2013 2014 INSERT COMPANY LOGO HERE 2014 Global Automation Software for Real-time Operational 2013 North American SSL Certificate Intelligence Company of the Year Award Product Leadership Award
Background and Company Performance Industry Challenges Traditional human machine interface (HMI) devices and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) have existed for over 20 years and are widely accepted. However, Frost & Sullivan recognizes that technological upgrades beyond traditional HMI/SCADA have been slow due to the conservative mindset of industries. Nonetheless, the convergence of information technology (IT) with the industrial sector has revolutionized the industrial landscape. End users have realized the potential that new automation software can offer. Consequently, a growing trend is for end users to look beyond conventional systems and adopt intelligence systems that provide shop floor data as well as the ability to process this information and communicate it across the company. Mobility has provided a plethora of opportunities for end users to leverage. This is reinforced by the need for solutions that connect the shop floor and top level management. Providing the right data to the right channel enhances customer value and gives greater functionality to the product. Vendors that answer this challenge with such solutions will find success in the automation software market. Customer Value Excellence and Visionary Innovation Total Customer Experience Frost & Sullivan research shows that the need for greater functionality in the HMI system is a crucial requirement for industrial customers. At present, there are several low-end systems available in the market, particularly from Chinese vendors. Most of these HMIs emulate the shop floor and provide abundant data to customers. With industry trends driving the evolution of HMI systems, these traditional low-cost solutions will not fully help customers experience growth in the long term. Advanced solutions using collected data and providing actionable insights to customers are helping them improve their plant productivity/efficiency. GE, a pioneering manufacturer of HMI software, is leveraging mobility and advanced intelligence to create solutions that enrich customer value. In 2013, GE launched Real Time Operation Intelligence (RtOI), an extension of HMI/SCADA, combining mobility, analytics, and geo-awareness to help customers optimize their plant operations. The company s Proficy software platform has been key to enhancing customer experience by equipping them to leverage the benefits of RtOI. Enhanced Product Value GE, a founding member of the Industrial Internet Consortium, thoroughly understands the need for systems that offer increased functionality and benefits. With the Proficy platform, GE has launched an array of automation software improving the value proposition for its customers in the industrial space. At GE, the voice of the customer is paramount. The development team closely works with customers to understand their requirements and incorporate them into the solutions the company builds. With HMI/SCADA becoming an established commodity, GE realized that price does not add value to customers. GE s strategy involves educating customers, explaining the company s value proposition and
how the end users can benefit by implementing them. Frost & Sullivan's research reveals that customers who have adopted GE s RtOI solutions have experienced a 70% increase in operator productivity, a 25% decrease in downtime and 45% increase in the value proposition offered by the company, far exceeding existing traditional HMI systems. Value Added Services At GE, the core team realized that providing customers with state-of-the-art solutions will not suffice, so the company provides various training platforms for its customers. The core themes of these training programs are operation management training (beneficial for operators and management teams to streamline operations through the use of GE s proprietary software, such as Proficy Plant Applications, Workflow, Historian, and Portal, among others), automation software training to help plant management visualize and analyze shop floor data through the use of software such as Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY, ifix, and Change Management, among others) and control and communication systems training (enabling work productivity and work practices among employees with the use of Process Solutions, Motion Control, and Operator Interfaces software). Each of these programs is available as classroom training (usually 2-day or 4- day programs) or through online courses. The company schedules these programs worldwide every month. Pricing, venue, and schedule details are available on the company web page. GE provides value-added training modules to help customers realize the potential of the company s revolutionary automation software solutions. Ownership Experience The conservative mindset of the water and wastewater industry slows the rate at which advanced technologies are adopted. In spite of the growth of mobile devices and sophisticated software, some HMI/SCADA systems in this industry are 20 years old. Tight budgets coupled with high demands have prevented end users in the water and wastewater industry from incorporating newer software and devices. The team at GE accepted the challenge to help customers understand the risks they were likely to face when their existing technologies become obsolete. GE successfully partnered with a medium-sized water treatment facility to mobilize their workforce and increase plant efficiency. Frost & Sullivan is certain that GE had a positive impact on the facility by implementing RtOI on mobile devices, such as the ipads of operators and supervisors. By incorporating a new system, the team at the facility identified what the next actions should be, which resulted in faster response time and reduced downtime that translated into cost savings. The investment was moderate, but the benefits were abundant. Responsiveness to Unmet Market Needs The need for data is not a challenge in today s market. Traditional HMI/SCADA systems provide an abundance of shop floor/plant data. Frost & Sullivan's research reveals that the present challenge lies in filtering the data to decide on the correct course of action. A classic example is remote monitoring. Service technicians need to travel to the plant/site when they lack sufficient information about a problem. Geo-location offers the necessary information to the technicians. With RtOI, GE will respond to this unmet need of the market, enabling customers to filter the operational data from the HMI/SCADA systems
and transform them into actionable insights that can be accessed anywhere at any time. This unique value proposition offered by GE can open new opportunities, such as preventive maintenance, which can reduce downtime and associated costs for customers. Smart phones and tablets have an established presence in the industrial sector, and mobility has become a key theme in the industrial sector. RtOI is not just about going mobile; it is about using advanced intelligence to channel the right information to the correct device. This is the approach taken by GE which has enabled it to successfully cater to customers requirements. Leveraging Mega Trends Mega Trends are global, sustained, macroeconomic forces that will impact the future of business, economy, society, culture, and personal lives. Mega Trends identify some of the key global forces expected to transform society, markets, and cultures by 2020. One such trend is the idea of the smart factory, which incorporates advanced intelligence and mobile applications to change the way shop floor processes are performed. GE has played a vital role with its initiative called The Industrial Internet, initiated in 2012, that aims to bring products and concepts of the Industrial Revolution and the Internet revolution together to transform the future of the industrial landscape. Frost & Sullivan notes that the company is one of the earliest participants to have launched a pilot program in a GE energy storage factory in the United States, where employees used industrial ipads and GE s Proficy software which provide access to shop floor data while alerting employees to malfunctions and helping them take the right course of action. Conclusion Frost & Sullivan's independent analysis of the Automation Software market clearly shows that GE s visionary thinking enables it to develop products catering to customer needs and gain a competitive edge. The company s vision of using real-time operational intelligence to evolve shop floor processes has enhanced customer value and is a crucial step toward creating smart factories. GE is a worthy recipient of the 2014 Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award in the Global Automation Software for the Real-time Operational Intelligence market.
Company of the Year To be recognized as a leader not only in your industry, but among your non-industry peers as well requires a company to demonstrate excellence in three key areas: (1) take into account what your competitors are, and are not, doing; (2) meet customer demand with a comprehensive, value-driven product or service portfolio; and (3) establish a brand that resonates deeply with customers and stands apart from other providers. To achieve bestpractice levels in brand, demand, and positioning is a rare and significant accomplishment, and that is why Frost & Sullivan celebrates it with the Company of the Year Award. Recipients of this award represent the top ten percent of their industry: the other ninety percent can t keep up. For the Company of the Year Award, Frost & Sullivan evaluated the total client experience and strategy implementation excellence according to the criteria detailed below. Customer Value Excellence Criterion 1: Total Customer Experience Criterion 2: Product/Service Value Criterion 3: Purchase Experience Criterion 4: Ownership Experience Criterion 5: Service Experience Visionary Innovation Criterion 1: Unmet Needs Criterion 2: Use of Mega Trends Criterion 3: Pioneering Best Practices Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy Criterion 5: Aspirational Ideals The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards 360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding
of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels. Decision Support Scorecard To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This analytical tool compares companies performance relative to each other. It features criteria unique to each award category and ranks importance by assigning weights to each criterion. The relative weighting reflects current market conditions and illustrates the associated importance of each criterion according to Frost & Sullivan. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to each criterion, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below. Best Practice Award Analysis for GE Intelligent Platforms Decision Support Scorecards: Company of the Year Award The Decision Support Scorecards, shown below, include all performance criteria listed and illustrate the relative importance of each criterion and the ratings for each company under evaluation for the Company of the Year Award. The research team confirms the veracity of the model by ensuring that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Finally, to remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, Frost & Sullivan has chosen to refer to the other key players in as Company 2 and Company 3.
Decision Support Scorecard: Customer Value Excellence Measurement of 1 10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent) Award Criteria Customer Value Excellence Total Customer Experience Product/Service Value Purchase Experience Ownership Experience Service Experience Weighted Rating Relative Weight (%) 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 100% GE Intelligent Platforms 10 10 9 10 9 9.6 Company 2 9 8 8.5 8.5 8 8.4 Company 3 9 8 8 7 7 7.8 Criterion 1: Total Customer Experience Requirement: Customers receive exceptional impression at every stage of the purchase cycle Criterion 2: Product/Service Value Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar offerings in the market Criterion 3: Purchase Experience Requirement: It is as simple for salespeople to sell the product or service as it is for the customer to buy the product or service Criterion 4: Ownership Experience Requirement: Customers are proud to own and use the company s product or service Criterion 5: Service Experience Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, and stress-free
Decision Support Scorecard: Visionary Innovation Measurement of 1 10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent) Award Criteria Visionary Innovation Unmet Needs Use of Mega Trends Pioneering Best Practices Blue Ocean Strategy Aspirational Ideals Weighted Rating Relative Weight (%) 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 100% GE Intelligent Platforms 10 10 9 9 9 9.4 Company 2 9 8 8 9 8 8.4 Company 3 8 7 8 7 7 7.4 Criterion 1: Unmet Needs Requirement: A clear understanding of customers desired outcomes, the products that currently help them achieve those outcomes, and where key gaps may exist Criterion 2: Use of Mega Trends Requirement: Ability to incorporate long-range, macro-level scenarios into strategic plans, thereby anticipating and preparing for multiple futures that could occur Criterion 3: Pioneering Best Practices Requirement: A nothing-ventured-nothing-gained approach to strategy implementation that results in processes, tools, or activities that generate a consistent and repeatable level of success Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy Requirement: Proven track record of creating new demand in an uncontested market space, rendering the competition obsolete Criterion 5: Aspirational Ideals Requirement: A willingness to look beyond the simple goal of generating a profit to embrace a more powerful ideal of bringing greater value to customers or the planet About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages more than 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.