OMAC merger with ISA approved

The executive board of the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society has approved a merger to create a subsidiary organization for the Open Modular Architecture Controls Users' Group.

The merger allows the two organizations to build on their respective strengths. The OMAC Board of Directors will be working in the coming months to establish a strategic plan for the organization, including outlining plans for development of industry guidelines, a new membership structure, and meeting and training opportunities.

ISA is a global, nonprofit, educational organization connecting people and ideas in automation. The society fosters advancement in the theory, design, manufacture, and use of sensors, instruments, computers, and systems for automation in a wide variety of applications.

OMAC was formed to create an organization through which companies could work together to:

• Establish a repository of open architecture control requirements and operating experience from users, software developers, hardware builders and OEMs
• Facilitate accelerated convergence of industry and government developed Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to one set, satisfying common use requirements
• Collaborate with European and Japanese user groups in pursuit of a common international API standard
• Promote the development of open architecture control among control builders
• Derive common solutions collectively for both technical and non-technical issues in the development, implementation, and commercialization of open architecture control technologies.