Partnership above Sales

Because of the long term nature of our business, we at St James Software foster a partnership approach with our customers.

By its very nature, the process control industry is long-term and conservative. Changes made today on a control system will probably still be in effect in 10 years time. Unlike other computer based industries, it is simply not that easy to change systems or vendors every year.

We aim to be in business with our customers for an extended period and we can achieve this only by creating trust and by providing products and services that meet (and exceed) our customers’ expectations.

Prototyping: How to get all the answers before you commit

We will create a prototype product to meet your specific requirements and which we would then demonstrate to you via Webex.

You would start by emailing us a brief description of what you are looking for in a logging package for your site. We then create a fully working prototype of the application to meet your requirements.

A software solution to meet your needs:

An electronic logbook is much more than just a replacement for your existing “hard paper” log.If you were going to replace the paper based logbook with an electronic logbook, what are the functions you would be looking for?

Your wish list would probably look something like this:

• Easy to Use: Our operators will only use the new logbook if it is at least as easy to use as their existing logbook and they can see a benefit in it.

• Networkable and Affordable: Instead of having to track down the information by phoning or physically hunting it down, we should be able to find it directly using our intranet browser on our computer in our own offices.

• Configurable: Every site has different requirements; no two sites are alike. The electronic logbook must be highly configurable to satisfy our needs.

• Look and Feel: We want to be able to select the fields we want displayed, the levels of priorities, the color-coding, the format of the date and so forth.

• Fields and Structure: We want to be able to add new codes for the different kinds of logs, add new sort fields, specify the options for different fields so that the operator can select them from a combo box etc. And we want to be able to do all this without changing any code.

• Minimal Administration: We may have 10, 20 or 30+ users all having access to the logbook so we want the system to support floating licenses so that anyone can get the info. And we don’t want to have to load any software on the user computers – we want a true zero client application.

• Database of Your Choice: If we are going to store the logs electronically, we may as well have them stored in a database that we can integrate with the rest of our system. Now we can start tying together things like the quality data with the operator logs into a single report. Or start getting statistics on how often a particular problem occurs. Above all, we want the information to be accessible via our normal skill set.

• Configurable User Personalities: We should be able to give different users different capabilities depending on who they are. For example, some users should be only able to add logs for certain areas, some users should only be able to see certain logs, others may need to be logged off at the end of a shift etc. What we need is a flexible, industrial user management system.

• Multiple Log Books: Instead of having just one place where logs can be entered, we want the functionality for logs to be entered by many more people, e.g. our lab people, our maintenance people or even operators in remote sites entering the information. Because the logbooks are networked, the information would be easily tied together to see correlations.

• Searching and Filtering: We want to be able to quickly and easily find the particular log that we are looking for. It must be possible, for example to type in keywords like “Filter 3″ and to immediately see all the records relating to Filter 3.

The j5 software solution offers all these features and more! For more on the features of j5, please visit our products section.

A Range of Services

St James Software offers a comprehensive range of services to the integrating corporation. These services include:

• Analysis of the required information and the formulation of a specification and implementation plan to create a workable computer based system. This covers the complete range of process from definition of the I/O in the PLC, DCS or SCADA system to the definition of key process indices, to the specification of the user interface on the Intranet.
• Implementation of the Information System either on a per diem basis or as a turnkey project.
• Maintenance and support of systems typically on-line or (if required) via site visits. This support is usually covered by a comprehensive annual support contract.
• Training (either on-site or in our training facilities). Training courses cover the various j5 products as well as the products we represent.