Cheap MMI/HMI Software

P
Interesting questions. I worked on one job a few years ago where the original SI
tried to hold a client hostage via "proprietary" ladder logic and drawings (that
is, they deemed their deliverables *theirs* and no one else's). The client
balked at some system upgrades that were priced at about 80% of the original
contract amount; the company I was with at the time did the work for less than
half of the original SI's quote and, all told, from that first contact we racked
up about 400k over the next three years with that client. The client was
great... they were neither stingy nor hard to work with. So I guess the answer
to the first question is that unless all the other SIs in your neighborhood go
away, insisting on "annual support agreements" won't work. Doubtless some firms
do this now... but presumably the clients who are paying for premium support are
getting it else they would stop sending the checks. That is a little different
from an annual fee just to talk to the client about previous work.

As far as OEMs and obsolete software, I see this as a large emerging issue for
the next few years. I don't see how mfgrs will be able to support software
anything like they have been able to support hardware. Without continuing
investment (read: people paid to take care of it), obsolete software is not
supportable as the operating environment and platforms it runs on change. This
generates support problems for OEMs, as calls come in that "The computer died
and the machine is down... how do we fix it?" Upgrades to more recent HW and SW
are possible and desireable from the OEMs standpoint, both for immediate revenue
and for enabling ongoing long term support. They are a very hard sell however in
that they do nothing for the customer's bottom line. The machine typically runs
no faster or better with a new HMI than an old, even if the new software is
"better" or the HMI is nicer to use (usually the case, but the *machine*
generally produces no more product than it did before the upgrade). When
purchased they are a loss... at best an upgrade can be charged to "maintenance"
and at worst it is an unexpected expense that has to be covered somehow. Some
customers (not many) will weigh the intangibles of future use vs current expense
and take a prudent course, or the machine may be so critical to operations that
they view an investment that protects against future possibly long downtime to
be worthwhile. Mostly, tho, the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" view rules.

My own recent experience may be interesting. For the last couple of years,
Honeywell has owned an obsolete HMI called "Datavue." Among other issues,
Dataview is not Y2k complient and will not be; Honeywell decided not to make the
investment and in fact stopped selling the product at all early this year. About
the middle of this year, the Honeywell PM for Datavue told me that Honeywell
would not support the product to customers who had not purchased it directly
from them. The OEM I worked for has about 90 packages on machines dating from
1993 to 1998... and none of those packages were bought from Honeywell! There
goes software support. Fortunately, we changed to Wonderware in 1998, and in
1999 we sold 10 WW upgrades to existing customers who had Datavue systems. Even
so, still about 80 out there. Some of the Datavue packages are 486 vintage and
won't even run on Pentium-based processors. We also found that even later
Datavue versions that ran on Pentiums with WFW (remember that stuff? <g>) will
not necessarily run on PII or PIII machines under NT. Bottom line is that these
machines will be difficult to support and the OEM is on his own in doing so. The
view that I had this last year makes me think that working with customers to
upgrade large systems or expensive capital equipment will be necessary in the
next few years, and that selling expensive capital equipment with the idea that
the HMI will need maintenance and support, just as wear items do, may be a good
idea. I am not talking about "support agreements" per se... just the thought
that as one might do a rebuild on a pump, say, one will do a rebuild on the PC
and HMI.

Thoughts?

Paul T
 
R
[email protected] writes:

> Interesting questions. I worked on one job a few years ago where the
> original SI tried to hold a client hostage via "proprietary"
> ladder logic and drawings (that is, they deemed their deliverables *theirs*
> and no one else's). The client balked at some system upgrades that
> were priced at about 80% of the original contract amount; the company
> I was with at the time did the work for less than half of the original
> SI's quote and, all told, from that first contact we racked up about
> 400k over the next three years with that client. The client was great...
> they were neither stingy nor hard to work with. So I guess the answer
> to the first question is that unless all the other SIs in your
> neighborhood go away, insisting on "annual support agreements"
> won't work. Doubtless some firms do this now... but presumably the
> clients who are paying for premium support are getting it else
> they would stop sending the checks. That is a little different
> from an annual fee just to talk to the client about previous work.

I work for a SI as well.

We struggle with the problem of supporting existing customers without gouging
them. Its not cheap to support an old project. Even simple questions about
something done a few years ago can require hours of research to answer,
particularly if the engineer who did the original work is not available to
answer the question.

Our answer (at least to date) has been to build a certain amount of "free"
ongoing telephone support into the hourly rate and just accept that we will
have to provide some work w/o getting a P.O. for it. However, the 'free"
support stops at the door. The basic rule is that we don't leave the
building w/o a P.O.

So far, no one has taken advantage of our good nature in this respect, and
the customers appreciate not getting nickeled and dimed to death, or having
to pay a fee to ask a "simple" question.
 
P
Yeah... the OEM I worked for until recently did it this way as well. Also, there is an age issue that most people will work with you on. Most places I have worked have offered one year warranties on machines or installed systems. Under
a year, we would solve most problems (hardware or software) no questions asked. After two or three years tho, hardware is certainly a billable item and software issues are up for discussion (ie, what do you mean your IT group installed new
networking software and Windows 95 on the computer and now the HMI "won't run" <g>). Most people I have worked with have been reasonable about issues. They want to get the system running again, but they usually also recognize that your
time is valuable too.

Paul T
 
C

Chris Zuercher

I looked at the web site. Wow! Is it as good as it sounds? I am currently using Intellution's FIX , but this could be a possibility for future projects.

Chris Zuercher
Galveston, Texas


>>May be it's time to turn to Russian technologies ? :) Try "Trace Mode" at www.adastra.ru<<
 
Top