“Parasyn are easy to contact and understood our needs.
Also I like the way Parasyn develop an idea which requires little input by me but returns the result I require.”
Frank Kappl, Operations Officer, Loy Yang Power
Managed Services
Our Professional Services, Project Services and Incident Support (SLAs) are essential elements of Parasyn’s Enterprise OT Managed Services.
OT Managed Services are an Enterprise agreement to provide the highest and most flexible arrangement for customers. It may encompass everything we do. For us, it means greater certainty for outcomes where Operational Performance is the key metric. By contributing to strategy, understanding business pressure points, standardising how technology is managed and complementing the customers knowledge workers, we are able to deliver results that only specialists that operate a repeatable system can provide. This is a unique service offering for OT.
Let us highlight our Service Disciplines, to follow.
Professional Services
With growing pressures to make sure the job gets “done right the first time”, it is important to have the right partners to get results. Technology partners and consultants should offer the security of a professional organisation with broad industry experience and a deep fundamental understanding of the disciplines required for the job at hand. Finding the right organisation can be time consuming and you may not even find a company that has the applied knowledge you require. Ultimately your partner needs to be there for the long haul, a company that is strong in decision theory, shares in the responsibility of outcomes and is accountable for the solutions.
Our professional services may form part of our project offering, or stand alone, complementing your own organisations project team. Parasyn delivers turnkey projects or provides professional services including consultancy.
Experience is Invaluable
With a background in design and implementation, Parasyn have a delivery perspective on the end results and on achieving practical outcomes. We can make statements of fact by drawing on our experience in identifying and effectively managing development and execution risks. This starts from project conception.
Not everything can be anticipated; however most of the implementation pitfalls can be avoided if like experience is leveraged earlier in the project life cycle and if possible, in the conceptual design stage. We have found that sometimes the original requirements need to be adjusted when stakeholders become fully involved at the design and concept validation stage of the project lifecycle. If there are significant gaps in overall understanding, we sometimes recommend a reset by moving back to the feasibility stages for the relevant areas of uncertainty.
“Parasyn listened to our problems, were attentive to our needs; we felt Parasyn were the right size for our organisation and intended to work with us in a collaborative way.” – David
System Audits & Performance Evaluation
Assess and document software, hardware, electrical systems and design. Measure and analyse performance.
This may be part of our Managed Services framework, form part of a formal project deliverable or an important FEED activity for consultancy. Subject Matter Experts are selected to review audit results and to develop actionable activities which are explained in terms of business and operational outcomes.
Consultancy / Advisory
Define what is important, prioritising what will make a difference and working out the “go forward” plan.
Our Advisory service may include, research, workshops, stakeholder engagement, auditing, product assessment, conceptual design, documentation and artefact development, developing sound recommendations, developing design specifications and developing details requirements.
Technology Selection
Assess technology for suitability. “Proof Of Concept” test to reduce risk.
The assessment of technology may require rigorous testing if the product is intended to be used close to its operational envelope or a new feature is being deployed. Our area of focus includes; dedicated control devices, IOT devices, instrumentation, advanced software applications, middleware software applications, data warehouses and client applications used for Industrial Automation, Enterprise Information Systems or Operational Intelligence. Technology Selection (or validation) is usually a very specialised task confined to senior developers or design engineers.
Requirements Development
Ask, listen, refer to standards and categorise functional design elements into a living document.
This is a rudimentary engineering activity which precedes design activities. The identified requirements are further referenced in test procedures to ensure all functional requirements are Inspected, Demonstrated or Tested prior to a system being transitioned, activated and then accepted for operational use.
Project Services
Confidence comes from knowing that your infrastructure is supported by not just one engineer but a whole team. A team of minds with diverse backgrounds provides a wider perspective, enabling any organisation to have a deeper knowledge and appropriate skill base to develop and maintain their knowledge assets.
To give your project full attention, a Parasyn Project Manager ensures that engineers have the tools, support, background knowledge and engineering skill to make it all happen.
We aim to save you time. You’ll know exactly what’s happening through regular contact with the Project Manager. We will regularly and formally report on our plans, achievements, issues, risks and the rolling project forecast, giving you peace of mind. Clockwork reporting ensures our team is on track and that you are aware of any hold points and constraints.
With a full team of multi-skilled engineers at your fingertips, Project Managers align the most effective use of resources and give you access to the entire team as required.
To coordinate the success of a project, we evaluate customer requirements, agree to the expectations, report our activities, plan regularly and act promptly at all times. This is Our Promise.
Project Management
Delivering project objectives and results through structured and accountable planning, scheduling and reporting.
Our project management framework and experienced managers are key to delivering reliably to our brand promise. This is so routine and rudimentary that all our team always know what they are doing next, meaning top priorities are clear, customer deliverables are published, and everyone knows what needs to be done to get things done on time. Every day this is reviewed just to make sure risks are mitigated, we are collaborating with our customers and everything is tracking as expected.
Subcontractor Management
Coordination of selected partners to deliver the outcomes. Supervisory role as Principal Contractor.
For complex projects which require additional services beyond our preferred areas of expertise, we invite service providers to join us. Either as the principle contractor or subcontractor, we understand that commercial requirements impact on the technical requirements. Our project managers and commercial managers establish the crucial baseline which so often makes or breaks a complex project arrangement.
Systems Design
Systems, software and fabrication designs that you own for life. Managed design process.
Whether it is a formal Safety In Design process or extending an existing design, due diligence is essential for critical infrastructure systems. This safeguards our customers, our own people and our customers’ equipment which is so often in the public eye and politically sensitive in terms of operational integrity. Effective management of design leads to confidence and significant cost reductions when maintenance or enhancements must be carried out during the normal lifecycle of assets. This is less about a standard’s approach and more about content management, capturing and presenting essential information and the discipline of design management.
Enterprise Systems
Integration
Interfacing, software development, systems development, configuration management and knowledge transfer.
The rapidly changing landscape of operating systems, device firmware and patching means that what worked before may not work in a new environment. Once upon a time, computer infrastructure systems were less complex than they are today, and the approach was to replicate the model that worked. Architecturally this may continue to hold true, however, user client requirements, unique cybersecurity requirements and enterprise integrations now dictate how a system is to be designed and maintained. Due to this complexity, testing and ongoing support is significantly more important than it ever was.
Independent, at your Service
Our broad perspective empowers us to challenge the norm and offer innovative designs including your preferred suppliers. We offer independent advice developed from working on many different platforms and technologies.
“….very happy with Parasyn’s work, our staff are asking the right questions”. – Nancy
Transition and Migration Planning
Stakeholder planning, interface compatibility and operational support. Identify and manage constraints.
Transition and Migration Planning begins after conceptual design is formalised. Shaping how a system moves to operational status can significantly impact a design. How the OT team looks after a new or upgraded system may also impact a design. Getting all the relevant information into a formal transition management plan is an essential step to initiate smooth enablement no matter what the size. A Maintenance and Support Plan embraces the concept that maintaining a system requires independent consideration and glues together all artefacts to maintain technology integrity. It is challenging for support personnel to maintain systems they were not a part of implementing and the right documents and a support mentality shifts the focus from project delivery to maintaining technology availability.
Quality Testing
Control of the environment and staged testing to ensure integrity. Test procedures and report logs for certification.
The more complex a system or its subcomponents are, the more important testing is. Permutation of application and infrastructure configuration demands rigorous testing. Bold as this sounds, it is impossible to guarantee that something that has been done before will work the same in a new environment. The probability may be high, but none of us want to be the one who suffers disappointment because we omitted to test it thoroughly. On large and critical systems this usually equates to 3 points of testing for some functionality and the effective use of staging environments. When a system is live, we recommend all changes are managed by a simple but formal Configuration Management process. This helps us plan well and share our fall-back strategy if something does not go as expected.
Electrical & Instrumentation
Hazardous Areas Inspections, Hazardous Electrical Area Audit, selection and procurement of instruments, electrical design, power and control cabling, installation, equipment and panel fabrication, managing electrical implementation and commissioning. Registered Electrical Contractor.
This is the physical part of what we do. Although the supply of products and services in this domain are arguably a commodity, it is the aspect of systems design and gluing it altogether that remains a specialised task. The correct selection of components, procurement, manufacture, assembly and device configuration activities we frequently share with our customers, subcontractors or we do it in-house.
Lifetime Support
Guaranteed support for breakdowns and scheduled works. Tailored maintenance and support services.
Regular health checks, service request management, automated incident management, priority escalation, change management, performance reviews and customer service satisfaction reviews all shape a complete service arrangement. This may also include 24/7/365 breakdown support or at the other extreme a casual business hours arrangement to complement the customer’s own support team.
Cyber Security
Cyber Security for Industrial Automation solutions have unique challenges to be addressed to avoid a vanilla or shrink wrap approach to full lifecycle management.
Some of the services include cyber security assessments including System Software & Field Hardware, the development and application of rigid system access procedures, the development and application of configuration management procedures and storage of customer information, the development and application of an OCMS Information Framework for maintaining system design integrity, Cyber Security by design for new systems or modifying existing systems, and Device Access Management & CTD Platforms Evaluation, Selection and Implementation. Read more