Inductive University - Ignition

I've been at Inductive Automation's Ignition Community Conference this week and they made a pretty cool announcement that I want to share because it is another example of how Ignition is distancing itself from other SCADA packages. They announced "Inductive University" a FREE online series of courses/videos (over 500 videos) to teach you every aspect of the Ignition platform. I've gone though a few topics and it is outstanding. They have tests you can take to validate your knowledge. Not sure how relative this will become, but it is nice to go through as you'll learn new aspects of the platform by taking the tests. Plus if you get it wrong, it will link to directly to the video for the answer, making it another valuable educational tool.

Again, all FREE.

You can take a look here:www.inductiveuniversity.com

Also, Automation World was there, here is an article they have put together:
http://www.automationworld.com/hmi-software/plan-future-proof-automation-software

If anyone is using Ignition and didn't hear this announcement take a look! If you aren't using Ignition, take a look!

Cool. I think that's the way of the future. Free product training that encourage adoption.

OSI PI (same as Rockwell's FT Historian SE) put all their trainings on youtube as well.

Ignition is a great product put out by a great company. they get "it".

compare their website and offerings to thingworx, who is supposed to be the next big thing.

you go to inductives website and can see everything about the product, download a fully working trial, get pricing, read the manual, and learn how to use the product. On the thingworx website you can read a bunch of buzzwords and that is it. no manual, no trial, no nothing. I even spoke with these people on the phone and not only would they not offer a trial version of the software for me to view, but they wouldnt even give me pricing. the only way I could get those two would be to pay for training and then purchase a developers license every year.

I saw that announcement yesterday. I'm going to be at their training week after next. We were able to do most of the development without any training just from the manuals and youtube videos. So far their tech support has been phenomenal. I think the training course is going to be mostly a formality. I'm supposed to come back and train the others, but with the Inductive University I'm not sure how relevant that need will be.

We've been using it for several months now. It beats the hell out of FTView. We've actually started using it for things beyond just as an HMI.

Keep banging the drum, boys. As a custom equipment manufacturer we always have our customers tell us "Thou shalt use (insert you favorite piece of fecal matter here)." It would be nice to have them toss out Inductive.

kamenges said:

Keep banging the drum, boys. As a custom equipment manufacturer we always have our customers tell us "Thou shalt use (insert you favorite piece of fecal matter here)." It would be nice to have them toss out Inductive.

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Sounds like you need better salesmen

I like that I can go to the inductive forums and see exactly what people's pain points are. what a product does or is supposed to do is easy to find out, but what it doesn't do or where its users are struggling can be just as valueable. just one of many reasons why i loathe schneider and rockwell "walled gardens"

Love the product and love their business model.

Sure Ignition had growing pains with the Contrologix driver, you think Rockwell offer the source code for communications as an open source?

But, Inductive get it by empowering users to use the product and not hamper them with prohibitive support cost such as Rockwell does.

Our company pays Rockwell $7K a year in Tech Connect costs for the privilege to use their product even though we buy about $200K in hardware per year.
Most of our calls to tech support are regarding activation issues.

Talking to the guys at ICC, the Inductive University course was about 5 months in the making, and what are they charging for it?

NADA

curlyandshemp said:

Love the product and love their business model.

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Completely agree! I took advantage of the 1-1 meetings they offered today, got expert advice in the 45 min session which already has impacted my project (sitting in my hotel room working on improving it now, flying back tomorrow).

I didn't get a chance to meet you, wish I would have thought to sent you a PM to arrange a meet-and-greet. Maybe next year!

Originally posted by Paully's5.0:

Sounds like you need better salesmen

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True dat. Maybe we should start by getting one.

In the end customer know what they want, especially when they don't. That's sometimes pretty hard to crack.

Keith

Paully's5.0 said:

...flying back tomorrow).

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Posted yesterday. That means Paully is stuck in that flight SNAFU caused by the air traffic control center fire.

Good luck getting home.

One of the things that I really liked about how IA does tech support is the heavy use of "Go To Meeting" that allows them to interact directly with your project so they can show you while they talk. And if you stump them they huddle and work a solution. I was also impressed how fast they were out with a patch after the recent release when we discovered a problem with accessing certain kinds of data on MicroLoigx PLCs.

I've been really enjoying it - and have been quite impressed by everything they have to offer!

TConnolly said:

One of the things that I really liked about how IA does tech support is the heavy use of "Go To Meeting" that allows them to interact directly with your project so they can show you while they talk. And if you stump them they huddle and work a solution. I was also impressed how fast they were out with a patch after the recent release when we discovered a problem with accessing certain kinds of data on MicroLoigx PLCs.

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as opposed to wonderware, who I have offered many times to join my gotomeeting to better understand the problem, who actively refuse.

Paully's5.0 said:

Completely agree! I took advantage of the 1-1 meetings they offered today, got expert advice in the 45 min session which already has impacted my project (sitting in my hotel room working on improving it now, flying back tomorrow).

I didn't get a chance to meet you, wish I would have thought to sent you a PM to arrange a meet-and-greet. Maybe next year!

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Unfortunately I had to leave Thursday. I had no idea of the 1 on 1 and would have stayed the extra day if I had known.

I have a large install with 7 PLCs 80,000 tags and 10 clients all on a VM. There are performance issues

Setup is tricky and could have taken advantage of a 1 on 1.

I briefly talked to Travis about this, and he stated a document for VM Bench mark is about 1 month away.