Upgrading Manufacturers’ Existing Assets, Resources, and Infrastructure with Parsec’s MES platform, TrakSYS

By: Enterprise Automation The pressure on manufacturers to increase quality and productivity while reducing costs has never been higher. Finding ways to maximize efficiency and profits is a challenge that most organizations face. That’s why Enterprise Automation has partnered with Parsec, who offers a next-generation Manufacturing Execution System (MES) platform. TrakSYS provides the monitoring, measuring, […]

Exploring IIoT and How it Impacts Your Digital Transformation Journey

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Exploring IIoT and How it Impacts Your Digital Transformation Journey By leveraging today’s scalable IIoT to collect asset information and meta data across vast distributed systems for use in advanced analytics, IIoT offers a quick return on investment. Written by: Jeff Runyan   The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a buzzword commonly found today […]

What is SCADA?

  SCADA, or Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, is a system of software and hardware elements that allows industrial organizations to control industrial processes locally or at remote locations, monitor, gather, and process real-time data, directly interact with devices such as sensors, valves, pumps, motors, and more through human-machine interface (HMI) software, and record events […]

The Functional Specification: Critical before, during, and after a Project

Team at white board discussing functional specifications

A functional specification, or functional spec, is a vital document to any project. It ensures that all parties, the integrator, the system designer and the end customer, are all in agreement on how the system is supposed to work. While it may seem that a functional spec is only useful at the beginning of a […]

What’s Included in a Functional Spec?

functional spec document on table with hand highlighting text

A functional specification, or operational spec, is a document that outlines all aspects of a project’s programming requirements. It is essentially the guide that directs the programmers on how the system is supposed to function, providing value before, during and after the project.  To truly be effective, the functional spec needs to be extremely specific; […]

User Training: Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Control Expert (Unity Pro)

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Join us for a rapid training session and overview of Schneider Electric’s Ecostruxure Control Expert (Unity Pro). After watching this webinar, you will: Understand the basic setup Compare EcoStruxure Control Expert against other common programming software Learn advanced configuration tips Find out from Schneider Electric about some of the new and upcoming product features to be aware […]

Webinar: Practical Tips for Industrial Cyber Security

Are you up to date with keeping your facility secure?  Are you keeping up with the latest risks, strategies and standards? In this webinar, you will learn: How to work with IT and OT teams to build a strong, capable network 9 fundamental concepts you should use to build and secure your network Trends in […]

Specifying Hardware and Software for a Modern SCADA System

Enterprise Automation Specifying hardware software

How do I decide on hardware and software for a new SCADA System? The best place to start is with the end in mind.  Sometimes that might mean designing the entire system, but often that is as simple as thinking through – and maybe writing down – all of the functionality and requirements you’d eventually […]

Don’t get hacked! – Audit and Secure your Operational Technology Environment

A recent network hack intrusion out of the City of Oldsmar FL illustrates the importance of a solid network security protocol within operational technology systems. In the Oldsmar case, an unknown hacker gained access to the city’s water control SCADA system and attempted to “poison” the water supply by increasing the levels of sodium hydroxide […]

Best Practices for SCADA Networking 

SCADA networking

The three most important structures you must get right when setting up SCADA networking for cybersecurity are: Network segmentation Firewalls User privilege management   While there are many other improvements that can be made as a part of an overall defense-in-depth strategy, these three structures will set the base of a strong, cyber-secure SCADA system. […]