Friday, July 3, 2009

Again about profit. You can have 100% of one Company not making profit. You can cut part of this Company up to its 50%, cleaning losses. You can cut another 50% of its 50% and start to make profit. This is the simplest exercise that any MBA trained manager can do it. It works for him but does it works for shareholders? The challenge is not only to make profit but also improve the conditions for the survival and growing of the Company. Untill managers are paid just on profit, nothing will change the dramatic path of Invensys. Am I sitting on the moon?

Friday, July 3, 2009

Be prepared - the IOM layoff is coming and it is coming very, very soon. It will be deep and it will be everywhere.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Clearly IDC is not a major issue in Invensys. Let get out from India and not be diverted from the largest change in Invensys: IOM.

The IOM initiative is the largest ever integration project in Invensys. Hundreds, or may be even thousands of people will lose their jobs, with hoped-for good will - namely the stockholder interest.

Apparently, it appears that many Wonderware executives have lost their jobs. Wonderware is the cash cow in Invensys. Now, it is breaking into pieces. And, IPS is going to run the channel. Why? Because they deal directly with large businesses, but low profit margin. Do they know distribution channels business? Without the channel, WW business will lose market share in no time.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Jim, I have created a community for Invensys IDC. If you like to redirect your blog comments, please publish wordpress community named as:

http://invensysidc.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Jim, please don't close off our only outlet for venting and for communicating amongst ourselves without the IT police watching our e-mails. The changes underway at Invensys are terrifying - not from a career perspective, but from the point of view of those of us who genuinely care about the heritage we've built as Foxboro, Simsci, Wonderware, and our sister companies.

It is disgusting to see what has happened here. The backstabbing, infighting, horrific wastes of money, bean counter management, short sightedness, and damage to our brand. I've given the better part of my working life to this company, and it PAINS me to see what has happened in the last decade. The last few months were just the icing on the cake. They demonstrated that our current executive team is beyond clueless in terms of understanding our business, our customers, our markets, our people, or our value.

I don't have a lot of other career options at my age, so I don't plan to do something stupid. I just wish I could do SOMETHING to change the path we're on. Right now, speaking out internally would be akin to professional suicide. I saw what happened to other people who challenged the status quo. It wasn't pretty. Even though they were right.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Jim, you are correct. This is the only way we here at Invensys can vent, so please do not take this away from us. Like one of the bloggers said, we cannot vent at work since it will do us more harm than good.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Jim, you should not have waited for couple of months to decide an end to it. My recommendation: Allow no post and clean up the crap.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Please skip the continuing meaningless conversations about the quality of the IDC that no one outside of India cares about.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Why is everyone blaming IDC? The buck should not stop there. The real problem is with the global head of development, who took over our side of the company about a year ago and from what my Wonderware co-workers say, was a tyrant there as well. He has done nothing positive, must accept fault for the current situation, and must go.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Controls sales are up (NA, APAC, SA) Cant speak for EU. They made a profit last year. PLC continues to tap into Controls profits year in and year out to pay off their debt. Now that the debt is paid off they are still wiping them clean.

Monday, June 29, 2009

There have been some mistakes on the part of the management. Sometime back, the management just brought in more levels, increased the power distance and also created more burden in terms of the organizational expenses. On one hand they talk about innovation, on the other they start creating huge hierarchical structures. That's a contradiction and a mark of a confused management. The IDC Management is not the only one responsible, because this would not have happened without a nod from the top. So where is the confusion? A lack of vision of what is expected out of IDC is what has caused this, and this is not unique to Invensys IDC, this happens in the life of every organization. May be the management should learn from this.

Monday, June 29, 2009

I have been working with invensys from past 1.5 years. what I can tell about IDC is we have very good people. But the problem is each and every team has few people who survive with the others. What they can do is, simply they will claim that they have done all the work, though it was done by others. Most of the time these people sit below the managers level. There are a few people who come and stay in office only for 2 hours per day. Morning they wl come and stay for 1 hour and evening they will come in and punch. There should be some kind of tracking whether the employee is in office are not. Managers should take some good action on these people. It is not about "in" time and "out" time - what about the mean time? Some people are running separate business; they will be concentrating there only. Most of the managers are so liberal, very few utilizing good things but most of them are using bad things. I welcome the decesion taken by the higher mangement. The people who all are performimg well don't have to bother about the patnership. It is about the foxes who are all just acting smart. One more thing I want to tell is about the references scheme. This is another way of cheatting the management. Resource utilization is badly understood by IDC. If you are a hard worker, then you work like a donkey; if you don't work, no problem - you can do what ever you want.

Monday, June 29, 2009

The blog comment below is correct. Blogging will not do anything to resolve long-standing problems; but I have seen that "bringing them up" has the same result. I suspect that there are many bloggers who have raised issues only to be accused of not being team players - "Get with my way of working." Invensys is not alone in this methodology; there are many companies who work in this manner. The fact that this methodology exists within any company is always a management problem.

Monday, June 29, 2009

I certainly agree with the below blog. Do not blog something just for the heck of it. You are trying to spoil the reputation of the company. If project managers are not really performing, then how come we would have released so many products? There might couple of PMs who are not competant. We should not try to put the blame on all PMs. Let us do our job well. Then we can think of blaming others.

Monday, June 29, 2009

My sincere request to all the bloggers. Do not waste your time in writting these blogs. If you really have any issues with your managers (be it functional or Project) you should have brought it up. Do not think that you are the best and rest are all fools. You are equally responsible for what is happening. Don't just blame the managers. Accept it. Concentrate your energy on the job and your career and not on these unwanted things. Writing blogs will not take you any where.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Most of the IDC problems are recruitment of project managers (PM's) from failed entity BAAN. I think one can understand the importance of BAAN. They recommend a person for short-term award for preparing a QuickFix...

Sunday, June 28, 2009

IDC is not the only Invensys issue. What about Controls? Does someone believe this just because of economy? Not to speak about Europe...

Friday, June 26, 2009

I went through most of the information available here, and feel IDC did not improve over the years but appears deteriorating further.

IDC employees, you should be very happy and feel lucky if Invensys sells you to OSP. It is teaching you an important lesson: do not be too attached to a company, it is all business no sentiments, and also giving you an opportunity not to work for a failed management. So, take the advantage it is going to offer. But make sure (a warning to the OSP and Invensys management too) you will not end up in having the same management that is managing IDC presently, because they would make the OSP also a failed entity.

The present IDC head sounded reasonable at the beginning (I was with IDC for few months after he joined). Not sure what happened; may be the BU heads made him to fail, or he has also felt politics, opportunism and favoritism are better than good and impartial management.

What I keep hearing from my IDC friends is that most of the IDC managers (including top managers) spend approx 10 to 12 hours in the office - but their daily routine is:

• Smoking - 1 to 1.5 hours; Drink tea/coffee - 1 hour
• Browsing internet (news papers, shares, now-a-days Jim Pinto website etc.) – 2 hours
• Chit chatting – 1 to 2 hrs
• Meetings (most of them useless) – 2 to 4 hours
• Project/organizational related activities – max 1 hour
• Playing table tennis – 1 to 2 hours
• Postman job (forwarding emails) – 1 to 2 hours

IDC’s failure is not just because of IDC management alone. Even the Invensys top management has contributed. To name few mistakes: they did not take timely corrective actions most of the time, also nominated wrong persons as in-changers in US and other places who are not interested or have not allowed IDC to grow strong (may be they felt it would be a problem for their own existence), pampered IDC management, and so on.

The new Invensys management should realize this at the earliest and take the necessary corrective actions - if there are not selling IDC to OSP. Otherwise IDC can become a big burden to maintain. Maybe the management has already sensed this which resulted in thinking to sell IDC to OSP. My recpommendations:

• IDC head should be asked to provide good and impartial governance by promoting right talent at the right places, if not please...
• Change the IDC management immediately and at regular intervals Make the managers to get involved regularly in development and testing activities rather than just do the post man job
• There is no necessity to promote redundant organizational structures at IDC and in the rest of the offices, wasting organizational wealth and man power
• There is no real necessity to create middle managers between directors and managers, sheer waste of organizational wealth and man power
• Like in rest of the offices, managers at IDC can be shuffled
• All the non performing staff should be identified and removed regularly
• Use OSPs for non core activities

I would be happy to see Invensys coming back to its golden period. Then I can proudly claim that I did work for this company once. I wish Invensys best of luck.

Friday, June 26, 2009

The decision to use an OSP in many cases is due to the desire to leverage some niche skills, as someone else commented. This is exactly why Invensys should NOT go this route. In fact, transferring niche skills to an OSP is essentially giving them years of training investment for free, and potentially creating a future competitor or skills that can be one day utilized by a competitor. This does not mean that IDC should not be transformed, but it is beyond stupid to give away all of these skills to an OSP who brings no other niche skills to the party. Perhaps it is more a result of a buddy relationship with the head of CTS. Something smells here.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Invensys will be sacrificing future for quick reduction in cost if it do these things. Which would mean that Invensys wants to be bought by someone.

Friday, June 26, 2009

If people at IDC are working on world-class products then why should Invensys need to outsource work to CTS / TCS (IT COMPANIES) rather than to IDC? This outlines the confidences,capabilities of the people working at IDC. My advice to all the project managers at IDC is to go and join Indian politics which is the best place for them to work.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Let me tell you I am not a Manager just an EHS member for the current turmoil.

I request all you guys out there at IDC, to stop the cat fight - gorilla warfare)going between Managers and their reporties. If your managers were not performing well all these years, then why have you hung around here for so long? And do you expect CTS doesn’t also have any postmen? There you would even find the “letter boxes” where you go and pickup the mails.

IDC India have never failed to meet the expectation for all those one line requirements stuffed on to the project dockets, its only the stage 0 – 3 eastimates done outside are the cause of all disasters. All new products are badly designed spending enormous money, and once its completely screwed-up throw it off to low cost centres, and pass the “failed to Deliver” award to IDC.

If you are a technical expert and have gained enough domain knowledge over several years, why share it to thousand of CTS employees for their short term benefits? ake it with you to other automation companies who are already on top, so that you will not walk through the same rope again.

Without IDC, Invensys can definitely achieve 1 X 6 ( the one OUT off the top 6). So lets stop posting comments on this weblog, instead post your Resumes somewhere. All the Best!!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The management of Invensys at USA, knows very well about the PM's of IDC. They cannot help their associates or their group in any technical matters. The PM's of IDC are neither good in PC environment nor UNIX environment. It is mystery, how they are recruited in IDC.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

If the decision to sell IDC is to be made for sure, then it would be better to sell to an engineering firm not to a IT company. The majority of the people at IDC are working in world-class products. Does any one in CTS know about DCS, PLC, SCADA? What they are good at is PC based software. They do not know any thing about hardware, firmware.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

We have nothing against having an ODC, but the people who we wanted to dump were getting increasingly powerful at IDC. The last VP fell prey to the growing inspirations of BU heads. Things were delicate at that time. We could not decide. There were reports that excellence awards were never given to those who deserved. They were always disposed under veil of secrecy. It had become liabilty to pay salaries to ever increasing strength of Managers at IDC. Freshers were recruited from private channels.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Both models - captive units and OSP are alive and working well. I worked for an OSP earlier, where we had many engineering ODCs that had been in successful existence for over a decade. Over the years, the relationships became stronger, and the importance of the work at the ODCs continued to grow.

The benefits to the customer were:

• Get niche skills without long-term commitment to employee costs
• Release non-performaing resources with ease
• Reduce expense overheads on managing a remote operation

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

You pointed out the key issue. Who forces you to use non-functional but cheap resource? This is who brought Invensys down to this point. Now we all know chickens can not lay the golden eggs. But it is to late. Invensys becomea a technology company with out capability to develop new technology. What is top management's new story?

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The last days of IDC organization are on. What started and looked like a masterstroke for Invensys has been brought to dust by some top management junkies. IPS and WW Developement will be done through an OSP who will be either CTS or TCS. What direction wwill the IRG development take? What will happen to the Project Manager aka PostMan? CHANGE is the constant thing. But Invensys CHANGES colors too FAST and too DARK.

The new trend arising in the industry is to do all the developements through an OSP. Honeywell has been trying to do this for the past 3-4 years with no suceess, because of its 4000+ strong workforce. IDC is 1/8 of the size of Honeywell. Sooner or later other cost centres like ABB, Emerson will follow the same path as mentioned by another blogger. Rockwell did try this model with TCS and they failed to deliver and were shot down. Invensys time to risk it out. But, whatever Invensys has done in its 8 years of existence is just "SCREW UP".

I disagree that the OSP is for 100% software only product lines. If this is happening, then it will be for the combined IPS-WW organizations. There is no question of this not happening. The management has come too far into this and now they cannnot back off. They have let the rumors spread in the organizations for 2 weeks now which is not a healthy signature. Any management will deny rumors if they are rumors. But, this isn't.

If Invensys inks a partnership model with an OSP, this gamble could work. If not, we can soon see the Top Management of Invensys being busted off and soon Invensys could be history. One can hope the IDC jobs are secure for at least 6-12 months and the OSP respects IDC. The management has ditched all the 500+ employees of IDC. IDC employees now do not have a "CHOICE" to decide where they like to work. Everyone joined IDC as they liked being part of R&D organization. Now, IDC-ians are forced to join the OSP or just "WALK AWAY".

Always expect the unexpected and when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Let us see how tough IDC-ians are.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

As an Invensys technology manager who is forced to use IDC (India), I have to say I dread using them. They just don't deliver and fail to understand or engage brain when asked for something even slightly innovative. I shall not miss them if they are going!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I am compelled to disagree with the blogger who states that management is not the primary cause of the issues that we face, in terms of innovation and development effectiveness. There can be no doubt that the IDC has not been as effective as it could have been, and yes, some of this is due to complacency and lack of an alternative. Yet the primary problem is with the head of development, who has lost all touch with the market, with technology trends, with modern management styles. He is a politician, not a leader, visionary or manager. The singular effect of a change at this key position in the company would have a positive impact many times that of anything that could be done at IDC. We have talented and competent individuals in the company who could step into that role and immediately move things to the positive side.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The decision of so-called the outsourcing/cosourcing cannot really be attributed to either the failure of the IDC mgmt or the IDC employees. This decision is based on the strategic decision of the IPS/WW executive mgmt to cut cost/trim overhead. However, the point to be noted here is: If this so called transition/takeover happens, might be it is tragic end of the Invensys companies and products? Surprisingly, Invensys is not the only company going down this path, though it looks like they are the first to do this - followed by other product development companies - ABB, Schneider, Honeywell, Rockwell, Thales and Samsung.

Point to be noted - Not all the Project Managers should not be branded as "postman". There are some real good PMs who are techically sound, than the so-called Functional managers. The PMs hands are tied by the process that is revolving around them. Nevertheless, there are some PMs from non-engineering backgrounds who do not really understand heads nor tails of the products/business.

Many employees are more curious about what will happen to the person who is heading the Project Management group. After all, that person has hardly got any xperience to call himself/herself as a PM.

Flash News - The planned Outsourcing/cosourcing strategy planned within the Invensys Development organisation is only applicable for 100% software only product lines. Yes, you guessed it.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I say CHANGE is the only constant thing in this World. Since last two weeks I have been seeing that IDC (Invensys Development, India) is going to be sold to CTS, TCS. This was followed up by a job openings in CTS targetting exact skills and domain expertise. This is more or less Confirmed.

The story does not end here to Invensys Management. Soon they will realize that they are killing the golden duck. A captive development center always has an advantage over Out-sourced development. Having come from the Services industry, let me share my experiences: The Services company business model is to provide cheaper services for the buisness partner. In this hunt, they ignore the following:

a) Domain Expertise: Building domain expertise and culture will not make any importance to a service oriented company, nor will invest in it. This will be an End to growth in required expertise. In the field of Invensys, where domain expertize and capabilities are critical, this can be FATAL.
b) Talent Retention: Experts will not and can not be retained with services companies as they always will lose to a competitor. There are clear examples of similar services companies becoming just a gateway to the domains.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I would like to put in my two cents here. The problem with cost-centres is that they tend to get into relaxation mode once they bcome stabilized and confidence has been established in the parent.

Being in this competetive world, we need to stand up to the competition. Probably, that's what management is throwing at us. It would be nice if everyone can standup and deliver. The rumors stay as rumors until they get confirmed. Whether we belong to CTS or TCS or XYZ, it does not matter. The passion towards the job is what make us happy at the end of the day.

We need to evolve more strong than what we were before. It's time for change, and time for more competition. We should say "bring it on". This is not the end of the road for IDC people. This is just the beginning. Bloggers may call me optimistic, but that's what we have to be.

I do not beleive that Management should hold the sole responsibility for these decisions (or mess - accprding to some others in this blog). Collectively, IDC has failed to deliver on demands of the Sr Management. Thats what has forced the company to take such a decision and move forward. We need to understand that this is not the end of the road for Invensys as well.

BRING IT ON!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I think an investigation should commence should this alleged transaction occur, to inquire as to whether any Invensys management directly or indirectly (via family members) stand to gain from this arrangement.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Forget about all these things. First, we should welcome CTS into the Automation Domain. Hope they will have a bright future, and hope that with CTS we will see a good working culture (Better than Invensys).

Monday, June 22, 2009 - RE "These are all rumors":

These are not rumors. Everything mentioned below is going to happen. People who think and assume as rumors should open the eyes and see the what is happening. Anyway, within a short time everyone will be knowing. But, please dont misguide other people.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Yes, it is true that IDC Managers dont have any credibilitiy at all. They dont bother about their teams. They are the only reason/cause for all bad politics and the present state in the IDC. Hopefully, CTS will keep an eye on them and make the working environment good, at least from now. Actually removing one IDC Top Manager will solve all the problems. Without knowing this fact, Invensys Top Management is taking some wrong decisions. Some one should open their eyes and see what is happening here.

Monday, June 22, 2009

What kind of credibility do IDC top managers have to assure anything like that (Monday, June 22, 2009. At least, that's the assurance from IDC top managers). They stopped bothering about organization long ago. The so-called rumors are floating around for quite some time now. Each and every top manager is busy securing themselves using their know-how and influence. No idea how they classified this information as confidential for so long time. Possibly they stopped considering lower cadre as part of IDC team.

Monday, June 22, 2009

These are all rumors - people have created their own version of acquiring IDC by TCS and all. The only thing which is going to happen is acquiring some help from TCS/CTS for current ongoing projects in IDC. There are no merger of IDC in TCS/CTS whatsoever and there will be no layoffs. (At least, that's the assurance from IDC top managers).

Monday, June 22, 2009

With respect to new jobs for the project Managers working at IDC, I think it will be difficult for them to get new jobs at Offshore - the reason behind this is because IDC got screwed up in all directions because their bad politics in turn resulting in good benefits for Honeywell, Emersion, Siemens... like companies.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I am not familiar with India based companies but looks like CTS has no experience of providing R&D, S/W and electronic design services. They seem to be just an IT services company. Why would Ulf and Sudipta trust their core product R&D to a company that has absolutely no relevant experience at all?

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The managers in IDC used to look worried some days back, but now the smiles are back. May be some big chunk of pie is reserved for them. But I'm really worried for those managers who really used to work hard, and had kept themselve away from IDC management politics.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Regarding the merger of Invensys IDC, and Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS): I would like to see the full article reprinted since I can't find it. Also, this doesn't pass the sanity test. CTS is a $500 million Revenue company and Invensys Process Solutions is a 1 billion pound comany. Will the sparrow swallow the hawk? Or, is it just IDC (Invensys India) that has been divested? Remarkably, no announcements on the Invensys website - yet.

CTS (NASDAQ:CTSH) is a leading provider of IT software services and consulting services while Invensys PS is a leading supplier of automation solutions that enable industrial customers to improve efficiency, profitability, productivity and safety. Not exactly a neat fit. Need some provide of Invensys/IDC/CTS connection.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

If Invensys simultaneously moves to a low-cost development model AND divests itself of its existing offshore expertise, it will be accelerating its demise at record speed. The new management does not have an appreciation for the uniqueness of skills required in the process automation and information domain, and that includes the head of development, whose own skills are well more than a decade out of date and have not kept current with industry trends and technology. What a shame to see a company that has fostered amazing innovations dating from the I/A system to InTouch, fall to such a pathetic level.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Though fall out of Invensys IDC is a business compulsion, how it actually funtioned in its normal times is worthy to note. Accountability was missing everywhere. I can say that things were OK till a manager's departure. But it is that moment which gave strength to some of the directors. Then on every policy change became contravertial, especially the loss they caused for all Principal Engineers. Motivation levels dropped and associates got frustrated. Virtually organization got divided into two segments. Year after year things started deteriorating rapidly.

Friday, June 19, 2009

If CTS takes over IDC, Invensys then what happens to all the project managers who does simply post-man job? With Invensys management they survived; but with CTS management, I think they have to look for another job.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Invensys IDC has very short life now. Based on indications, as published in Economic Times on 20 April 2009, IDC will be acquired by CTS. This is going to happen in the coming quarter. Again, incapable management is unable handle the situation professionally. Hope CTS keeps a tab on such practices and takes neccessary steps to curtail unwanted situations.

Monday, June 15, 2009 - Regarding the June 10th comment:

Smaller and more profitable is a much better place to be than large and losing money. There isn't a large shareholder that is complaining, they own the company.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

This is great! I read back thru the blogs and every reorg shows us a smaller company with less potential to gain market share. At this rate, Invensys won't exist in a year or two. Great management! Even better emphasis on the customer!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Ulf stated in his message:
"Given the breadth of talent that becomes available with the coming together of the three businesses, the IOM Executive Team is meeting this week to discuss the finalisation of the organisation structure at the next levels and will then move to the selection of the best candidates"

So he will select the best candidates and the rest will go ....?

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - Invensys Divisional appointment (Release extract):

Invensys announces the appointment of Sudipta Bhattacharya as CEO and Business President of our newly formed Invensys Operations Management division (IOM). IOM was created by the integration of our three industrial automation businesses (Invensys Process Systems, Wonderware and Eurotherm) into a single division.

Sudipta, who has been the interim Chief Operating Officer for Wonderware, Eurotherm and IPS, joined Wonderware in August 2007, and became Business President of Wonderware in November 2007.

Ulf Henriksson, Chief Executive of Invensys plc, commented:

"I am pleased to appoint Sudipta to this important role where he will, together with IOM’s people, create new market demand by solving today’s problems with a new and open approach to customer value. His hands-on experience in process automation and optimisation, and in running industrial solutions and software businesses, will help us take advantage of the convergence in technologies that enable our customers to optimise their entire operations, with the opportunity to create a continuum of solutions and services for the whole industrial market."

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Rudd is there, either to sell Invensys, or try to engineer a massive acquisition/merger. Given the inability of ISYS management to fuel real growth, it will be in the shareholders' best interests to sell the company as the economy starts to recover.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Whom ever said that they were selling the company appears to be right. They are trimming down the work force and changing the direction all at once and not very well either.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Ulf starting to cash in his chips.

Invensys (LSE: ISYS.L - news) (ISYS) Director name: Mr Ulf Henriksson Amount sold: 49,599 @ 231.40p Value: £114,772.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Quote weblog Friday, May 29, 2009 : "....gutted the sales force, starved the development groups, only to tout a service group that only delivered 10 percent of their goal....".

I'm shocked that the product sales force allows the appointed agent to manipulate them. They totally forgot their role & the role of their agent. How sad to have such a lousy team. I believe that there are better future for Invensys product if these leeches work harder.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

I left Invensys. I enjoyed the work and people in my group. I think a good way to sum up my years there is a story about the doctor. For my years there my blood pressure was consistently high. I got used to telling the doc “it’s always high, just see the last reading”. Recently I went to my new doc (different state) and made the same statement to avoid another high blood pressure speech. My blood pressure now is very close to normal.

I didn't put much stock into the culture of a company and it's effect on yourself (and family) physically or mentally until I left Invensys. I am now in a very positive/relaxed yet results driven culture company (It took me a while to adjust from the high pressure culture of Invensys). It has struggled through the tough year plus, like everyone, and the employees have lost jobs and benefits. But the first cut was the top leadership team's Salary months before all other cuts. And there is a target date to reinstate cut benefits early next year. If Invensys is all you know, it can be better, different, or healthier after Invensys.

Perhaps someday Invensys will understand what it takes to create a culture of "want to work here". It's not complicated, it has to do with money, benefits and freebies. It has nothing to do with "motivational" talks.

And according to Ulf, there is cash on the books, with no debt. So the culture could change in this tough economy at Invensys if management wanted it to change. Wouldn't that be a nice piece of free advertising for Invensys. If in this tough time, they would take care of their own and keep up good salaries and benefits. That would be invaluable pub.

Oh,and that website looks like a 5th grade project. It does remind me of my kids diapers. Good call on that one.

Take care all

Saturday, May 30, 2009

They most definitely have not starved the development groups in some parts of IPS. In fact, WonderWares budgets are higher proportionally than almost all software companys. Yet there is very little output for that money spent.

Friday, May 29, 2009

It is sad how the management has figured out how to run this company into the ground. Under the pretext of reorganization, they have gutted the sales force, starved the development groups, only to tout a service group that only delivered 10 percent of their goal. If Ulf and company doesn't wake up we might as well close the doors and dissolve the company because when the customer finds the products lagging further and further behind the competition there will be no company and no need for them either.

Friday, May 29, 2009 - To the blog below:

I can assure you that this is nothing new for Invensys - this is what they do. Their MO is to instill fear into the sales force and threaten "re-structuring and/or lay-offs" unless you make undefined goals. Worst part is that even if the sales force makes and achieves the targets - there will be no bonuses! This is what the IPS VP Sales does - stretch your goals, and even if you make your numbers you will not be compensated! Management at IPS is interested only in the advancement of themselves and their friends that they protect with cush jobs.

There's little need to wonder who will lead the new 'IOM' - as 'IPS' we operate without leadership. Case in point, almost 2 full months into the new FY many sales territories, quotas and account responsibilities are still "being discussed" by the "Executive Leadership Team" The only message from these fools is "make your numbers or there will be additional re-structuring (layoffs) in Sales." Now is that the way to inspire the Sales force and Channel Partners and build market-share?

Friday, May 29, 2009

Just to respond to a comment about Wonderware creating the new Invensys logo. They had nothing to do with it. This new logo was introduced with no input from Wonderware.

Friday, May 29, 2009 - Something about IPS APAC......

HR senior management must be held accountable for deteriorating performance in IPS APAC. Their behaviors and attitudes towards managing the human assets are just appalling.....day-dreaming, disconnect, arrogance, bias, naiveness, to plain stupidity... you name it, they have it !

Thursday, May 28, 2009

This logo is the lamest, dumbest that I have ever seen. It defies all conventions on good logo design. I guess it's a bit like the way Invensys management has been able to bring down an industry giant like Foxboro and a neat technology leader like Eurotherm to their knees. Good luck Invensys employees.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Well, it's started. Once again Invensys tries to cut its way to greatness!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

To clarify one point in your eNews article, Jim - the combined IOM entity has been in discussion for years, well before Mr. Bhattacharya's entrance onto the scene. He may well have been a catalyst and a source of some of the specifics, but Ulf has had this in the cards for quite some time.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Ulf most definitely does not want to hang around. He wants to return to the USA and run a company there. He will have barrels of money to do whatever he wants.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

There's little need to wonder who will lead the new 'IOM' - as 'IPS' we operate without leadership. Case in point, almost 2 full months into the new FY many sales territories, quotas and account responsibilities are still "being discussed" by the "Executive Leadership Team" The only message from these fools is "make your numbers or there will be additional re-structuring (layoffs) in Sales." Now that's the way to inspire the Sales force and Channel Partners and build market-share.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Read the latest issue of JimPinto.com eNews, 28 May 2009:

(Extracts) The new name IOM earns a yuck from me - seems a forced-fit to describe the motley mix of products. The new logo earned several double-yucks on the Invensys weblog. Invensys shares have been climbing steadily - 235p on 27 May 09 - a jump of about 30% in the last month. The current market-cap is about £2B, which brings price/revenue ratio close to 1:1. This may signal Ulf's last hurrah - a good time for him to exit after a healthy sell off. You don't really think he wants to stick around, do you?

Invensys - Ulf's last hurrah

Friday, May 22, 2009

The big question is: Who will lead the new combined IPS/WonderWare/Eurotherm organization? Note that no announcement has been made confirming Bhattychara as the person. Who are other candidates?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

(click) Invensys signals return of dividend

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Frankly who really cares what the logo looks like.It's all about substance.The plain fact's to it they have none.They don't care about doing things the best possible way,they care about doing it the easiest and cheapest.Maybe if management would dedicate itself to being and making the best,they may finally succeed.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Agreed. The creative agency the company used needs sunglasses, a white cane and a guide dog.

Monday, May 18, 2009

And the color scheme on the new Invensys web site reminds one of the surprises when changing one's childrens' diapers. It looks to me like they let the great minds at WonderWare do the marketing design on this one, nevermind the fact the great marketing minds at WonderWare all left about 10 years ago.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The new logo looks like it was designed by some 7th grade art student; lower-case....and spread out WAY too far.....late 70's techno-font, carrying some silly "dotted I" theme, in a borderline putrid shade of yellow green. An absolute embarrassment; makes the original crescent moon and Andale font look classy by comparison.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The new Invensys logo is quite asinine and a putrid color. How much did this fiasco cost the company. Does anyone think that this color is better than the blue? Can you type the new logo? What's up with all the dots?

Thursday, May 14, 2009

So, it appears that there may have been some insider trading in advance of the favorable quarterly announcements that drove the price up a few days ago. What is the FTSE equivalent of the SEC?

Thursday, May 14, 2009

"Invensys Operations Management"? What a horrible, backwards looking name lacking in creativity or inventiveness. B-O-R-I-N-G, just like the Invensys solutions these days. Bet a 100 quid this name will be gone in a year.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ulf Henriksson, Chief Executive of Invensys plc, commented: "I am pleased to be able to report that we achieved a robust performance during the past year against the background of one of the most difficult global economies in decades. We had strong order intake, which is testimony to our customers' belief in our ability to deliver projects and solutions. We had strong cash flow across the Group which has further strengthened our financial position; we are debt free with £309 million of net cash and deposits on the balance sheet. "

Looks good. Dressing up for an impending sale?

2 new board members - Dr. Read and F. Caio.

IPS, Wonderware and Eurotherm merged into single entity - "Invensys Operations Management"

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Regarding IPS consolidation (BTW not Invensys i.e. Rail or controls; just IPS) I can't wait for the new logo. New VP's, new organizations, new acronyms, and new message to the market that this move solidifies our product base and provides customers with one stop solutions. Reorganize, reorganize, reorganize, reorganize..........

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Pretty funny that IPS schedules their N. American Client Conference the week before Emerson holds Emerson Exchange. Has anybody attended either of these? Wondering which one would be more worthwhile - I would guess Emerson just because they are a much stronger company with greater capabilities, not to mention better products and expertise.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Are the planets aligning for major announcements coincident with financial announcements tomorrow? Perhaps a major reorganization with its inevitable redundancies and workforce reductions?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Regarding the Wonderware distribution channel, the channel really IS what Wonderware is. The customer relationships are with the channel, so I suspect that they are quite safe in their positions, and that Invensys will (like GE did with Intellution reps) try to push other products through the WW channel.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It has always been interesting to read the fall of the Invensys sub companys. I have worked at Creamery Package, Crepaco, APV, and then Invensys APV. After Invensys took this company over and couldn't managed it then sold parts of it off and finely to SPX - which at the end of April closed the huge factory down and moved it to other SPX company's.

It just something to see a company over 125 years old go away. It would be good to start up a weblog on the SPX group to see how the are doing with this type of undertakeing taking along some of the old group. I hope they will review the management that they took along.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - Invensys integration:

Asinine approach, but one that his Ulfship has wanted for a while. Incompatible channels, incompatible sales models, incompatible industry coverage, incompatible culture, incompatible technology - the list goes on and on. The reason is pure and simple - to drive overhead and cost out near term and prepare the company for sale so the short term numbers look better.

Monday, May 11, 2009 - Invensys integration:

About time. Wonder what will happend to the previous sales channel ie. agents of Wonderware and Eurotherm once this consolidation take place. They have been operating independantly and the market and technical know-how is in the hands of their agents.

Monday, May 11, 2009

It is official: All the Invenys companies will be integrated into just one company, similar to IPS but including Wonderware, Eurotherm, etc. The main idea is to have all centralize into just one company with just one CEO, Sales manager, etc.

Friday, May 8, 2009

If you think the market for I/A on solaris 10 is very low, you should see the market for the Archestra-based InFusion applications. No demand, internal or external, due to significant technical deficiencies. But now that WW guys are driving development, we'll have to ride this ship to the bottom of the ocean.

Friday, May 8, 2009

I/A was launched in 1987, not in the late 1970s. It makes me question people's knowledge of the development of the platform.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

I/A cannot run on SUN ultra 25/45 with AMD/Intel chips. Many application software built around I/A cannot run on AMD/Intel chips, because BIG/LITTLE Endian concepts comes into the picture. I think SOTM is last I/A version which Invensys can release. People who are using critical UNIX applications on I/A are in deep trouble

Thursday, May 7, 2009

As a matter of interest, the application processors (AP's) on the original I/A systems from the late 1970's were built by Foxboro and ran a VRTX/VENIX OS. I don't recall the CPU chip. The subsequent migrations to newer, more-powerful processors as they became available confirms the wisdom of the original design decisions.

Examining the history of the I/A product shows that the original concept of hardware evolution with minimal loss of application engineering investment has been achieved. In most cases, the existing control applications would load and run on the next generation of hardware with little of no changes required.

It was recognized in the original design phase that the major value of a control system lies in the control applications and the benefits they deliver to the user. The actual hardware is a small component of the user's total investment. The past thirty-plus years of UNIX-based systems is a tough act for anyone to follow.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

There is news that, next Monday at Orlando's Eurotherm Sales Meeting, the merger between Foxboro M&I and Eurotherm will be announced. It seems all the duplicate workforce will be eliminated, and all Eurotherm products will be labeled as Foxboro. Does anyone know more about this?

Thursday, May 7, 2009 - To the poster from Sunday, May 3, 2009 on the ultra sparcIIIi chip:

Wrong again. I/A on Unix was built on SunOS/Solaris platform, but there is/was no dependecy on the CPU. For instance, the AW51C platfrom from the mid 90's was on a Sparc20 which had a SuperSPARC or hyperSPARC. The dependency is on the OS.

This appears to be either an un-informed poster, or someone with a MS/WW love affair. BTW, it may be a while before the large petrochemical/refining users of I/A like the Reliance refinery will move to MS.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The ultra sparcIIIi chip on which I/A was built for the last 25 years is no longer available. It will be very difficult task to build I/A using AMD/Intel chips. The market for I/A on solaris 10 is very low.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

The recent run-up in the price of Invensys shares STINKS of insider trading. Let's see what transpires in the coming weeks, and if there is something of significance, an investigation shall surely be in order.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Microsoft updates? Gawd, that's nothing compared to the mess of updates WonderWare users have to deal with. Wait until IPS fully drinks the WW kool-aid and you'll see what real disasters are. Let's hope the Solaris version stays around for a long time.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Not sure what the basis for the post on "death of I/A on Solaris". Sun (and hopefully Oracle) has been good about compatibility of applications on multiple generations of Solaris and Microprocessors. In fact, this is spelt out as a Sun guarantee.

Now Foxboro may decide to kill Solaris for other reasons, having drunk the Microsoft Koolaid. I for one hope that this is not the case - Foxboro is one of few remaining DCS vendors who have a non-Microsoft based platform, I hope they continue to support SolarisOnSparc or transition to SolarisOnIntel or LinuxOnIntel. I personally don't see how the constant churn of Microsoft updates/upgrades/compatibility-issues is sustainable in the process control industry over the long run.

As these things tend to occur in a cyclical manner, someone may come up with the revolutionary idea of a DCS on a proprietary platform pretty soon!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Overreaction to an analyst rating on ISYS today shot the stock price up - on what seems to be no real news.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

It is the death of I/A on solaris, since TI has pulled the plug for Ultra-sparcIIIi chip. I/A cannot be built on AMD/Intel chips running Solaris. Is it the death of critical UNIX applications of IA? What will Invensys will do in future? No SOTM i.e. I/A on SOLARIS 10. If SOLARIS is abandoned completely, then Critical UNIX applications will die on it's own.

Monday, April 27, 2009

The recent integration of M&I (Foxboro) into the overall IPS structure resulted in many layoffs of talented M&I personnel. The M&I factory has also been ordered to go to a 32 hour work week, and employees were told they could file for unemployment for the other eight hours. (Obviously the management has no idea that unemployment doesn't work that way, so the result is a 20% pay cut for the M&I factory personnel. I suppose that is better than no job at all. I predict it wil not be long until that factory is also moved to Mexico. It is very sad to see that the 100 year old Foxboro Company has in effect been "thrown under the bus" as the management of IPS could care less whose instrumentation they use, no matter words come out of their mouths.

Monday, April 27, 2009 - Re: Monday, April 20, 2009 blog, "The issue isn't about off-shoring the engineering." etc.

The note below was likely directly posted by management. Anyone who has listened to the "canned" speeches has heard this proclamations about -listening to customers, -Taking out cost, -sales organization can't sell the value, etc. The only thing missing is skyrockets in flight, customer delight.

This is a management issue. When you keep making short-sighted decisions to line your pockets you tear down the business. Lance is not alone, look around the US and you see the same model over and over.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Perhaps Invensys HQ should move to Mexico.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Soon, it may be announced that Invensys HQ is moving to the USA.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Not sure where you are getting your information from. Triconex manufacturering was sent to Mexico about 5 years ago. I know this first hand as the wrong drawings were sent for several modules, that caused everyone allot of pain.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

It's been my understanding for quite a while that Triconex products have been manufactured in Mexico - so where have you been??

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Yesterday it was announced that Triconex manufacturing will also be moving to Mexico.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

As always, the Devil is in the details. If quality degrades then price quickly becomes moot. Downtime and possible system problems can easily account for significant lost revenue, if quality is not 100%.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

You know this place is going downhill when all that is spoken about is cutting costs, yet you have senior leadership spending like there is no tomorrow. I always thought senior leadership was there to set an example for others to follow. Then you have others in senior leadership that joke around about firing people, in times like these job security isn't something that should be joked about. The sad thing is that they made it a goal to promote an "I want to work here" culture, with everything going on, the only reason to want to work here is to have a paying job, because it is better than no job. You can never have an "I want to work here" culture if your workforce is working in fear. I wonder how long this will last.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The customer may not always be right - but they will spend their money and buy from the supplier that listens to THEM and provides them the best solution for THEIR problems. One must ponder just how smart those two are. Big problem is that not enough customers are paying Invensys for anything. What expertise? What superior products? Long, long gone.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

"The customer is always right" is a long-held fallacy. Short term thinking leads to long term problems (witness the state of the overall economy). Messrs Henriksson and Bhattachara are smarter than that.

Customers pay Invensys for its process knowledge as much as for its products, and the continued brain drain jeopardizes both. Manufacturing was inevitably headed to a lower cost location. It's simply a reality of the times.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Is RBATCH-II QUALIFIED on solaris 10?. Any user installed it on ultra 25?

Monday, April 20, 2009

The issue isn't about off shoring the engineering. The marketplace isn't willing or able to pay for the higher cost engineering when our largest competitors can provide the same solution for less. The complaint about jobs going south isn't a leadership issue, it is a survival issue. The sales organization can't sell the value of North American engineering if there is no perceived value in it. Emerson, ABB, Honeywell are all in the same position, the market won't tolerate the high cost engineering in the North America. We can blame leadership for moving the jobs to Mexico but the real issue is our clients, all leadership is doing is listening to what the client is telling us. "Take cost out and pass it along to us"

Monday, April 20, 2009

To let jobs move to low cost countries is a shame; how will the country ever rebound when job after job is lost? I do know that there is nothing anyone can do but sit and watch it happen over and over again. I guess this will end up as poverty-class and high-class.

Monday, April 20, 2009

So you're surprised about continued offshoring at Invensys? This is a trend that has been going on for the years. It accelerated under Ulf, and with Bhattachara running the new IA group, it will reach record rates, as he has shown little loyalty to the USA with engineering staffing.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Rockwell/Invensys merger in the cards in the near future. Unfortunately, don't expect a big stock pop for either.

Saturday, April 18, 2009 - RE: future of RBATCH-II :

RBATCH II also supported on Solaris 10 Ultra25 on the MESH. Can be usefull to customer s that want on the MESH workstation but also want to keep some critical UNIX apps.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The stage is set. Rockwell is killing its Visualization Business. Go get it!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Well they did it again. IA is being shipped South of the border to Mexico. With this country reeling in economic crisis, our faithful and knowledgeable management team gets rid of more jobs that are based in the U.S. This is nothing but blatant greed. I myself view this as an attack on the U.S.; the people should be incensed that again greed drives how this unthoughtful company does business. They are cold, calculating, as can be imagined. We have witnessed thru the succestion of presidents the general attitude of management. These people are hopeless! The sale of the company is the only hope. But I just ask this question: Should we not work for the good of all, instead of the good of a few? Well I guess the most important thing is the short-term shareholders profit, instead of the company going on to prosper.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Word came out yesterday that IA Manufacturing is to be completely relocated to Mexico within 2 years.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

How completely pathetic and indicative of Invensys's development ineptitude that it needed to partner with a 3rd party to provide customer migration from Triconex systems to TRICONEX systems!

Monday, April 6, 2009

The next couple of weeks will be really interesting at Invensys, watching how the new org structure comes together; who wins, who loses, and what the customer positioning will be.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

You stated "A solution would be to stick with what you do best and what got you some success in the past: data acquisition, control, etc.", and this is what I took issue with. I do agree with you that criticising the strategy at any level is not well received. As much as we can debate these issues ad infinitum, only a change at the head of development and in the CEO's office will break the logjam.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Am I missing something? I said "stay out of SAP, Oracle, etc." - not stay out of MES. I just noted the fact that you need to be consistent with one solid MES offering and not change technologies every other year.

See, that's the attitude that Wonderware has had for last few years: do not dare criticize. Why not admit some weaknesses and strive for improvement, instead of just shutting people up? This blog (if you haven't noticed) is about people that are NOT happy with Invensys. And venting it out, right or wrong, should be taken as good information. You want to feel good about your seamlessly integrated technology, you may just download a product brochure and be happy. What happens if next week they layoff people again? Where would your "secure/protected strategic position" end up?