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Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, reportedly is first to introduce a unified supply chain management solution for the hydrocarbon processing industry. Built on its Spiral Suite platform, the new offering closes the value gaps left by poorly integrated legacy tools. By improving collaboration across the refinery, Spiral Suite software helps traders, planners and schedulers make reliable decisions, manage risks and ultimately increase profitability.

Mentor Graphics Corporation announced the availability of the Mentor Embedded Linux software for the AMD Embedded G-Series SoC (previously codenamed: "Steppe Eagle"), CPU (previously codenamed: "Crowned Eagle") and 2nd Generation R-Series APU (previously codenamed: "Bald Eagle") devices. Developers who began evaluation, prototyping, and development by downloading the previously announced and freely available Mentor Embedded Lite and Sourcery CodeBench Lite products can now easily migrate to these new commercially-supported versions.

2014 was bound to be a year of change at Siemens, the German engineering giant. ​Last year, long-time CFO Joe Kaeser took over as CEO and promised not only to bring profitability back in line with industry peers, like ABB and General Electric, but also to strengthen the company's position in key growth industries, like oil & gas. Earlier this year, Kaeser announced a major company reorganization, effective October 1, that eliminates layers of management and sharpens the company's focus on the North American market, in particular the oil & gas market.

GE announced the launch of a new 16.5 megawatt (MW) gas turbine (NovaLT16) for mechanical drive and power generation applications in the oil and gas industry. Developed by GE Oil & Gas to meet the industry's evolving challenges, NovaLT16 combines the best technology from industry-proven GE turbines and benefits from the industry insights of TransCanada Corporation, a major North American energy infrastructure company.

Tendeka, which provides completions systems and services to the upstream oil and gas industry, has launched FracRight, a complete hydraulic fracturing system. Integrated with Tendeka's real-time DTS monitoring and Quest software suite, the system enables the collection and analysis of stimulation data in unconventional reservoirs.

L&T Infotech, a global provider of information technology services and solutions, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the USD 14.3 billion Larsen & Toubro (L&T), announced a partnership with Solix Technologies, a leading provider of enterprise data management (EDM) solutions, to offer customers a comprehensive information lifecycle (ILM) solution to manage both structured and unstructured data.

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, announced that it has acquired Charlotte, N.C.-based BLUERIDGE Analytics, Inc., provider of SITEOPS –site design optimization "software at your service." SITEOPS uses cloud-based computing techniques to empower site development professionals to move beyond engineering to optioneering, which enables the exploration of engineering alternatives and their costs.

Saudi Aramco's Houston-based subsidiary, Aramco Services Co., opened the Aramco Research Center in Houston — its largest in the U.S. — on Sept. 19. The 60,000-square-foot center, at 16300 Park Row in the Energy Corridor, will create 100 high-tech, scientific and research jobs. It will focus on upstream research and technology development, in areas such as production management, drilling, reservoir engineering, geology, geophysics and advances related to subsurface sensing and control.

Intel Corporation and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced a new collaboration to develop next-generation factory automation (FA) systems with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and a pilot program at Intel's backend manufacturing facility in Malaysia.

IFS Uses Oracle OpenWorld to Make Product Announcements

IFS Launches IFS-in-a-Box
IFS, the global enterprise applications company and a Platinum level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) announced the availability of IFS-in-a-Box. Now customers have less need to worry or resource the initial installation of IFS Applications as this new 'in-a-Box' offer comes preinstalled on Oracle Database Appliance.

Altivar Process Variable Speed Drives

Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, announced the release of Altivar Process – a new range of drives from 1HP to 1500HP. Altivar Process is the first line of variable speed drives on the market with embedded intelligent services.

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, has entered into an agreement to acquire InStep Software, a leading provider of real-time performance management and predictive asset analytics software and solutions. It is the latest acquisition from the company's growing Software business and deepens its presence in the power and energy market. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014, subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), GE, through enCryo, a GE O&G and Maison joint venture in China, will build a small-scale LNG plant with a daily production capacity of 50,000 m3 in Xinjiang, China. Over the next three years, the companies will work together to build up to eight similarly sized plants in the region.

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, continued its 2014 Software Global Customer Conference in Orlando, Florida, with an overview of new product releases from its Ampla, Avantis, SimSci, and Wonderware product lines.

Formerly part of Invensys but now combined with Schneider Electric, the company's new Software business unveiled an impressive lineup of new capabilities that improve operations management for process, hybrid and infrastructure companies.

The Manufacturing ISM Report On Business is published monthly by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), the largest supply management organization in the world, as well as one of the most respected. — Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in September for the 16th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 64th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

AREVA and Schneider Electric have signed an R&D agreement to develop a new energy storage solution, called the flow battery in order to produce and store electricity by combining hydrobromic acid and hydrogen.

The Indian information technology (IT) services is off to a great start as most of the IT services companies covered in the report exhibit high double-digit growth. In this report, we try to analyze the first quarter of financial year 2014-15 of the Indian IT sector and compare it with same period previous year.

At ARC Advisory Group's recent India Forum in Bangalore, experts from the power industry deliberated on the importance of effective information management to improve integration between plant control systems and business applications, thus enabling organizations to achieve better results. Discussions covered automated and networked as-sets/processes monitored via a centralized monitoring system, and in-formation-driven plant lifecycle management.    

The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), held at McCormick Place in Chicago, September 8-14th, provided a venue to showcase the latest manufacturing technology and innovations. IMTS is clearly the premier exhibition for manufacturing machinery in North America. Show management reported over 114,000 registrations for the show, surpassing the attendance in 2012 by around 15 percent. McCormick Place's four halls bustled with a diverse group of equipment buyers, machine builders, and automation integrators of all ages, hailing from nations around the world.

Summary

Kongsberg Maritime has launched a tool that detects scouring, corrosion, deformation, and marine growth on underwater structures. The new K-Observer system, part of Kongsberg Maritime's Modular Subsea Monitoring (MSM) network, provides remote hydro-acoustic 3D monitoring using the dual-axis scanning sonar (DAS) to continuously monitor the seabed and the substructure.

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, is launching the IFS Academy—an initiative to deliver training for technicians, developers and consultants working with IFS Applications. The IFS Academy is being launched so that partners are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to ensure customers realize the most value from IFS Applications.

ICONICS announces that GENESIS32 version 9.35 has been officially released to manufacturing! This includes a full release of GENESIS32, BizViz, and Embedded GENESIS32.

Below are the highlights of the new technologies included in the v9.35 product suites. Product demo downloads can be requested at www.iconics.com/products .

With unconventional oil and gas operators seeking more flexible production equipment that can handle fluctuating conditions, GE Oil & Gas announced the global introduction of its next-generation Vector Plus variable speed drive (VSD) surface control system for electric submersible pumps (ESPs). ESPs are a widely used form of artificial lift that utilize centrifugal force to pump hydrocarbons to the surface, enabling high flow and enhanced production.

At the OSIsoft EMEA User Conference in Lisbon 2014, Geff Wood of ALCOA Global Primary Metals business unit explained the business unit's approach to operational intelligence* using a plethora of OSIsoft products. All ALCOA plants' information is globally available. Production personnel have access to real-time and historical data views and KPI dashboards for all equipment. Roll-ups are available globally on a SharePoint site, by site, by equipment type, and by geography, each with drill-down capability from high-level averages to specific equipment parameters.