CSIA: Giving You a Head Start toward a Successful Automation System Integration Program
CSIA is committed to the business development of its control system integration member companies and their implementation of best practices in order to provide you, the customer with a healthy, low-risk channel for the application of technology. CSIA members understand that being good system integrators goes hand in hand with operating a good business.
Finding a control system integrator near your plant – one with relevant industry, application, and service experience for the industrial automation project you're contemplating – has never been easier. With CSIA's web-based find an integrator service, it’s simple, it’s fast and it’s free to locate the top 10 (and more) control system integrators for your project by searching through CSIA's member database, choosing among all the categories — industries, applications, services, and locations — applicable to your project and ranking them in importance.
Selecting a CSIA Member means dollars and sense for your automation system integration project. Following are just five of the many reasons:
1. Membership Certification
In order to become Certified, a CSIA member must pass an intensive audit performed by an independent third-party consulting firm and meet the stringent performance standards – in general management, financial management, project management, quality management, human resources, business development, and technical management – that set them apart, business-wise, from other system integrators. This means that your project will be developed, engineered, and directed by skilled technicians, and will be managed by an excellent businessperson as well. Locate Certified members through our Find An Integrator search.
2. Solutions-Focus
Being “solutions-focused” means that CSIA members look at the big picture…first and foremost. Bits, bytes and black boxes are simply the means to an end. And this includes every step along the way in a successful system integration project − from vision studies, preparation of functional specs, designing, building, and systems testing through installation, commissioning, and training. Leading, not to just any solution, but to the best solution at a lower-cost compared to using most in-house engineering resources.
3. Technology Experience
“Experienced technologists” is not a term taken lightly by CSIA members. Keeping abreast of rapidly changing tools, techniques, and technologies is a full-time business challenge, and this is the business world in which our members operate. Using the industry standard or leading-edge approach, involving operating systems, application programs, and communication networks, requiring PCs, DCS, SCADA, HMIs or PLCs, CSIA members know what it’s all about. It’s expertise you can count on, gained from firsthand experience.
4. Successful Business Owners
Being “successful business owners” is the first step and bottomline for membership in CSIA. To start with, control system integration firms must show a record of profitable business operation for a number of years, with engineering sales content of over $600,000 annually. They must follow CSIA’s “Best Practices and Benchmarks” standards and earn their Certified Member status. A good measure of this success is CSIA members' involvement in $1 billion of automation projects annually.
5. Independent Thinkers
"Independent thinking" is what sets our members apart. It allows the freedom to suggest the best alternative for your integration project. It means that CSIA members convert experience with a spectrum of hardware, software, and communications products and services from all the major suppliers − and niche firms too − into a cost-effective solution without attempting to balance affiliations, alliances, or relationships.
Click here for access to CSIA’s “How-To” Guides. These publications, Guide for Selecting a Control System Integrator and Guide for Working with a Control System Integrator, will help you:
- Identify criteria for CSI selection
- Develop RFPs and evaluate proposals
- Manage projects efficiently
- And more!
For more information, contact CSIA today.
© 2010 Control System Integrators Association
22 N. Carroll St., Ste 300, Madison, WI 53703, USA, Phone: 800.661.4914, Fax: 888.581.3666,
Email: bmarsala@controlsys.org
