| Another period of growth in the industrial automation market has ended. This was announced by Lev Anzimirov, President of AdAstra Research Group, at the opening of the annual conference «Production Management in the Trace Mode System». The organizers of such traditional events do not ignore economic realities: the conference began not with the usual review of the development of technological capabilities and updates to the well-known Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, but with a discussion of the specifics of working in a crisis.
AdAstra, a company specializing in developing software for automated process control systems, believes that the current situation left little chance for Russian manufacturers.
The increase in the volume of the APCS market was accompanied by an increase in business costs, reducing the competitiveness of domestic products. Such costs are associated with an increase in the cost of renting premises, the price of components, and an increase in wages that lags behind the increase in productivity. According to Anzimirov, the strengthening of the ruble «did not bode well for domestic innovative business, squeezed between growing costs and cheaper imports.»
The decline in activity in the industrial sector that began in 2008 forced enterprises to reconsider their investment strategy, take a more thoughtful approach to expenses, and turn to products from domestic manufacturers. This is evidenced, in particular, by the increase in the number of AdAstra partners: since September, the ranks of integrators using Trace Mode have been replenished with one and a half dozen companies.
The crisis is thus creating conditions for strengthening the positions of Russian companies working in the high-tech sector, while at the same time stimulating an increase in the efficiency of their own business. AdAstra, for example, has reviewed its relations with component suppliers and, by optimizing the tariff plans used, has reduced communication costs without reducing the quality of services.
Equipment manufacturers also seek to optimize costs, which provides an opportunity to expand the OEM business by offering domestic products and increase sales of software licenses as part of hardware solutions. For example, for ICP DAS WinPAC controllers, which are supplied by the Russian company IPC2U, the Micro Trace Mode 6 system has been released, allowing the creation of a graphical operator interface directly in the controller itself, as well as the Micro Trace Mode GSM/GPRS+ software, which provides support for wireless communications.
But despite the new opportunities opening up for developers, the decline in the APCS market could not help but affect the financial results of the year. From 2005 to 2008, the average annual growth of AdAstra's business was about 32%. However, if in 2007 the increase in sales in Russia reached 36% (up to 20% of the company's income comes from deliveries abroad), then in 2008 sales remained at the level of the previous year. Nevertheless, as planned (see «Thirty thousand on the horizon», Computerworld Russia, No. 6, 2008), the number of Trace Mode installations in our country reached 30 thousand.
AdAstra believes that the new capabilities of the 6.06.2 release of the Trace Mode system presented at the conference will contribute to the further growth of its implementations. The added functions include drivers to support standard protocols for IEC 870-5-1001/102/103 telemetry devices and systems; an interface for working with video systems used in security systems; the introduction of support for transmitting information via telephone and GSM modems into drivers for electricity meters; and increased functionality of vector data processing. In order to attract attention to its solutions, AdAstra intends to increase its marketing and advertising activity.
According to its management, the company has not resorted to staff reductions to date. «Now, perhaps, we will increase the number of qualified developers, who previously simply could not be found anywhere,» Anzimirov emphasized.
Alexey Chernobrovtsev Computerworld |
