New name for MES suite
November 2005
News
Citect recently unveiled 'Ampla' to 150 customers at its Oceania User Conference in Sydney. Ampla replaces CitectIIM as the name for Citect's suite of manufacturing execution systems (MES). Under the rebranding, the brand name and aesthetics change. There are no functional changes to the product.
General manager of Ampla, Colette Munro, explained: "Our customers were having difficulty pronouncing and recalling what IIM stood for. 'Industrial Information Management' (IIM) had been our name for the market space, but analysts and customers have since converged on 'MES' as the standard, so the name has become redundant. Derived from the Latin word Amplio, 'Ampla' means 'to improve or increase'. This reflects what the product does and is easier to pronounce and remember," she said.
Ampla is a high-quality, scalable suite of MES solutions, delivering realtime access to aggregated plant and business intelligence, allowing key personnel to analyse and act on opportunities to refine the workflow, maximise overall equipment effectiveness, and to correct problems before they impact the business. The product was launched as CitectIIM in 2003 and has been implemented by a wide range of blue chip customers to improve plant performance. Sales are reported to be growing at a triple digit rate annually, as it enters the broader market acceptance stage.
CEO, Richard Webb, commented: "Customers are looking for the next generation of business improvement systems and Ampla fills that gap by delivering realtime business intelligence for prioritised decision-making. With Ampla, Citect is well positioned to leverage its strong installed scada customer base world-wide, and to exploit these emerging trends."
Momentum around the MES market continues to grow with Control Engineering Magazine announcing in June, 2005, that the market size has surpassed the US$1,0 billion mark and is continuing to grow at double digit levels annually.
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