eTX Data Services has supplied industrial communication software and data services and systems to the South African market for the past six years. During this time the company has increased its range from the basic Kepware OPC server to a number of Kepware data communication interface products. “As our sales of software licences increased, we realised that our focus should be concentrated on increasing our range of industrial data applications and on improving our product support of these applications. Following this business decision we have decided to minimise projects in order to focus on the sales and support of the software,” says eTX Data Services’ Neil Upfold. “In order to create a comprehensive offering, we analysed our existing products and then selected three other new suppliers of applications that interface with the Kepware OPC products and will be of interest to our target market and our existing customers. The mix of products has been established via distributor agreements.”
Kepware – OPC Server and OPC-based data interface applications (primary link between the application and the various control systems) and data manipulation and control. www.kepware.com
Software Toolbox – OPC Data Hub and other OPC tools for programmers. (OPC Data Hub is a tool that links OPC Server Data to many other applications including Excel) www.softwaretoolbox.com
Canary Labs – A cost- effective and flexible historian that collects and stores data from the OPC Server. www.canarylabs.com
Provideam – supplies a scaleable OEE (overall equipment efficiency) and downtime monitoring application. www.provideam.co.uk
Upfold says that the primary benefit to customers using these applications is that they are all simply configurable applications that can be installed, configured and commissioned in a short space of time. The interfacing and interaction of most of these systems via the OPC standard ensures that interoperability problems are minimised. A second benefit is the cost effective pricing. All the applications are scaleable so users only pay for what they need. Some of the applications like the OPC server and the Data Hub are not tag based, so are generally expandable at no cost. The other applications are expandable by upgrading the licence to cover more devices or more tags.
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