Industry News, Trends and Technology, and Standards Updates

by Brett Horsley
Customer Support Engineer

The Cimetrix Support Team has developed a new web tool to provide active support customers with information about their software licenses.

You can access the new tool by logging in at the Cimetrix Customer License Generator page. Choose License Report from the pull down menu, and the page will populate your company’s Cimetrix software license information in a table.

Here is an example of what you will see:

You will be able to view the status of  all of the licenses your company purchased over the last 12 months, including information about whether the license is unassigned or assigned to a specific computer. You will also be able to see the MAC ID for any assigned licenses. To ease your internal reporting and communications, you can also download the history into a CSV file.

At Cimetrix, we constantly strive to provide outstanding support for our customers. Let us know how we can improve our support or communications.

by Brett Horsley
Customer Support Engineer

Back in December 2011 and January 2012, I posted a couple of blogs about the Customer License Generator. You can see what I wrote at New Web License Generator and Transfer a Cimetrix License To A New Machine. Our customers have been using the license generator and we have had a lot of very positive feedback.

One of our goals in developing the license generator is to improve support for critical systems.  When a hardware failure occurs on a vital piece of capital equipment running Cimetrix software, we know our customer – and our customer’s customer – cannot waste time waiting for a response.  Often replacing hardware or re-imaging a control system's operating system will require the Cimetrix license file to be transferred to new equipment. In past years,  Cimetrix customers would need to submit a license request via email and then wait for our license department to complete that request.  This process could cause significant delays, particularly if these requests came in during after-hours or on weekends.   

With the Customer License Generator, customers can request new licenses and license transfers online and receive their license file instantly, no matter what time of day they use it. Furthermore, even if the old license information is not-recoverable, the Customer License Generator can provide a 10-day demo license for a critical system, so they can get back online as soon as possible while we sort out any licensing paperwork. 

Getting equipment back into production can make or break business relationships.  Providing this level of support to our customers’ critical systems, whether they are on the production floor or in the lab, is important to us. If you are an existing customer, please try the Customer License Generator and let us know how you like it.

If you need help accessing or using our Customer License Generator, contact us at licenses@cimetrix.com.

By Brett Horsley
Customer Support Engineer

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the  new Cimetrix web license generator, discussing how our customers with up-to-date support contracts can go on to the Cimetrix web site and get new licenses emailed to them in just a few minutes. We should also point out that customers can also transfer a license from an old machine to a new one from the same site.

When you go to the License Renewal site, which you can access using your Support login user name and password, you can apply to transfer the license using the old MAC ID and a new MAC ID.  You will also provide your email address and we will email you the new license immediately. You save time and effort, and you don't have to wait for any paperwork to go through.

When you go to the License Renewal site, you will enter the required fields in a form you see below:

You should have received the user name and password when your company purchased our SDK product. The license will be sent to your email address. If you are not an SDK customer, please contact the Cimetrix Licensing team at licenses@cimetrix.com, or call us at 801-256-6500.

Give it a try and tell us how you like the experience.  Any questions - just email licenses@cimetrix.com.

By Brett Horsley
Customer Support Engineer

We are working to streamline our processes at Cimetrix in order to improve our customer service. We now have a new license generator on the Cimetrix web site that we know will reduce the paperwork and throughput time to obtain new SDK and runtime licenses.

Previously, you had to email us the information and we would attempt to send you a new license within 24 hours. We almost always achieved that goal, but because of holiday schedules we sometimes took more than a day to send new licenses. 

Now with the new web-based license generator, you can go to the Cimetrix web site and log in using your Support user name and password. Then you enter your COA (Certificate of Authenticity) number, MAC ID, and email address, and you will get an email with your new license.

It's fast and easy.  We have tested out the process and it works well, but, if you run into problems, send us an email at licenses@cimetrix.com.

The Good, The Bad, and The UglyThe Security

by Ryoko Fukushima,
Application Engineer

Email, Search Engines, Blog, Twitter, Ebay, Internet Banking. The Internet is deeply integrated into our everyday life and work. It makes it possible to exchange information and data almost instantaneously anywhere, anytime, and to anyone. The changes the Internet brought to our world have been irreversible, and the only way we can go is to forward.

But like any great human invention, it brought the good with the bad. Computer viruses, spam, malware, spyware, phishing. It is like opening the 21st century version of Pandora’s box. Cyber security has become an even more critical part of government and business infrastructure. However, tightening security against cyber threats actually can end up working against us. For instance, sometime our customers' network security unintentionally blocks harmless emails from Cimetrix with important attachment/data. Cimetrix believes that a smooth data delivery system is critical for our customer’s success.

This year, we began providing a data upload/download function to our protected customer support site. Data exchange is performed without compromising the customer’s network security.

To access, log in to the support website provided by Cimetrix with a valid username and password.

Picture 1: Support Website Logon Page

After successfully logging in, a user should see the following page with Support Files Upload/Download link.

Picture 2: Successfully Logged On

Clicking Support File Upload/Download directs a user to a file uploading page. Select a file to be uploaded by typing its complete path and name in File textbox or by selecting a file from Choose File to Upload dialog opened by clicking Browse button.

Next, click Upload button to upload the file to the support site. When file upload is complete, the user will see the newly uploaded file below the Browse and Upload buttons.The  user can download the uploaded file by clicking on its file name.

Picture 3: Upload Page

If you have any problems using the support website, please feel free to contact Cimetrix’s support group (support@cimetrix.com).

You might also be interested in:

• Reviewing the support options available from Cimetrix
• Visiting the secure Support Login Area

by Derek Lindsey,
Principal Software Engineer

I have a four year-old who is heavily into the “Why?” stage right now. He asks, “Why?” about everything. Several years ago when my daughter was that age, she had a neighborhood friend who was the queen of, “Why?” One time I decided to play along to see how many times she would ask why before she gave up. I don’t remember the original topic, but it had something to do with our deck. After a few iterations of her asking why and me trying to explain, I had reached the molecular level of describing deck stain. (She outlasted me, by the way.)

Karl Wiegers wrote an excellent book called Software Requirements. In chapter 7, he discusses requirements elicitation. He calls it “the most difficult, most critical, most error prone and most communication-intensive aspect of software development.”

Often times, preliminary discussion of requirements will result in the customer telling you what he thinks he wants rather than what he really needs. Rather than ask the question, “What do you want?” we should really be asking “What do you need to do?” Wants are usually expressed as design details (i.e. “I want the button to be green if the state is active”) whereas needs are the real requirements (i.e. “I need a way of letting the user know when the state changes.”)

To really get to the heart of what the customer needs, we can all learn from my 4 year-old neighbor and ask “why” several times to get to the molecular level of the problem that needs to be solved. Just taking the customer comment that the button needs to be green at face value is easy to implement, but doesn’t really meet the need of the customer. Asking why the button needs to be green and a few follow on questions easily uncovers the real need.

by DeAnn Rowan,
Marketing

As a blog reader, we would like to ask you a question:

So….What do you think?

We’ve been at this blogging thing for 6 months (almost to the day) now. We’ve seen a lot of interest as the traffic to our blog posts continues to rise at a rapid pace. The entire Cimetrix team has provided contributions and feels passionate about the information that we have been sharing with readers.

Some of our most popular posts to date – and ones you’ll want to check out if you haven’t already - include a narrative touting the benefits of software frameworks, a comparison of the data collection functions of SECS/GEM and Interface A, and the answer to the “He Said/ She Said” game between equipment and host.

What have you found to be the most valuable?
What topics would you like to see discussed more? Or less?

We want to be a resource of information for you regarding the SEMI connectivity standards and their implementation. As you read through our blog, please feel free to ask questions or provide insight on the topics being discussed. We welcome your comments!

In addition to this blog, we encourage you to interact with us, and others within the manufacturing community, via various social media networks:

Use these avenues as an alternative means to ask questions, provide feedback, and stay abreast of any industry or Cimetrix updates.

Thank you for your continued readership and we look forward to future discussions.

Connect with Us on LinkedIn:

• Bob Reback, president and CEO
• Jodi Juretich, CFO
• Dave Faulkner, EVP Sales & Marketing
• Bill Grey, Director of Research & Development
• Brent Forsgren, Director OEM Solutions
• Doug Rust, Director Product Engineering & Customer Support
• Brian Rubow, Manager Customer Support
• Stu Benger, Director of Sales North America
• Bruce Febvret, Director of Sales Europe

by Peggy Faulkner,
Assistant Controller

When I confided to a long-time friend with whom I used to work in the financial arena at General Electric that I was thinking of returning to work after 20 years of raising a family, and that I would be doing Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance work for Cimetrix, she gasped, and blurted, “I am SO sorry!” I was pretty sure her dismay was not an indictment of me returning to work, nor to Cimetrix—it was all about SOX.

When SOX was federally mandated in 2002, as a financial regulatory response to the Enron and Worldcom (and others) scandals, the intent was to soothe panicked investors and restore confidence that our public companies operate under sufficient financial control, oversight, and transparency. Revenue level or company size matter not—all public companies must comply, and compliance places a disproportionately heavier cost burden on small companies such as Cimetrix. Annual auditing must be performed by an independent, registered public accounting firm, and an extra layer of control in the form of reporting and certification is included in all SEC filings by financial management. Transparency to financial reports is now greater, and penalties for financial fraud or misrepresentation are harsh.

In an economic downturn, such as we are now experiencing, the cost of compliance becomes even more burdensome. Nonetheless, Cimetrix is fully compliant with all SOX regulations, and has been for some time now, due to the diligence of the Finance team. Long before I joined the company, measures were taken to reorganize, analyze, report, and verify financial data at a SOX-mandated level.

Currently, cross-training and report collaboration within the department ensure an additional level of review. Our goal this year is to become paperless—in keeping with environmental concerns, and our connection to the PV industry, perhaps?

Eighteen months after talking with my old friend, when she asks how things are going, I smile and say, “Piece of cake!”

Now, if I could just win the company Soup Cook-off!!

by Brent Forsgren,
EFA Practice Manager

It is the start of a new year, thank goodness! I wonder what is in store for my Global Services team this year. Last year was a tough year for the semiconductor market, but early indications and market experts are saying that 2010 should be much better than 2009.

On top of the market’s expected upward turn, Microsoft released Windows 7 in late 2009 to replace their not so popular Windows Vista. I expect that a significant portion of our customer’s equipment sales this year will be of existing technology and software. But for our customers that will be developing and selling new tools and software, will you jump to Windows 7 or will you wait for it to prove itself in the market place? Additionally, if you switch to Windows 7 will you also make the jump to a 64-bit architecture or will you stay with the aging 32-bit architecture?

We welcome your comments and feedback! I would love to hear your thoughts and plans.  Please comment below or email me at brent.forsgren@cimetrix.com.