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ATLANTA, Oct. 24, 2003 -- Indus International Inc., a provider of asset and customer management solutions, announced that Basin Electric, a consumer-owned regional cooperative headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, has selected Indus' newly released CBM Connector to integrate the company's enterprise asset management (EAM) system with a variety of condition monitoring (CM) and operational data historian solutions.
The resulting integrated solution will enable Basin to achieve performance improvements and cost savings by having the most up-to-date asset data on which to base time-critical operations and maintenance decisions.
The contract marks the first delivery of EAM/CM integration compliant with the new OpenO&M™ Information Standards, solidifying Indus' leadership in the emerging market for condition-based maintenance (CBM) solutions. The CBM Connector was developed earlier this year to support the OpenO&M standards set forth in collaboration between the OPC Foundation and Machinery Information Management Open Systems Alliance (MIMOSA).
Indus CBM Connector effectively utilizes the new standards to provide a host of benefits, including a more efficient integration with lower software maintenance cost, rapid time for deployment, flexibility for integrating new monitoring technologies and improved timeliness and accuracy of asset information.
"We looked at various options including using products provided by a single vendor or a third-party integration toolkit, but the decision is clear to use Indus' CBM Connector. Indus' participation and adherence to the new OpenO&M Information Standards reinforces our commitment to PassPort," said Mark Thompson, Maintenance Superintendent at Basin's Leland Olds Station. "Indus has shown its strength and leadership by putting forward solid solutions that enable maintenance excellence, facilitating operational goals here at Leland Olds and throughout our entire enterprise."
"We have worked with MIMOSA and OPC Foundation on establishing the information standards for different CM, process control and operational data historian solution providers to work in conjunction with our EAM solution," said Greg Dukat, Indus President and COO. "Because of this close cooperation, we've been able to deliver the first productized integration between EAM and CM systems based on open standards. The result for our customers is better planning based on actual asset condition with automatic generation of pre-planned work orders and associated logistic support elements -- providing them more options to obtain operational excellence while remaining vigilant on cost controls."
Benefits of Condition-Based Maintenance
Basin's investment in Indus CBM Connector is an example of the benefits linked between real-time and periodic data capture of physical asset condition and assessment results and tying them to Indus' ActionPoint Management solutions. Indus has made significant investments in advanced technology as well as collaborative efforts with MIMOSA, the OPC Foundation and customers to ensure a transparent solution. Based on research from industry experts, these investments will provide key benefits in the near future.
ARC Advisory Group Research Director Houghton LeRoy says, "Getting the most from existing capital assets is a good strategy that can often be best accomplished using condition-based maintenance. Many Indus customers who rely on preventive maintenance or let equipment run to failure now have an attractive new option based on the OpenO&M standard. Using the CBM Connector to improve performance and increase reliability of critical assets can be cost-effective and promote needed standardization."
About Basin Electric
Basin Electric Power Cooperative is a consumer-owned, regional cooperative headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. Basin Electric operates electricity-generating power plants with a total capacity of 3,373 megawatts serving 124 rural electric member cooperative systems that in turn serve approximately 1.7 million consumers in the nine states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico.
Basin Electric has several subsidiaries, including Dakota Gasification Company, which produces natural gas from the coal gasification process and products such as chemicals and fertilizers; Dakota Coal Company, which purchases lignite for our power plants and owns a lime processing plant; and BTInet, which provides Internet access and a complete range of customized Internet business solutions. Basin Electric and its subsidiaries employ about 1,700 people.
About Indus International
Indus International provides value to its clients by delivering ActionPoint Management, a business improvement program which delivers all the information needed by an end user to make the best decision possible at the point where that decision is made.
Indus asset and customer management software products, professional services and hosted service offerings improve our clients' profitability by reducing costs, increasing capacity and competitiveness, improving service to their customers, facilitating billing for services and ensuring regulatory compliance. Indus asset management solutions are used by more than 300,000 end users in more than 40 countries and diverse industries -- including manufacturing, utilities, telecommunications, government, education, transportation, facilities and property management, consumer packaged goods and more.
And, Indus customer management products and services are used by nearly 200 customers to support more than 70 million utility accounts worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.indus.com.
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