Insider Tips on Buying a SCADA System

Enhance the process by understanding the vendor's point of view

by
Mike Walden
Control Systems International, Inc.
913-599-5010

This paper is based on one preseted at an ENTELEC conference or seminar sponsored by the Energy Telecommunications and Electrical Association, Inc.

Introduction

Background and Purpose

As you know, replacing a SCADA system is a big deal. It is a high visibility project within the company and may even attract the attention of the trade and general press. Just like everything else about maintaining a process, replacing a SCADA system can have significant impact in any number of areas, especially on operations.

The irony is that despite the importance of a SCADA replacement project, most companies don't have all that much experience doing it. Most companies replace a SCADA system every 10 to 15 years. Typically, it can take two to five years to complete the system. And with all of the recent consolidation in some industries, it is highly probable that most of the people who performed the last upgrade are not available to perform the latest one.

As a consequence, the tendency is often to treat a SCADA replacement project just like any other computer hardware or software application replacement process. After all, you are purchasing hardware, software, and services. It should be possible to just scale up the process. Besides, your company may have purchasing procedures that cover this process, and you are obliged to follow them. But replacing a whole SCADA system typically requires a whole different approach than replacing any of its components. The process for acquiring a new server or a new operating system might be efficient. But that same process applied to an entire SCADA system might actually impose undesirable obstacles and reduce your overall satisfaction with the new system.

Many companies have specific procedures for replacing a SCADA system. Those procedures worked the last time they acquired a SCADA system. But, that was a long time ago. Many companies find that the technology has changed since then, the vendors have changed, and the old procurement process is no longer as efficient as it might be.

This paper will:

• Identify the most costly and inefficient purchasing methods commonly used to acquire a SCADA system, and ...
• Identify simpler, more efficient, and more productive methods for specifying, selecting, and purchasing a SCADA system.

As the paper's title suggests, these recommendations are made from the point of view of the SCADA vendor.

Why Care about the SCADA Vendor's Point of View

The problems and recommendations discussed in this paper are not about making life easier for SCADA vendors. In fact, some of these recommendations place more of a burden on the SCADA vendor. But experience has taught SCADA vendors that successful projects are far more likely when both the vendor and the customer work together to set expectations and define how best to achieve them.

Actually, SCADA vendors have a level of experience and a perspective about the SCADA replacement process that end-user companies do not have.

An end-user company might purchase a SCADA system once every 10 or 15 years. But SCADA vendors are involved with many SCADA system purchases each year and might actually participate in proposals and bids several times a month. Vendors are in a position to see what works and what doesn't work - from specification preparation to proposal and bidding rules. SCADA vendors know that the procedures for selecting a SCADA system can affect the cost and viability of that system in the near term and for years to come.

After many years of experience, vendors get good at predicting the future success of a project - whether or not they win the contract. Very often, what a vendor sees in the specification, the bidding rules, and the bid documents tells them what they need to know. And more often that not, what they don't see in those documents tells even more.

Who is CSI and Why Are We Qualified to Talk about This?

Control Systems International is an automation company that specializes in upgrading existing SCADA systems.

Over the last 35 years, CSI has implemented more than 1,400 automation projects worldwide. In the last eight years, about 65% of CSI's business has come from upgrading SCADA systems. CSI has excelled in this niche market by developing very effective software tools, procedures, technologies, and instincts that allow us to upgrade systems faster, more efficiently, and with lower risk to our customers.

This paper intends to share some of that experience with you.

To a great degree, the success or failure of a SCADA upgrade project is cast in the earliest stages of that project. Those early stages include:

• Organization the Process
• Analyzing Needs
• Defining Requirements
• Evaluating Prospective Vendors

We will consider key issues in each of these stages - key issues that impact the project's success or failure.

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