Invensys Holds Worldwide Plant Intelligence Conference with Microsoft for Senior Manufacturing Professionals

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Feb. 24, 2004 -- Invensys today announced that the worldwide Invensys Plant Intelligence Conference, hosted by Invensys' Wonderware business unit, will begin in North America in March 2004 and travel to Asia-Pacific, European and Latin American regions in April and May 2004.

The Invensys Plant Intelligence Conference, planned with Microsoft, consists of a series of free half-day sessions for senior-level manufacturing professionals who want to better utilize plant assets through improved efficiency and performance, reduced production costs and improved returns on capital investments. Those invited to attend include senior manufacturing professionals such as plant, quality assurance, operations, IT manufacturing and senior line-engineering managers.

The conference will highlight real-world performance solutions and examples of companies that have improved plant performance and overall efficiency with Invensys solutions and Wonderware software featuring ArchestrA and Microsoft® technology.

"The ability to monitor and fine-tune plant performance in real time is giving companies the means to improve plant productivity and efficiency, directly benefiting a plant's bottom line," said Thomas Muth, FactorySuite product marketing manager for Invensys' Wonderware and ArchestrA business units. "Industrial organizations have recognized this trend and are increasingly focusing their investments on solutions and software infrastructures that lead to increased plant performance.

"Invensys can offer these forward-thinking companies specific and effective solutions that leverage Invensys' ArchestrA industrial software architecture, extensive process, discrete and hybrid manufacturing domain expertise, and plant-enhancing products such as Wonderware software and Microsoft's technology including its Server and Office applications."

Effective plant intelligence solutions address manufacturing issues in the areas of operations, product quality, plant efficiency, downtime avoidance and customer satisfaction. Invensys offers sustainable plant intelligence solutions that drive improvements in plant performance based on the ArchestrA software architecture, which is built on Microsoft .NET technology.

Invensys' Wonderware plant intelligence applications are based on a modular, sustainable architecture, which benefits customers by allowing them to take an incremental approach to plant-improvement initiatives.

Invensys' off-the-shelf products leveraging ArchestrA technology and the latest Microsoft productivity tools greatly assist customers to effectively manage plant operations. These tools enable them to analyze plant data, increase plant productivity, manage, analyze and report on essential plant data as well as conduct SPC analysis and increase overall plant efficiency in real time.

"Combining Microsoft's proven platform technology and Invensys' plant intelligence solutions allows business managers and knowledge workers to make informed decisions to keep pace with changing market demands," said Don Richardson, director, manufacturing industry solutions at Microsoft.

"This plant intelligence conference not only will provide manufacturers with an overview of the solutions, but also with examples of companies that have already seen the benefits of implementing those solutions -- better plant practices and operations for increased efficiency."

In October 2003, Invensys and Microsoft announced a joint alliance at the ISA Expo. The alliance is driving a new generation of Invensys solutions to provide manufacturers with real-time visibility in plant environments and supply chains. Although Invensys has long developed solutions using Microsoft technology, under the alliance, Invensys is tightly integrating Microsoft's platform into the company's future offerings.

Microsoft is also helping Invensys to accelerate the development of its enhanced productivity tools, products and customer solutions with broad horizontal appeal to the manufacturing industry and specific benefits for the hydrocarbons, power and utilities, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical manufacturing segments.

For more information about the free Invensys Plant Intelligence Conference, visit www.invensys.com/plantintel.

About Invensys

Invensys is a global leader in production technology and solutions. The group helps customers improve productivity, performance and profitability using innovative services and technologies and a deep understanding of their industries and applications. Invensys business units work closely with customers to increase performance of production assets, maximize return on investment in production and data management technologies and remove cost and cash from the supply chain.

Leading Invensys brands focused on production management include APV, Avantis, Eurotherm, Foxboro, IMServ, SimSci-Esscor, Triconex and Wonderware. These businesses address process and batch industries -- including oil and gas, chemicals, power and utilities, food and beverage, and personal health care -- and the discrete and hybrid manufacturing sectors. Invensys operates in more than 60 countries, with its headquarters in London. For more information, visit www.invensys.com.

About Invensys' Wonderware and ArchestrA Business Units

Wonderware and ArchestrA are business units of Invensys Systems, Inc. Wonderware is the world's leading supplier of industrial automation and information software. Founded in 1987, Wonderware pioneered the use of the Microsoft Windows® operating system in HMI automation software for manufacturing operation systems. Wonderware software powers intelligent plant decisions in real time. ArchestrA technology provides a unified set of software services that enables every system in your plant, working in concert.

Based in Lake Forest, Calif., the Wonderware and ArchestrA business units have regional sales and development offices throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia to provide support to its network of more than 160 distributor offices. Wonderware has approximately 300,000 software licenses in approximately 100,000 plants worldwide, which is about 30 percent of the world's 335,000 plants with 20 or more employees. For more information, visit www.wonderware.com or www.invensys.com/archestra.

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Invensys, Wonderware, ArchestrA, FactorySuite, FactorySuite A2, APV, Avantis, Eurotherm, Foxboro, IMServ, SimSci-Esscor, and Triconex are trademarks of Invensys plc, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies. All other brands and product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.