Wonderware

Wonderware is a brand of industrial software sold by Aveva. Wonderware

Wonderware
was part of Invensys plc[1], and Invensys plc was acquired in January 2014 by
Schneider Electric. Invensys plc.[2] was formed in 1999 by the merger of BTR Industry Software
plc and Siebe plc,[3] and Wonderware was acquired by Siebe plc in 1998.[4] Headquarters Lake Forest,
California, U.S.
Wonderware software is used in diverse industries, including: Automotive
Key people Dennis Morin, Phil
Assembly, Facilities Management, Food and Beverage, CPG, Mining and
Huber
Metals, Power, Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Energy, Water and Wastewater.[5]
Products InTouch, Historian,
Intelligence, MES,
History System Platform,
SmartGlance,
Wonderware was co-founded by Dennis Morin and Phil Huber. Both were Alarm Adviser,
former employees of another local startup located in Irvine, California. Morin's IntelaTrac, Skelta
founding vision was a Windows-based Human Machine Interface (HMI) that BPM Workflow,
was inspired by an early 1980s video game that allowed players to digitally eDNA, Corporate
construct a pinball game. His idea was that operators monitoring factory Energy
operations would be more productive if they used a machine that was fun and Management,
easy to use. He was terminated from Triconex in February, 1986. In one of the
Information Server,
InBatch, Recipe
great rags-to-riches entrepreneurial stories of the 1980s, Morin was 40 years
Manager Plus,
old when he left Triconex. Up until then, the college dropout had either been
ArchestrA
fired or never been promoted from every job he managed to find. He drove a
Parent Aveva
Taxi in Boston before coming to California, hitching a ride with some friends in
the 1970s. He told his idea to a young technology wizard, Phil Huber, who was Website www.wonderware
still employed by Triconex. Huber was a Penn State graduate who once worked
.com (http://www.w
onderware.com)
at the legendary Bell labs before coming to California.
sw.aveva.com
Huber agreed to help his friend develop the HMI product that would be called /wonderware (http://
sw.aveva.com/won
InTouch and the new company Wonderware. Other friends of Morin's at
derware)
Triconex agreed to help on the project. On April 1, 1987, Dennis Morin, Phil
Huber, Cole Chevalier, Jerry Cuckler and Bill Urone signed an agreement to start Wonderware. Morin set about raising
money for the venture. A friend, Linda Ellison introduced him to her father who was a local Orange County, California
investor. Jerry Spellman was a no-nonsense former World War ll veteran who listened to Morin's pitch over dinner, and
agreed to invest $100,000 to start Wonderware. Other investors, however, insisted that Morin was not ready to lead the
company, so industry veteran Peter Pitsker was appointed the first CEO of Wonderware which began operations in 1989.
Another longtime friend of Morin's, Chet Tomsick was pivotal in implementing the first installation and became a key
advisor. Morin became CEO within two years.

Wonderware employed an outrageous marketing blitz in the conservative industry for factory operations. Their print ads
featured lingerie, they rented out cruise ships and hired bands such as the Dixie Chicks and speakers like astronaut Alan
Shepard to appear at company events. They soon became the industry leader in a market they largely created, leaving
much bigger rivals behind. Morin left the company towards the end of 1995. He went to professional cooking school,
sailed, and traveled widely, most frequently in the company of beautiful women. He built the well-known 'Rock House' in
Laguna Beach, a house featured prominently in magazines and TV and became a tourist landmark. Wonderware was sold
to British-based SIEBE in 1998 for nearly 400 million dollars. By that time, all the founding members had left the
company. Co-Founder Phil Huber remains active in startups. Morin died on the last day of 2012. Wonderware became
part of Paris-based Schneider-Electric in 2014.

Wonderware was formed as a partnership in 1987 and incorporated in California in 1988 as Wonderware Software
Development Corporation. The company reincorporated in Delaware in 1993.[6] At the time, there were other software
companies making programs to automate production processes, but Wonderware was the first to introduce a program
designed to be used with the Microsoft Windows operating system. As a result, Wonderware became one of the fastest-
growing software companies in the U.S. during the early 1990s.[7]

References
1. "Invensys PLC History" (http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/invensys-plc-history).
fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
2. "Software" (http://software.invensys.com/). Invensys.com. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
3. Harrison, Michael. "Siebe and BTR unveil plans for pounds 9.4bn merger". (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/busi
ness/siebe-and-btr-unveil-plans-for-pounds-94bn-merger-1187036.html) The Independent (London). 24 November
1998. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
4. "Company News; Siebe to Buy Wonderware for $375 Million" (https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/25/business/compan
y-news-siebe-to-buy-wonderware-for-375-million.html). The New York Times. 25 February 1998. Retrieved 5 March
2013.
5. "Wonderware Homepage" (http://software.schneider-electric.com/wonderware). Wonderware.com. Retrieved 5 March
2013.
6. "Wonderware Corp Form 10-K" (http://www.secinfo.com/dR7Km.7rb.htm). Period Ending 31 December 1997.
Retrieved 5 March 2013.
7. Huffstutter, P.J. "British Firm to Pay $375 Million for Wonderware". (http://articles.latimes.com/1998/feb/25/business/fi-
22706) Los Angeles Times. 25 February 1998. Retrieved 5 March 2013.

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This page was last edited on 17 August 2019, at 10:22 (UTC).

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