CAPE-OPEN UPDATE, Volume 8

CAPE-OPEN UPDATE is a publication of the CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network (CO-LaN), a non-profit consortium for the development of the CAPE-OPEN standard.

STAFF LISTING:

Kerry Irons, Editor

CO Update Survey Results

In the second half of 2003, we undertook a survey of CO Update readers to better understand your interests and to improve the newsletter. The survey was short - just 6 questions - and the answers were scored on a 5 point scale, with 5 being the most favorable, 3 as neutral, and 1 being least favorable.  Here are the questions, and the average of the responses:

I find the CO Update newsletter useful: 4.0

I wish to continue to receive CO Update: 4.6

My organization is capturing value through the use of the CO standards: 3.1

I would like more technical content in the newsletter: 3.7

I would like more editorial content in the newsletter: 3.0

I would like more current events information in the newsletter: 3.5

Overall, the respondents were quite positive about the value of the newsletter and wished to continue to receive it. Generally, the CO community wants more technical information and to be kept up to date on meetings, conferences, seminars and other current events. I promise to keep my editorials short!

Not surprisingly, at the time of the survey (3Q03) most organizations were not to the point of getting significant value from the CO standards. The recent updates of AspenPlus, gPROMS, Hysis, and ProSim Pro/II were all just hitting the marketplace at that time, and the number of CO compliant "3rd party" software components was just starting to grow. The value of the CO standard is growing continuously through the efforts of the readers of this newsletter.

Of course no survey would be complete without the ability to offer comments , and below are representative of the feedback we received:

• There is a lot of potential to capture value for a specialty chemical company but this means more widespread adoption of the standards as well as interfacing between different types of packages to process modelling packages, e.g. supply chain modelling, fluids modelling, control system modelling, finite element modelling, data modelling and statistical packages as well as standard mathematical tools such as Statistica, MATLAB, Mathcad, etc. Ideally COLAN could take these on as specific objectives, with time-scales and a wider community of academics, tool vendors and process companies.
• If possible, we'd like more about success stories, and new functionalities (from the user point of view) which are only possible by using CO.
• Not using CO is temporary state, I still hope.
• We provide water industry simulators; CO is not yet needed, but I wish to keep abreast of what is happening.
• Analysis of new functionality and actual implementation case studies by companies would be very useful to us in deciding if / when we might want to get more involved.
• Information on how the CO and GCO standards are being used and what activities are in progress is useful.
• We need more in-depth information on how the standard is actually used in industry, what the experiences are and what needs for further developments have been identified. Further, there should be a regular update on the route the suppliers are taking. Both ideas are quite difficult to implement, I am afraid, but these are the issues I am hearing quite frequently.
• I am glad to be a reader of your news and sharing information with my colleagues.
• A more complete newsletter would be maybe more useful.
• I enjoy receiving updates!
• Keep the good work up.
• I would like a printable copy - I hate looking at the thing on screen and it is more difficult to circulate within the office.

Organizations responding : ICI, SimSci, AspenTech, Shell, Fantoft, Norsk Hydro, WRc Group, Bayer, RSI, BP, Solvay, Shell. TU Delft, Degussa, Polish Fertilizer Research Institute, IFE, Univ. Wisc., Sulzer, Fluor, Degussa, Cardiac AS, UOP, University of Salerno, RWTH, Lund University, Roche, University of Brazil Rio Grande, Rhodia, ProSim, Infineum, Air Products, Dow, ENI Technology, University Magdeburg,   French National Agricultural Research Institute - INRA, Intec - Argentine Technical University, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, InfoChem, Linde LE.