This exciting development will strengthen Inimco's offering for new and existing customers. While the team continues to work in the same way as before – serving customers under the same brand – the acquisition also means that Inimco will be able to expand its considerable technical expertise and solutions globally – and help even more companies gain insights into their machine and productivity data.

Global Reach, Local Presence

With 1,500 employees in a global network with more than 50 branch offices in Europe, America and Asia, Process Automation Solutions (PA) serves customers in automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical / biotech, food & beverage, oil & gas, and other industries.

PA focuses on industrial automation, digitalization and SAP services (Gold Partner) of which the Business Unit Digitalization (> 220 employees) provides solutions and services in the areas of IT/OT, data analytics and historians, cloud, MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and custom IT/OT applications. With automation, digitalisation, and the related tools of LEAN, PA is engaged with customers from the earliest stages of the project to understand the pain points and create the best possible solution.

Since 2014, PA Solutions has become an independent subsidiary of Canadian company ATS (Automation Tooling Systems Inc), which has over 40 years’ experience across a broad technical portfolio.

Complementary Services

As the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technology begins to play a dominant role across the industry, companies of all sizes are looking for data-led solutions to give them the 360-degree insight they need. However, the challenge of connecting devices and machines remains a huge hurdle for many companies. But given developments in edge and cloud computing, companies like Inimco are making it simpler to gather and process data on a global scale from a central location.

Inimco – already a Microsoft Gold partner, Cloud Solution Provider, and Co-sell ready solutions vendor – is completing the PA offering in this key technology. As PA Solutions transitions toward becoming a complete Industry 4.0 service provider – focusing on growing their customer relationships as well as improving automation – they see Inimco as a critical component in closing the loop on building scalable data platforms, as it’s an area in which Inimco excels.

While PA Solutions specialises in automation and integration, Inimco’s focus has always been on Microsoft Azure-based edge and cloud computing. Combining these skill sets enables customers to optimise their industrial processes and machine output in a fast and futureproof way.

The two businesses already have a well-established history of successful collaboration on different opportunities. “It was clear from our introductory meetings that we shared many similar ideas that could help us work well together,” said Alain Wullaert, PA Solutions’ VP of Digitalization.

“Last year we started a strategic initiative to become a global lifecycle partner with our clients. Diagnostics plays a big part in this – particularly ensuring automation anomalies are detected, reported, and rectified.

“With a digital partner like Inimco, initiatives like these can be rolled out far more easily, thanks to their expertise supporting the entire process. Ultimately, together we can offer customers a more complete package of solutions.”

Erik De Nert, Inimco’s co-founder and managing partner, is similarly positive about the future. “We have worked with PA Solutions for several years on a variety of projects and there has always been real synergy in what we have been able to offer customers,” he said.

“Now, it’s clear that together Inimco and PA Solutions have the opportunity to benefit one another, and in turn our customers and partners – such as Microsoft – in ways that we simply could not do separately. This partnership is a testament to both companies’ dedicated vision for the future of a truly digital industry.”