Imagine you were a spy... Not the creepy kind of spy, but you know the James Bond type of spy; the super-slick, ultra-cool, well-spoken, always well-dressed and never gets caught kind of spy. I can imagine if offshore oil and gas production had a spy it would look and act like Emerson's DeltaV™ SaaS SCADA. Minus of course all the fast cars, fancy dates and danger. But we can get you all the detailed information of what exactly is happening far away - without disrupting what's actually going on; so it's spy-like, without all the showbiz-glitz, creepiness, or glam price-tags.

We've all been there - called a support number for a product or service and got to the point where you know for a fact your blood pressure is at a boiling point because not only did the person not answer your question with anything but what was on their 'script' in front of them, but made YOU jump through all their hoops before giving you that scripted, and completely useless response. To say this is 'infuriating' is a giant understatement, and makes you lose faith in all humanity because it seems no one can think for themselves or get the slightest bit creative on what might help you in your time of need.

Thankfully, some people, and companies actually get what the word 'support' means and take the right steps to enable their people to understand what their products can 'do'. Those same, very carefully chosen people that are placed in support roles hold a strong desire to help their customers and are willing to be relentless in how they discover ways to help solve problems. Those rare people are the ones that aren't afraid to put ideas into action and are even exceptionally polite about it through the process. Imagine that - Faith in humanity saved in a single, easy, helpful, dare I even say enjoyable phone call.

Municipal gas distribution systems require a delicate balance—keep the natural gas flowing in just the right amounts. If there’s too little, or none, people don’t get something the really need. The heater won’t run, they can't cook, the clothes dryer won't work; you know the consequences.

But too much is also a problem, one which can have massively dangerous consequences—especially if it’s natural gas! But there are thousands of people turning natural gas on and off across, in larger cities, dozens of square miles. Knowing how to manage pressures and flow rates is critical to people. Or when there is an over-pressure situation, being aware of it, and having the ability to quickly detect it and fix it before it gets out of hand can be life-saving.

The stories of budget struggles for municipal water systems seem to grow every week. Overwhelming residential growth on one side, countered by budget-constrained neglect of systems on the other side plague many small to medium sized towns. One way to maximize the budgets these communities do have is through efficient remote monitoring and alarming systems that are IIoT based and cloud-native, but what does that really mean to the operation?

The cost of distractions in life is high. What can often seem like a minor distraction can have a giant impact on life; a distracted drive to work could cause a crash, distracted while reading email could cause you to miss an important request from the boss, or being distracted while spending time with family could result in a loved one that doesn’t feel heard anymore, or think you care.

When it comes to your operations distractions can cause just as much havoc and loss. Distractions cause the risk of safety of people; and the environments around you, and the health of the bottom line. Those distractions could be losing your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. Without your eye on the prize you could be risking the sustainability of your organization; here today - gone tomorrow happens all too often these days.

One of the most exciting uses for cloud software, IIoT and automaton technology has been in the mining industry. In recent years the health and safety numbers for mining have greatly improved—and so have costs and efficiencies—by handing machines the dirtiest and most energy-intensive jobs. Mining companies and human health factors have both benefitted greatly.

The challenge, however, is that the machines also have health requirements. With few humans around to watch and listen, how does a mining company keep those big machines getting ores—and profits- to the surface?

You've probably heard awesome stories of how truly great things can happen to people out of the blue; love when you least expect it, strangers paying for your coffee... The list goes on and on forever about how small, unexpected people and the actions they sometimes take can bring us light, love and unmeasurable positive impact to our lives.

Machines however, are not out to sweep us off our feet, cheer us up, or have any desire to pass along some sunny moments into our lives. No, they're famous for breaking down when we need them the most. Sometimes, it almost feels like maybe they even conspire together and to all have different (and very time consuming) breakdowns all within days, even hours of each other to cause total havoc on our work, and lives. The surprises machines can deliver don't exactly give anyone the warm fuzzies.

You may be someone who already is aware that your data is best available to your employees on the cloud to continue delivering stronger results. Everyone gets level-appropriate access during the day or at midnight, in the office or in Katmandu.

But with it that available, ‘How secure is it?’ you may want to know.

Instead of just saying, “Trust us,” we’ll share some of the extensive steps we take to make sure your data is very safe, both from intruders and from forces of nature. After all, we hold that data in trust for our customers and we don't take security lightly.

System-wide efficiency; instant response to incidents; boost public safety.

These are the top benefits to using DeltaV™ SaaS for municipal gas distribution systems. In medium to large cities these systems can involve thousands of miles of pipelines, dozens of pump stations and hundreds of valves and controls.

Monitoring pumps and pressures manually is almost impossible, the worst-case scenario being the 2018 Massachusetts line over-pressure incident that injured 22 people and drove hundreds from their homes. There the pressure sensors had been disconnected during a pipeline upgrade and control was lost.

I'm betting it's safe to say you've had enough of the endless stream of singular reports piling on your desk. With a single report from one end of the operation paper clipped to another report from the middle, you’re constantly sorting everything manually, or hand-entering it into several separate databases. Maybe some of your reports are from yesterday and others are from last week. Maybe the databases are scattered on computers or servers in several locations.

How can you make good (or any) business decisions or locate issues when everything is scattered, missing, in the wrong pile, stapled to the wrong report or accidentally tossed out?

Without a unified report you may not be able to see how a small issue in one area can lead to a big need down the line—until it’s too late. You need a single source for sensor data up and down the line, as it happens?