Message by CEO 

The end of summer (in the northern hemisphere) marks for most of us the start of a very busy period - one that doesn't stop until Thanksgiving. Many of us attend and participated at multiple trade shows, all while preparing our organizations for the next year through strategic planning, budgeting, etc.
 
CSIA didn't slow down this summer. The selection and transition to the new association management company kept us very active, while trying to deliver on our regular schedule. We hope by the time you read this newsletter, you have received the CSIA white paper, Measure. Benchmark. Improve. KPIs to drive continuous system integration business improvement. If you didn't receive it, you can download an electronic copy form here .
 
To aid SI interested in following our Best Practices, we have organized the vast content that we have had on our website along the BP&B chapters. Check it out!
 
To get you started we have provided a direct link to resources for each chapter. Click on the headers to access. 
 
On Sept. 5, we tried something new for our members: holding our first SI Regional event. Frank Riordan and his team at DMC (a certified CSIA SI member) hosted a group of SIs, CSIA staff, media and a few vendor Partners. Attendees came from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. We toured the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) facility in Chicago, which has been in operation since 2014. Siemens sponsored the DMDII tour and we got to see the commissioning of a virtual machine (digital twin) displayed next to the physical machine.
 
After the visit to the DMDII, we had a facilitated roundtable discussion on matters related to the management of SI businesses - including main challenges the participants see for the SI industry, their companies and at a personal level. We tried to replicate the way peer group meetings tend to be conducted. We plan to replicate this experience with a second SI Regional Event in Houston on Oct. 23.

CSIA Announces Staff Changes 

CSIA is pleased to announce it recently chose Kellen, a leading global association management and communications company, as its new management firm. The designated staff will allow CSIA to continue to deliver on its mission of advancing the industry of control system integration.

CSIA Operations Director Jill Gabbert
Gabbert has over 15 years of experience working with volunteers in both higher education and association management. In collaboration with client-based committees and volunteers, she demonstrates great attention to detail, communicates regularly and completes projects and tasks in a timely fashion She is also looks to streamline and improve current processes. Jill graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration from Grand Valley State University and a Master of Science from Western Illinois University. She resides in the suburbs of Chicago, IL with her husband and daughter. Jill is the lead contact for CSIA related matters, working in very close coordination with the CEO, Jose Rivera.
 
 
CSIA Senior Advisor Michelle Miller
Michelle Miller will serve as the senior advisor of CSIA, leading a team of staff. With over 20 years of association management experience, Miller provides strategic oversight and guidance to various client organizations with focus on trade groups in the Chicago office. She specializes in re-aligning organizations towards profitability and identifying growth opportunities, ensuring governance structures are aligned with strategic initiatives, solution orientated with emphasis on problem identification and conflict resolution, staffing utilization, developing staffing models to support organizations and transitions. She is a graduate of Northwood University in Midland Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing.
 
The staff team will manage the day-to-day operations of CSIA, support the board and committee by facilitating communications, represent the organization at industry events, develop and execute education and marketing programs and lead membership development.

- - - - -
The new team members include:
 
Certification Manager Alphonsus Baggett
Baggett is a former public school teacher and administrator and has over 15 years of association management experience within both the healthcare and business trade arenas, with concentrations in operations, project management, education strategy and certification program management. Alphonsus graduated from George Mason University with a Master of Education (MEd) degree in Education Leadership and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Education with a concentration in English from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
 
 
Director of Communications Chris Barry
Barry is responsible for overseeing the content and quality of communications to ensure messages are topical, interesting and informative. Prior to joining CSIA, Barry was editor for the trade publication  Food & Drug Packaging magazine, focusing on writing and editing articles on packaging technologies and processes. After graduating from Aurora University with a B.A. in Writing and Language, he did a stint as features writer for the Press Publications newspaper group in the Chicago suburbs. He has pursued clarity in communications his whole life with strategic thinking at the forefront.
 
Associate Account Executive Daniel Krupa 
(Exchange Support)
Daniel has served in both the technical and administration capacities for nearly 10 years. He is a seasoned professional as it relates to onsite inspections, responding to technical questions; reviewing and revising industry position statements and installation specifications for sport flooring. Daniel is an experienced association management professional by way of supporting sales, technology, and various committees. An excellent communicator and has the unique ability to establish new relationships, Daniel helps in organizing events and cultivating existing partnerships with high profile business professionals, and organizations. He is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, with a Bachelor of Business Studies degree in Finance. He currently resides in Grayslake, Illinois with his wife and son.
 
Education Manager Holly Lundgren
Lundgren has over 15 years of professional and trade association management experience, both with association management companies and stand-alone associations. While her past experience covers all aspect of association management, including board management, meeting planning, budget development, continuing education management, as well as operations management - in her current role, she has focused on the continuing education aspect of associations. Holly has spent her career working on virtual learning programming, particularly developing existing and new webinar programs - driving them to create new learning opportunities for the associations' members as well as creating new revenue streams.
 
Senior Public Relations Account Executive  
LeAnne Munoz
Munoz provides strategic implementation and oversight of internal and external communications, including newsletters, meeting materials and advertising. Agraduate of Purdue University, Munoz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations, a graduate certificate in Strategic, Global and Crisis Communications and a Master of Arts degree in Communications, with an emphasis on interpersonal and organizational communication.

- - - - -

CSIA is now headquartered near Chicago at One Parkview Plaza, Suite 800 in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, 60181. For more information visit www.controlsys.org, email info@staff.controlsys.org  or call (847) 686-2245.

Join us at the SI Regional Event in Houston 


Following our recently-held SI Regional Event in Chicago, CSIA is hosting another SI Regional Event in Houston at the offices of Wood plc (better known by many by the names of past acquisitions and mergers like Amec Foster Wheeler, Mustang Engineering, etc.).

Wood plc will make some interesting presentations, followed by an SI roundtable discussion format, commonly used at peer group meetings. During this roundtable discussion session, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions to one another, give feedback and provide input. Questions must be submitted in advance of the event to CSIA CEO Jose Rivera, who will moderate the discussion.
 
We will conclude the event with a social networking gathering with members of the Partner Committee, who will be meeting the following day. While this event is mainly geared toward our current and prospective SI members, Partners are invited to attend as well. We expect a group of 12-20 SIs, comprised mostly of those with offices and/or clients within the vicinity of Wood plc.
 
Further event details, including the full agenda, can be found on our website. Registration is now open at $50 per attendee; space is limited.

Click on the Ad below for more information 



SIs to Help Manufacturers in their Smart Manufacturing Journeys

By John Dyck, chief executive officer, Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute

Most manufacturing leaders today would agree there's a significant value to be captured in the contemporary technologies - often described via an alphabet soup - they're being pressured to acquire. Apparently, there is a multi-trillion-dollar value tied to IIoT. The public is beginning to hear more about Industrie 4.0 and wondering how they missed Industrie 3.0.

The idea of predicting process behavior or machine failures using AI and/or Machine Learning is generally accepted as possible, though for all but the earliest of early adopters, this is still in the realm of science fiction. Most manufacturers would characterize themselves at the beginning of the journey to Smart Manufacturing. I would venture to say that most of these manufacturers are still unclear on how to get started or how to validate their instincts that there's real, hard value and ROI along the way.

I would propose that you - the System Integrator community - are a vital stakeholder on this journey, though right now the conversations and much of the investment is focused on the Corporate and IT stakeholders - not the plants. I would also contend that the existing manufacturing systems represent a level of complexity - for plants small and large - which makes it EXTREMELY challenging (almost impossible) for corporate to come in with any of these new technologies and begin rolling it out.

So where does that leave us? How can we all engage to help manufacturers simplify and reduce both the complexities and the cost on this journey to Smart Manufacturing?

As the CEO of the new, federally-funded Smart Manufacturing Institute, I'd like to share with you how we believe we can facilitate the very necessary collaboration between the OT ecosystem (most notably the System Integrators) and the IT ecosystem to address these challenges. To do that, I've been invited by Jose Rivera to participate in a CSIA webinar to share with you our vision for Smart Manufacturing and specifically why we believe you are a vital part of this journey going forward. So stay tuned - I look forward to doing exactly that in the coming weeks.

The Latest Cyber Schemes and Update in the CSIA Cyber Insurance Program

By Brandan Lickey, Blue Ridge Networks

Cyber threats constantly evolve. So companies seeking to defend themselves from cyber threats must evolve too. Managing risks in the cyber sphere requires significant vigilance to keep up with the latest scams - ensuring adequate training and cyber insurance coverage. Failing to do so can cost your company significant sums of money.

Recently, social engineering scams have many U.S. companies hundreds of thousands of dollars - even millions in some cases - by convincing company employees to wire funds to the wrong bank account. In the scam referred to as "The President's Letter," someone in an accounting department will receive an email that looks like it came from the president of the company, requesting the recipient wire money to their account . This ' impersonation scheme' has caused billions of dollars in losses over the last couple of years.

Lately, the transaction has become even more dangerous because these scams are getting harder and harder for trained employees to debunk. In "Friday Afternoon Fraud," it starts when someone hacks into your email account via malware, brute force or leaked credentials. It's called Friday Afternoon Fraud because the scam was originally sent with the idea that on Fridays, banks would be less responsive or likely to quickly flag a suspicious transaction, allowing for a successful scam.

The hackers will then monitor your messages, waiting for a communication involving an exchange of money. What they are looking for is a hint that you are sending payment to someone or requesting wiring instructions. The intruder then strikes: socially engineering an email exchange and sending other wiring instructions routing the funds to them. You have 'paid' an invoice, but will have no product or service from your vendor because you sent funds to the wrong party.

A newer version of this scam involves manipulating a company's vendor. Watching for you to send an invoice to a client, the hackers send a fabricated email with fraudulent instructions and your client pays your invoice to them. This scam hurts your business and can put you in a difficult situation. Your client has lost the money that should have gone to paying your invoice and the loss results from a hack of your own systems. It's a tricky place to be while trying to maintain a good relationship with a client. No one wants to be in this type of situation.

Social engineering protection is available on both crime and cyber policies. It pays for losses should your employees mistakenly wire funds. However, Social Engineering coverage may not cover Invoice Impersonation (where your client pays a fraudulent invoice). These schemes are new and not all cyber policies have kept up with the loss trend. 

Large limits are not always easily available, so employee training is essential. Solid business practices, such as verifying wiring change instructions, are also important. The right insurance and employee training can save you lots of money and heartaches.  

We at Blue Ridge Networks have seen losses for clients of every size, shape and level of sophistication. The employees at Fortune 500 companies have fallen prey. You may have been offered this coverage in the past and felt comfortable with your internal systems of software and employee training. Even organizations with red flag procedures in place could be at risk.

The CSIA Cyber Policy has been updated to automatically include a basic limit of Social Engineering coverage. The change will happen at renewal. We are working with underwriters to continually stay ahead of the bad guys!

Want to learn more about what cybersecurity capabilities to look for when protecting the unique mission and needs of your industrial and manufacturing clients? Visit www.blueridgenetworks.com.

Message from the CSIA Board Chair 

B y CSIA Board Chair Jeff Miller

Greetings from your current CSIA board Chair! It has been an incredibly busy, productive and hot summer and fall is now in the air for us in the Midwest. Crops are starting to turn colors and leaves are just starting to make some color changes. This really helps me to remember all the changes that have happened since the last time I communicated with you.

Our new Association Management company, Kellen, is now on staff and fully transitioned into the organization. I want to take one last time to thank AMPED for the 10 years of service to our organization, as well as thank them for their help in making this a very smooth transition. Both staffs worked very hard to make this happen and it was done professionally. The board has met once already for a regular monthly board meeting with our Kellen Operations Director and Transition Manager and we are scheduled for our first face-to-face strategy session at the Kellen offices in Chicago during the first week of October. This will be an excellent way for all our board members to get to know the Kellen team as we develop our strategy for the future.

Staff has already started working with Jose to continue preparations for the 2019 annual conference in Asheville, North Carolina. They will also start working on the location for the 2020 conference. Please feel free to reach out to myself, the CSIA board, Jose, or the new CSIA staff if you have any questions or concerns.
Until next time, have a great quarter!
LATAM Activity 

By CISA Latin American Coordinator Marcela Vallejo

Our partners and members continue to support our growth efforts in LATAM.
In June, we attended a Rockwell Mexico event in Monterrey and participated in a discussion panel on Best Practices implementation. Some of our certified and most mature integrators were part of this activity: Gersa, Cybermax, Tecnogam and Deux. 

Deux is a consulting firm that has previously helped our integrators prepare for the certification and has led our Latam Task Force, focused on same topic together with CEO of Cybermax, Víctor González.

On August 16, we attended another event in Queretaro, sponsored by Rockwell and Hermos. We had 18 people in attendance and had a great discussion panel, led by Ignacio Guerra from Deux, Ernesto López from Líder & Control and Jorge Mendoza, CEO of IDAAPS in Mexico.

This event featured a very interactive presentation on implementing Best Practices, inviting the audience to share their own experiences. This led to a very productive and dynamic discussion. A big thank you to Ignacio, Ernesto, Jorge and their companies for their support and great work.

We also want to thank Rockwell & Hermos for inviting us to their events. Coming up will be an event held in Mexico City by Rockwell and another one in Colombia.
As of August, CSIA Latam has 45 members and we look forward to continue our membership growth. Thanks to all of you, members and Partners for promoting and helping CSIA grow in Latin America!


What is a "Legal Plan," Anyway?
Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) about the CSIA Legal Plan 

By Mark Voigtmann and Brian Clifford, CSIA Attorneys

The CSIA Legal Plan is one of the  many benefits of CSIA membership. As a free benefit of membership, CSIA members are entitled to free and reduced-fee legal services from our law firm, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP. Many CSIA members already take advantage of the CSIA Legal Plan and use our firm's attorneys for contract review, patent and trademark registration, labor and employment issues, and more. Since all of you are members of the CSIA Legal Plan, we thought it would be helpful to answer some of the most common questions we are asked about it.
I need a contract reviewed. What should I expect?
The CSIA Legal Plan offers two options for contract review - the basic risk assessment and contract revision and rewriting. If you choose the basic risk assessment, you can expect to receive a summary of the most significant risks we see with the contract. If you are looking for something more in-depth, our contract revision and rewriting services provide you with a draft of the contract showing our suggested revisions in "tracked changes" format for your consideration in your continued negotiations with your customer.
What is the average cost to have a contract reviewed?
The basic risk assessment is offered for a flat fee of $500 for all contracts based on U.S. law. The cost of contract revision and rewriting depends on the length and complexity of the contract. All contract revision and rewriting services are offered at 10% off our standard hourly rates. If you would like an estimate of the cost of reviewing a contract before engaging our services, please contact us with further details.
I need help with intellectual property, labor and employment, or immigration issues. How can you help me?
Faegre Baker Daniels LLP is a full-service law firm. We have professionals in a wide variety of practice areas and geographic locations including several attorneys who frequently work with our CSIA clients. If the two of us can't directly assist you with your legal issues we will direct you to someone in our firm who can.
How do I get started?
I t's easy - send us an e-mail or call (844) 204-0090. We will go through our standard process of running a check for any potential conflicts of interests and we will send you a legal engagement letter detailing the terms of our representation. After that, any time you need us, we are just an e-mail or phone call away.
Mark Voigtmann and Brian Clifford are partners in the industrial construction and automation practice at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, a full service law firm. Faegre Baker Daniels is legal counsel to the CSIA. Mark and Brian can be reached at Mark.Voigtmann@faegrebd.com and Brian.Clifford@faegrebd.com.
CSIA Webinars 


CSIA is proud to work with our Partners to bring you a compelling lineup of free webinars. In addition to the upcoming webinars listed below, we will have several more Partner Webinars for 2018 and many more planned for 2019. We will also be resuming our CSIA Business Webinar program in 2019, with more information to help you effectively produce comprehensive solutions for automation and integration needs. Be sure to watch your inbox, as well as the Events Calendar for updates. We look forward to learning with you!

For more information about upcoming webinars, or how to plan your own Partner Webinars, contact Holly Lundgren .
 
Upcoming We binars

Presented by CSIA and Panduit
When: October 4 from 11 a.m. - noon (ET) 
 
Benefits of a Secure Cloud Connected Solution for Industrial Applications
Presented by CSIA and Advanced Cooling Technologies
When: October 25 from 10  a.m. - 11 a.m. (ET)