Ignition would not be what it is today without system integrators building expansive and innovative solutions for their customers. At Inductive Automation, we take immense pride in the enthusiasm and creativity of the Ignition community. This admiration led to the inception of the monthly Top-Selling Integrators list in 2019 as an ongoing way to highlight the expanding and dynamic community within our Integrator Program.
As we celebrate the successes of 2023, we are excited to bring you exclusive insights from the top three system integrators on last year's list: Vertech, ATS Global, and RoviSys. These industry leaders have not only excelled in utilizing Ignition as their automation platform of choice but have also embraced its new features and innovations. We aim to share their experiences, explore the groundbreaking functionalities they love about Ignition, and offer words of inspiration to integrators and Ignition users. Join us in recognizing the achievements and contributions of these top integrators who are changing the landscape of automation, one innovative project at a time.
The Secrets to Success
It’s not easy earning the title of top-selling integrator, and this year's winners can only be described as Ignition community overachievers.
First Place
Our Integrator of the Year, Vertech, has done much more than just sell Ignition this past year. With the help of Vertech Director of Sales and Marketing Chris McLaughlin, and 150 volunteers from around the world, Vertech built a Firebrand Award-winning Discover Gallery project for Room in the Inn (RITI) free of charge to control RITI’s homeless shelters in Nashville, Tennessee.
Vertech Digitalization Manager Ryan Crownover says that the core of Vertech’s continued success lies in the company's vision. "Vertech's vision includes being a world-class provider of industrial automation solutions; our team believes in that vision and puts in phenomenal work that satisfies our customers,” Ryan Crownover says.
Second Place
ATS Global has been on the top-selling integrator list for many years. They made a name for themselves in the Ignition community by creating smart Digital Transformation solutions with Ignition and participating in Inductive Automation webinars along the way, including our recent data center webinar.
ATS Global Managing Director Rob Valent believes their sales success comes from Ignition’s notoriety and flexibility as well as ATS’s “very focused sales and engineering team.” Rob says, “With our global presence in 25 countries around the world, we are well-equipped and recognized to support global customers wherever they are located around the world, and also small and medium-sized businesses locally.”
Third Place
Worldwide system integrator RoviSys has been using Ignition since 2017, and in that time its business with the platform has increased by over 5 times. It's no wonder RoviSys rocketed up to be a top-selling integrator so fast. They became a Premier Integrator in 2022 and were a finalist in the 2023 Discovery Gallery for their Cooley Group project.
Speaking about the reasons for the company’s recent success, RoviSys Group Manager Justin Vaught says, “RoviSys has built a compelling reputation as a trusted advisor in numerous industries. Our reach and scale give us significant opportunities to position transformative tools that can help our valued customers be more effective. Our customers trust us to position vendors who will provide the greatest return on their investment. Ignition is one such tool that our customers often gravitate toward due to its many differentiators compared to its competitors.”
The First Choice for System Integrators
Integrators have experience in multiple systems but these three integrators mostly use Ignition. When we asked the integrators why Ignition is their choice for an automation solution, there were some consistent similarities. “The flexibility, quality of the solution, a very clear licensing model, only the human imagination as a limitation. Ignition puts smiles on our staff’s and customers’ faces. A rare thing to witness,” says ATS’s Rob Valent.
Ryan Crownover says Ignition is usually Vertech’s first choice when starting a new project because "Ignition provides a fantastic value proposition, and Inductive Automation has the team to back it up. The platform doesn't corner you into specific design paradigms; it gives you the tools to say YES! to your customers in brainstorming sessions."
Justin Vaught echoes many of the same points, praising Ignition’s value to RoviSys and their customers, and adding that “it possesses an attractive licensing model and a low barrier to entry. Open documentation and self-guided training allow our customers to get their resources engaged so that they can ultimately assume ownership of the solution. It is scalable from small plant pilots to large multi-site initiatives. In addition, it acts as a springboard for more advanced manufacturing digitalization functionality, such as MES, typically on our customers' roadmaps.”
Features for the Future
One of the most important aspects of your industrial application platform is its ability to grow and scale with your project in the future. “Ignition's modern architecture and development toolset allow our developers to create innovative solutions. The Perspective web-based visualization platform, Python-centric scripting engine, and supporting connectivity options such as MQTT all contribute to this. In addition, we have been able to leverage software development strategies such as CI/CD and DevOps within the platform to promote efficient management, deployment, and support of our large-scale Ignition-based solutions. We look forward to Ignition's continued push toward cloud-centric implementations. This is of interest to many of our customers, and we feel that it will be a strong platform differentiator in the years to come.” says Justin Vaught.
Every industry needs a slightly different toolset, so Ignition’s consistent new features and increased interoperability are welcomed by many integrators, like Rob Valent, who says, “Some of the enhancements made headlines in the industry, and we have seen a large increase in demand because of that from pharmaceutical companies and the application of Ignition in data centers around the world.”
Ryan Crownover focused more on how Ignition connects the plant floor with software and communications, saying that Ignition’s "first-rate support and consideration for version control, containerization, and CI/CD mechanisms are critical to bridge the IT/OT divide. This will continue to establish Ignition as a legitimate service platform in the wider IT world."
Inspiring Words for the Next Top-Selling Integrators
The system integrators in the Ignition community are a big global team, and they want the continued success of all the innovative integrators who are breaking down barriers and improving lives with Ignition. "Keep going! The solutions we're all building in this space are the real-life applications of technological advancement. You are contributing to the elevation of human well-being through simplifying people's day-to-day workloads and lowering the cost of living throughout the world," says Ryan Crownover.
The Ignition community is a treasure trove of helpful information from all over the world, and everybody is willing to share system integration strategies, resources, and more to help out. “You can’t go wrong with Ignition in whatever area or industry, large or small. The Ignition distributors around the world pave the way for any integrator locally but also globally because they know where to go for reference projects of other partner integrators that could help you in a noncompetitive way. Another motivator is that Ignition helps with retention of your engineering staff; why would you do anything else?” says Rob Valent.
Justin Vaught knows the work that goes into a new project and believes that your organization’s mindset and end goal are a big part of the picture when building functional and efficient systems for end users. He says, “Ignition is a powerful tool, but it is important to think about the needs of the end-user and how the tool will be applied to transform the way that users perform their job duties. If approached with this mindset, Ignition can substantially enhance the way users work, rather than getting in the way, as is often the case when a digitization initiative is not properly thought out. If carefully planned and executed, an Ignition deployment can have a huge positive operational impact on your organization.
Premier Integrators of 2023
This past year was full of achievements from all over the community. Along with the successes of the top-selling integrators, the following integrators earned Premier Integrator status in 2023:
- AXCEND Automation
- Polaris Automation
- Tristar Electrical
- SAFEgroup Automation
- Gray Solutions
- Northwind Technical Services
- Cybertech Automation
- Artek Integrated Solutions
Watch out top-selling integrators! We’re looking forward to some fierce competition from these new Premier Integrators in 2024.
It’s Time to Reset the Calendar!
The 2024 race to be the top-selling integrator is in full swing. Amidst the contest, there's a collective call to not only push boundaries and set new records but to help the rest of the community and improve the world with Ignition. As we navigate through this year of innovation and growth, remember to check the leaderboard at the start of each month. Stay tuned to see who will rise to claim the esteemed title of Integrator of the Year by next January.
