OSIsoft launches next-generation, real-time performance management (RtPM) products

Local OSIsoft distributor IDXOnline has announced key enhancements to OSIsoft`s PI ACE (Advanced Computing Engine), PI System and the availability of RtAlerts, an online event monitoring and alert management system that proactively notifies users about important events and condition changes in their plant or process.

These new product enhancements create a more unified, flexible and high-performance RtPM Platform, providing decision-makers with timely market and plant information they need to optimise their business activities.

"Every feature of OSIsoft`s RtPM Platform is designed to meet the needs of today`s agile enterprise," said IDXOnline Enterprise Solutions business manager Bruce Bean. "For more than 20 years, OSIsoft has worked closely with its customers to create and enhance products that are tightly integrated with industry needs so that customers can easily access and analyse real-time information."

According to ARC director of research, Tom Fiske: "To gain an additional competitive advantage, organisations are enthusiastically adopting strategic initiatives that focus on creating a performance-driven manufacturing environment. Initiatives such as real-time performance management are helping companies optimise their entire enterprise by improving asset and resource utilisation along with their decision-making process."

OSIsoft`s PI ACE is the engine that drives OSIsoft`s RtAnalytics, a set of applications that alerts customers to business opportunities or issues requiring their attention. Additions to PI ACE include a cache server and advanced recalculation capabilities. Adding the caching server reduces the load on the target PI System for intense calculations, enabling customers who deploy calculations that involve multiple, repetitive calls for the same data to experience a significant boost in performance.

Bean says PI ACE`s recalculation capabilities also now support both manual and automatic modes of recalculation. "Manual recalculation can be performed in the PI ACE management tools, enabling users to have precise control over the calculations, time ranges and contexts that need to be recalculated. Users can also set up automatic recalculations to detect when recalculation is necessary, then automatically go back to the point in time where the process needs to begin, and access all the data required for the calculations."

OSIsoft`s PI System powers the RtPM platform, which provides event-driven, scalable management of the total business decision cycle across all boundaries, with a streamlined portal to drive intelligent collaboration. The next generation of PI includes several patches and adds new performance enhancements. Customers that have moderately to heavily loaded PI Systems will experience a nearly two-fold performance increase in retrieving and storing data, enabling more users to get the data they need even under heavy load situations.

OSIsoft`s RtAlerts product is a recent addition to the RtPM product platform. Using RtAlerts, users can immediately be made aware of potential problems or opportunities without having to periodically check specific ProcessBook displays or DataLink reports. RtAlerts is designed so that end-users can set up their own rules for tag monitoring and e-mail notification, thus lessening the burden on the PI administrator. In addition to process or safety problems, RtAlerts can be used to identify potential economic opportunities.

"Companies seeking to improve operational efficiencies are turning to vendor solutions that allow them to easily access information via the Internet," said Chris Colyer, global process industry manager, manufacturing industry unit at Microsoft. "OSIsoft acknowledges this market trend and has developed its real-time performance management solutions using Microsoft .NET technology - enabling its customers to significantly change the way they communicate and collaborate."