Today's Automation News Headlines from Automation.com

April 11, 2011 - GE Intelligent Platforms acquired technology assets from CSense Systems  of Pretoria, South Africa. The acquisition includes CSense’s analytic software products and engineering solutions. This distinctive technology provides advanced capabilities to proactively identify and solve potential process problems before they impact operations.

This acquisition expands GE’s Proficy Software Platform analytic capabilities, increasing asset performance for customers as they gain critical insight into their operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The CSense asset acquisition complements the remote monitoring & diagnostics solutions recently added to GE’s Proficy portfolio with the acquisition of SmartSignal Corporation in January.

“This acquisition further demonstrates our commitment to invest in our business,” said Jody Markopoulos, president and CEO of GE Intelligent Platforms. “With these knowledge-based services, customers will be able to act faster and make better decisions to increase productivity and profitability for their businesses.”

According to Erik Udstuen, vice president of Software & Services for GE Intelligent Platforms, “The capabilities of this technology coupled with our recent acquisition of SmartSignal, provides us with a world-class software platform for asset monitoring and process diagnostics. We will drive operational performance for our customers by using CSense technology to gain important insights from their real-time process data.”

The CSense technology establishes an open programming workbench for advanced analytic technologies used to build solutions for prediction, root cause analysis and advanced process control. “With CSense, we can offer a wide range of analytic technologies in a single platform ranging from first principle models to advanced statistics to neural networks that can positively change asset and process performance,” Udstuen said.

GE Intelligent Platforms and CSense Systems have been working together for a number of years embedding CSense technology into the core Proficy Software Platform. Advanced analytic algorithms enable Intelligent SCADA and Intelligent Historian solutions with causal analysis, proactive alarming and decision support tools built in. Proficy Troubleshooter and Cause+ are two good examples of how CSense technology can deliver powerful analytic tools to transform real-time data into actionable information for engineers and operators.

Proficy is an example of how GE’s $4 billion-a-year software and solutions capabilities are improving real-time decision-making, enabling more efficient operations, driving innovation and ensuring quality for customers around the world. GE’s domain expertise and world-class operational acumen enables our customers to turn data into intelligence for mission-critical needs.

About GE Intelligent Platforms
GE Intelligent Platforms is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of software, hardware, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile and reliable technology providing customers a sustainable competitive advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, oil & gas, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Intelligent Platforms is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA.