Invensys takes its own iBaan medicine for new process automation industry web portal

InvensysDirect.com, Invensys Process Systems’ new online direct web sales portal providing he firm’s instrumentation and control products at discounted prices, has been developed on the firm’s Invensys iBaan software suite – E-Sales, E-Configuration and the OpenWorld open technology framework. Invensys says the website – which currently offers its Foxboro industrial grade pressure transmitters at a claimed one third the cost of competitors – is achieving the price through the use of iBaan software with Invensys’s lean manufacturing techniques which together reduce sales and administration costs. Baan helped Invensys Process Systems to achieve its web functionality with its own consulting and development people, and the standard iBaan modules, with its OpenWorld technology providing the interface between the automatic sales front-end and, perhaps ironically, Invensys SAP R/3 ERP system. Says John McKenna, president of Systems Products at Invensys Manufacturing and Process Solutions: “To help us achieve that goal, we have leveraged the core competency of several Invensys companies including Baan and Foxboro. By utilising the experience, knowledge and expertise of the Invensys companies, we are able to offer MRO engineers, OEMs and systems integrators the highest quality products at the lowest prices in the market.” Ernie Eichenbaum, vice president, B2B Marketing at Baan, says: “This project gave Baan the opportunity to prove the value of its iBaan sales solutions in a B2C (business to consumer) CRM (customer relationship management) environment, and to show how iBaan’s open integration technology can work in parallel with non-Baan back-office systems.