Industrial software company Industry Software Solutions and Support (IS³) recognised excellence among its end-users for the implementation of AVEVA solutions, which showed significant return on investment and business value across all industries.

As the finale for IS³'s X-Change User Conference, held in the Drakensberg from May 8 to 11, the company gave out awards to its top three implementation partners for the year.

PCS Global was in third place, Control Systems Integration in second place and Schneider Electric in first place.

IS³ also recognised the best presenters, who gave detailed summaries, insights and guidance on various industrial software applications and technical information to attendees of the conference.

AVEVA sub-Saharan Africa sales manager Hanno van Niekerk awarded best presenter to IA Controls Solutions automation engineer Andre van Schalkwyk for his presentation on the road to modernisation to improve maintenance and provide visibility to key stakeholders of a gold mining operation in Tanzania, as part of a roadmap to digital transformation.

"The customer awards recognise project excellence in the categories of Engineering, Asset Performance and Monitoring and Control. These projects significantly demonstrate our customers power of purpose, in shaping their sustainable future," said IS³ technology lead Sameer Allopi.

Engineering departments stretch around the globe and must respond to changing conditions, while incorporating a new generation of engineers across multidisciplinary teams.

The engineering excellence award recognises solutions that have saved man hours and increased engineering, he said.

The winner in the engineering excellence category was engineering and technology company Netco.

Further, the planning and operations awards recognises a solution that have quantified a business benefit. Operating an industrial facility is a balancing act that involves planning and scheduling, manufacturing execution, quality and safety.

 In this category, pharmaceutical company Reckitt together with the implementation partner 4Sight Holdings, walked away with the award for their implementation of the AVEVA Batch management solution.

In the monitoring and control category, the winners, Transnet Pipelines together with Process Automation Solutions as the implementation partner, began a journey to provide a fit for purpose process control system that resolved challenges that the business was facing.

Business needs to continually improve to stay competitive, real-time information and analytics allow for integrated environments to be visualised in a meaningful manner with standards. This particular solution showed improved productivity, agility and profitability in a short space of time, said Allopi.

Presenting the Asset Performance awards, IS³ technical director Nilen Bermal said the asset performance awards recognised a solution that saw huge benefit from predictive maintenance, increasing both quality and quantity to users across multiple sites.

From improving asset availability and reducing un-planned downtime to streamlining your maintenance tasks to reduce costs Illovo Sugar was the winner in this category.

Further, the innovation award is awarded to customers or partners who have embarked on a journey of creating value by changing the game, implementing a new way of and having a positive impact on its people and the environment and an economic return, said Bermal.

The winner in this category was the Renewable Energy Investments South Africa and Control Systems Integration as the implementation partner and Zutari as the engineering, procurement and construction service provider.

Meanwhile, the best business value award recognises companies that help their customers achieve good returns on investments using AVEVA Software Solutions. The winners was PCS Global for its work for pharmaceutical manufacturer Kiara Health, said Bermal.

The CEO award recognises resilience of organisations and the ability to overcome adversity. The winner in this category, State-owned power utility Eskom, had to grapple with technical issues, commercial and contractual issues, policy and legislative change, said Digital Industries CEO and IS³ MD Dion Govender.

"The Eskom team kept to their purpose and overcame many challenges," he said.