Wonderware

Wonderware is a brand of industrial software sold by Schneider Electric. Wonderware was part of Invensys plc, and Invensys plc was acquired in January 2014 by Schneider Electric. Invensys plc. was formed in 1999 by the merger of BTR plc and Siebe plc, and Wonderware was acquired by Siebe plc in 1998.

Wonderware software is used in diverse industries, including: Automotive Assembly, Facilities Management, Food and Beverage, CPG, Mining and Metals, Power, Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Energy, and Water and Wastewater.

History

As recounted in the book "The History of a Safer World' by Gary L. Wilkinson, Wonderware was co-founded by Dennis Morin and Phil Huber. Both were former employees of another local startup located in Irvine, California. Mr. Morin's founding vision was a Windows-based Human Interface Machine (HMI) that was inspired by an early 1980s video game that allowed players to digitally construct a pinball game. His idea was that operators monitoring factory operations would be more productive if they used a machine that was fun and easy to use. He was terminated from Triconex in February, 1986. In one of the great rags-to-riches entrepreneurial stories of the 1980s, Mr. Morin was 40 years old when he left Triconex. Up until then, the college dropout had either been fired or never been promoted from every job he managed to find. He drove a 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 still employed by Triconex. Mr. Huber was a Penn State graduate who once worked at the legendary Bell labs before coming to California.