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ABB Utility Automation recently opened a storefront for its power generation customers on VerticalNet's Power Online, www.poweronline.com, enabling ABB power plant customers to quickly obtain information on a wide range of solutions, and services, as well as to perform benefit analyses for these offerings.

"We found that thousands of our customers are visiting the on line community provided by Power Online," said William Bach, marketing manager for ABB Power Plant Automation. "So it is natural for us to join them there with a description of our automation solutions to provide reliable, responsive and cost effective generation of electricity in today's changing markets."

The goal is to make ABB's automation offering for customers who generate electrical power easy to find, and understand. "But we see the current storefront configuration as just a start," Bach said. "We are seeking customer feedback to guide its development to serve their needs. The great thing about such store on the world-wide web, is that we can quickly adapt it to reflect those needs as we hear them."

Bach said his immediate plans include converting the vast amount of knowledge ABB has in developing and implementing automation solutions for fossil fired, combined cycle, waste to energy, hydro, and industrial power plants, into web-based information centers, which the power generation market can tap into.

This storefronts joins the existing storefront at ElectricNet, www.electricnet.com, and another being developed on Water Online, www.wateronline.com, by ABB Utility Automation in co-operation with VerticalNet, which operates these communities.

In each case, ABB plans to provide a broad description of its solutions, more detailed descriptions of specific solutions of high interest to customers, and a link back to a "portal" at the ABB group website, www.abb.com. At the group site, customers will find a complete description of ABB's Industrial IT offering for each vertical market. For instance, the storefront on Power Online provides a link to http://www.abb.com/powerplantautomation.

Besides the descriptions of solutions, customers can analyze benefits of different solutions at a site in this portal. Sale of specific solutions and services will be offered in the near future. According to Bach, ABB is already responding to inquiries from customers who discovered the storefront online before its official introduction Thursday, Dec. 14.

ABB ranks as the world's largest automation supplier to the utility industries—power generation, electric utilities, and water. The company's automation business segment includes major product areas such as control products and systems, manufacturing execution systems, instrumentation, analytical devices, meters, robotics, drives, motors and machines.

Other major industry markets served are chemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, food and beverage, pulp and paper, metals and minerals, manufacturing industries, and marine. The ABB Group serves customers in power transmission and distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; building technologies; and in financial services.

With novel IT applications, tailored software solutions, growing eBusiness and a fast expanding knowledge and service base, ABB is building links to the new economy. The ABB Group employs about 160,000 people in 100 countries.

Edited by April C. Murelio, Managing Editor, Power Online

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