One of our customers is so pleased with the visualization part of the system that we are getting ready to incorporate record keeping into the system. Operators will enter data such as daily tests and chemical usage into the system. Once the data is in the system operators will be able to pull up charts and trends showing this data instead of having to fumble through paper and excel spreadsheets.

IA: Is there anything else you can say regarding your experience with Inductive Automation?

Pat: Great tech support. I can’t say enough about the tech support team you guys have, they are top notch. IA is a company that listens to customers recommendations for improvements to the software and actually implements them.

Here is a screenshot from one of his FactoryPMI projects: