Grantek & Sepasoft: In Conversation (SepaIQ Launch)

Speakers:

Mark French, Director of Design Consultation, Sepasoft

Alissa Daly, Consulting & Digital Solutions Sales Leader, Grantek

[00:07] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “So we’re really excited about the SepaIQ launch. This feels like a game changer for manufacturers who have been struggling to make sense of all their production data.”

[00:15] Mark French (Sepasoft): “Absolutely. We’ve been working on this product for a long time and the response really has been incredible. SepaIQ is about taking massive amounts of data coming from the plant floor and other sources and turning it into something that’s actually useful. Not just dashboards, but real-time insights that help people make better decisions.”

[00:33] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “And that’s where the partnership between Grantek and Sepasoft really shines. We’ve been helping manufacturers implement MES and SCADA systems for years, so we understand the pain points. And a big one? All that data just sits there unless you have the right tools to analyze it.”

[00:50] Mark French (Sepasoft): “Exactly. And here’s what makes SepaIQ different. We’re unifying time-series data, relational data, transactional data, all in one place. So instead of looking at machine efficiency drop-offs in isolation, we’re seeing it connected to the current work order, the materials, operator notes, really everything.”

[01:09] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “And that context is huge. We’ve seen clients trying to piece this together manually and it just doesn’t work at scale. But it sounds like SepaIQ is doing a lot of this heavy lifting.”

[01:20] Mark French (Sepasoft): “Yeah, you’re right. We’re offloading that analytics processing to a separate cluster of servers, so the production systems—the HMI, SCADA, MES—they keep running smoothly. We don’t have any performance hits. You know, we really can’t let the plant floor slow down. So by offloading that, we can take advantage of SepaIQ’s architectural options, and just like Ignition, we can place that where it needs to live. That could be on-premises or in the cloud.”

[01:44] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “And that’s a critical piece. Production can’t slow down because someone’s running a query. So as we’re rolling this out with our clients at Grantek, we are handling the infrastructure side, making sure that those clusters are set up correctly, and integrating SepaIQ with their existing systems.”

[02:01] Mark French (Sepasoft): “In addition, they can start to take advantage of the machine learning capabilities that are really powerful. So SepaIQ can predict issues before they happen by analyzing patterns in production data. That data could be schedules, machine cycles, material quality loss causes, downtime reasons, you know, really all of our past production data.”

[02:21] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “And we’re already seeing interest from clients at Grantek who want things like predictive maintenance or quality predictions. And what’s exciting is the generative AI integration. So plant floor staff can literally ask questions in plain English: ‘What’s today’s efficiency?’ or ‘Are there any signs of equipment failure?’ And they’re getting these instant answers.”

[02:42] Mark French (Sepasoft): “Yeah, no more navigating complex dashboards or having to learn a new report format. The data comes to them in real time right where they need it.”

[02:50] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “And from a deployment perspective, we’re making sure that this fits seamlessly into existing environments with our clients at Grantek. SepaIQ supports message queues like MQTT, Kafka, and REST APIs, all the standard protocols. So whether clients are using Ignition, Tableau, Power BI, SQL, whatever their preferred tools are, we can connect everything.”

[03:14] Mark French (Sepasoft): “Flexibility is key, both in the product and the pricing. You know, SepaIQ is modular, so you can use it and buy what you need for your applications. A lot of manufacturers that we talk to already have AI initiatives underway, and so SepaIQ can import existing predictive models, and we can organize and deliver clean, structured data so that whatever tools they’re using on the AI or BI side, they can get more value from them.”

[03:40] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “At Grantek, we’re also helping clients think through their data architecture. Whether they want to follow ISA-95 and ISA-88 standards or use custom frameworks like their own UNS. And it sounds like SepaIQ has that drag-and-drop interface, so it’s really adaptable.”

[03:57] Mark French (Sepasoft): “Absolutely. In addition, we have robust CI/CD support, so configurations can be managed in a version control system like Git, which makes updates and rollbacks very easy. And it’s really built for a modern DevOps workflow.”

[04:12] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “So, big picture: Grantek is bringing the implementation expertise, the system integration, the infrastructure setup, and Sepasoft is bringing this incredible analytics and intelligence platform. Together, we’re helping manufacturers move from ‘we have data’ to ‘we know exactly what to do with our data.'”

[04:32] Mark French (Sepasoft): “And that’s what it’s all about: empowering teams to be proactive instead of reactive, catching issues before they impact productivity, and really empowering smarter decision-making faster.”

[04:43] Alissa Daly (Grantek): “If you’re interested in learning more about SepaIQ and how we can help deploy it in your operation, reach out to either Grantek or Sepasoft. We’d love to show you what’s possible.”