AVEVA Historian vs. Ignition

Paired with Citect SCADA or System Platform, this is an excellent process historian. It also works well collecting OPC data. For basic data storage, retrieval, and analysis, this is well suited. This is not well suited for very large deployments. Multiple instances would need to be used to scale up, and the data fed into a second-tier/enterprise historian for corporate user consumption.

Incentivized

It can be used to invoice for anyone, so I will always recommend it.

Incentivized

• Data storage--multiple data sources stream data in real time; it is stored without issue
• Data retrieval--small to moderate queries and trends are generally fast and efficient
• Cost effectiveness--it is one of the cheaper (non-enterprise) historian offers and therefore is good value for money (with a reduced feature set)

Incentivized

• Proposal process. PI makes it easy to create and send proposals to new and existing clients, collect their payment info, and get signature on the engagement letter.
• Easily identify engagements that will be expiring, so we can begin to assemble a renewal.
• Communication to and from the client during the proposal process, which keeps everything associated with the proposal together in one place.

Incentivized

• Query performance--for very long-term/large queries; the latest version which we are yet to commission has some improvements in this area
• User interface--the trend, query, and Excel add-ins are basic and could do with a refresh; web-based clients are a paid add-on and less full featured, so not a true replacement
• Connectivity--Wonderware System Platform driver packs are required for additional data source types, where native connectors are not provided by other products

Incentivized

• I would love to see it really support other industries better, like Marketing. There are workarounds for invoicing and set up, but it could be easier.
• I would love the option to be able to send the client a single proposal with different options and allow them to select which one they want to move forward with. Right now we have to send a proposal for each option.
• I would love for there to be user permissions where certain users can log in to see the proposals they are associated with without seeing everything.

Incentivized

AVEVA Historian, formerly Wonderware, was the best of the process tier historians in terms of reliability and functionality. It is still under development and not a "dead" product. It is also more cost effective than the more full-featured enterprise historians, such as PI, which our organization is not yet ready for. The feature set is at the right cost level, coupled with current support, were the key factors in the decision.

Incentivized

You aren't able to customize the design of the proposal, but it surpases everything we have ever tried. It's easy to use and quick to learn.

Incentivized

• Increased efficiency, reduction in labour for preparing reports--data is available to be queried and reported with less effort
• Increased production efficiency--near real-time data availability and comparisons to historical data has been used to make faster and better operational decisions
• Increased reliability--data has been used for maintenance optimization and planning purposes

Incentivized

• We have reduced our A/R by 60% and expect to completely eliminate A/R by the end of this year.

Incentivized