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BLOG: What to do with your legacy SharePoint/PI WebParts?

Many companies will have a PI WebPart implementation based on older versions of Microsoft SharePoint. So what to do with it now that this is a retired product?

 

Where are we at and how did we get here?

Many of us who have worked with the PI System over the years will remember the various web based solutions.  Initially it was Active View, then ICE (the Interactive Configurable Environment), then PI Webparts for Windows SharePoint Server (WSS now SharePoint), then Coresight with Silverlight and now PI Vision.

PI WebParts was a great step forward and many PI users built out some great web based visualizations. Initially it supported the PI Module Database, then the PI Asset Framework.  It used Microsoft SharePoint web part technology which allowed for interconnections to other web parts.  However it was also clunky and slow.  Microsoft then dropped the key enabling technology that PI WebParts was based on and eventually it went to Office 365.  

This left many PI users with a solution that was slow, unsupported, not mobile aware and potentially a large project to migrate to another platform such as PI Vision or something completely custom.  

What options are there?

To help you with this, it is good to ask a few questions:

  1. Do you need to show more than just PI data?
  2. How many users are there?
  3. Do you have an Asset Framework structure in place?
  4. Do you have manual data entry requirements?
  5. What engineering resource do you have to do the migration?
  6. Budget?
 

PI Vision is a good option particularly if you have a lower user count and are focused just on PI. 

PI Asset Framework (AF) is a fantastic solution for the asset hierarchies and other aspects such as Event Frames, analytic calculations and rollups.  We highly recommend adopting AF even if just for the Element structure and key tags for Event Frame analytics.

Dimension Software’s Asset Intellect provides a flexible, quick, easy and cost effective way to migrate from PI WebParts. Most sites will use a combination of PI Vision, Power BI, Power Apps, ESRI, SharePoint lists & documents, manual data entry, read/write SQL data, native charting and much more. 

Get in touch for further information on how we can easily migrate your PI WebPart solution to a modern, future looking platform that enables a multitude of capability.

 
David Barker

David Barker

I am Managing Director of Dimension Software. A long time PI guy with experience in a range of industry. I am passionate about providing business value, innovative thinking and quality results for our customers to help them achieve the most from their PI and wider IT/OT ecosystem.

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