Invensys Process Systems 2004 North American Customer Conference Draws 800 Attendees.

FOXBORO, Mass. -- Users of Foxboro, Triconex, and Avantis products from 225 different companies share ideas and take part in informative interactive sessions

Invensys Process Systems announced that almost 800 attendees - predominantly users of Foxboro, Triconex, and Avantis products - participated in the North American Customer Conference held at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort in San Antonio, Texas, October 17-21, 2004. Approximately 225 different Invensys customer organizations were represented. These ranged from small municipalities to the largest multinational corporations.

According to many participants, this was the most useful and informative customer event they have ever attended. "We told them what we were looking for, and the Invensys team delivered a first rate conference," commented Terry Deo from Infineum USA, chairman of the North American I/A Series User Group Steering Committee. Triconex and Avantis customers provided similar feedback.

"The Big Picture," the overall theme of the Invensys customer event, highlighted the broad range of products, services, and capabilities that Invensys Process Systems can bring to bear to help improve the performance of its customers' industrial plants. Foxboro, Triconex, and Avantis each had sub-themes for their specific customer tracks: "Sharing Know-How," for Foxboro; "Safety Heats Up," for Triconex; and "Maximize Asset Reliability and Performance," for Avantis.

During the general session, Invensys Process Systems president, Mike Caliel, discussed the company's intensified focus on technology and performance, Invensys' renewed financial strength, and its increasing emphasis on building performance-based relationships with customers.

This was followed by an inspiring keynote presentation by National Geographic photographer, DeWitt Jones. Mr. Jones used examples of his own photographs to demonstrate how individuals can turn creative visions into reality to improve the quality of both their personal and professional lives.

Security was the main focus of the Foxboro conference tracks. This included a three-hour kick-off session featuring presentations by David Sanders from the US Department of Homeland Security, Eric Byres from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Peter Meister from Microsoft Corp. This was followed by an in-depth technical session on network and cyber security presented by security specialists from both Invensys and customer organizations.

The Triconex conference program incorporated customer tracks for Safety, Nuclear, and Turbomachinery Control. The program featured many excellent user presentations as well as a series of "Master Classes" on relevant topics such as OPC Communication Configuration and SIL Determination. The latter was taught by noted safety system expert, Bob Adamski, from Premier Consulting.

The Avantis conference program featured several excellent customer case study presentations as well as well-attended sessions on asset reliability strategies. These included a presentation on Dynamic Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) by Houghton Leroy from the ARC Advisory Group and a very lively panel discussion lead by experts from Invensys and two key customers.

In total, more than 140 different topical sessions were presented by users of Foxboro, Triconex, and Avantis products as well as Invensys technical and marketing specialists and third-party presenters. Many of these topical sessions were filled to capacity. Most were followed by lively question and answer periods.

In the product demonstration areas, there was significant interest in the latest I/A Series system enhancements, including the new family of high-performance controllers, high-availability mesh process control network technology, FDT-enabled fieldbus enhancements, and ease-of-use enhancements provided by the latest version of the I/A Series Configuration Component (IACC). Attendees also showed a lot of interest in the latest Triconex TMR Safety Instrumented System and turbomachinery control system technology and the recently enhanced version of the Avantis enterprise asset management (EAM) software, including the dynamic maintenance management (DMM) solution and new decision-support capabilities.

Several third-party vendors also demonstrated their products at the conference. These included Entrasys Networks; Inventory Management Analysis, LTD; Management Results, Inc., MaxEAM Inc., Modular Industrial Comuters, Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc., Popware Inc., SmartSignal Corporation, and TiPS, Inc.

About Invensys Process Systems

Process Systems, a business unit of Invensys plc, provides products, services and solutions for the automation and optimization of industrial process plants. Invensys Process Systems includes industry-leading brands such as Foxboro, Triconex, SimSci-Esscor, Wonderware, and Avantis, whose products are installed in more than 100,000 plants across the world. These range from small hybrid and batch plants to the world's largest refineries, gas plants, petrochemicals plants, power plants, and pulp and paper mills.

The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is headquartered in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange. With 35,000 employees operating in 60 countries, Invensys helps customers to improve their performance and profitability, building value for end users and shareholders alike.