The Open Systems Alliance Program (OSA)

Echelon's Open Systems Alliance (OSA) program brings together manufacturers, integrators, resellers, and other companies to promote open control systems based on the LonWorks platform. OSA members, all experts in their fields, receive Echelon product discounts and marketing tools to help them bring the benefits of the LonWorks platform to users worldwide.

Understanding the Need

A wave of open, interoperable products and systems is sweeping through the building controls industry, delivering unprecedented alternatives for building owners, operators, specifiers, and integrators. Propelling this wave forward is the growing demand by end users for communication between building functions and the integration of products from multiple vendors into ever more sophisticated systems.

The desire for more useful and cost-effective solutions means that today HVAC, lighting, power distribution, elevators, security systems, access control and other traditional 'building services' are being built on a common platform, the LonWorks control network. LonWorks technology allows products from various vendors to communicate over virtually any media. The LonWorks technology also allows dissimilar devices to share a common media infrastructure. They can then be interfaced to standard TCP/IP networks so that any personal computer on any desk can be used for monitoring and control of any point in a system given the user has clearance.

This common platform renders single-vendor solutions obsolete and removes the traditional ‘sandboxes’ between construction trades. As the power of control networks is better understood, the intelligent building becomes a reality. The driving force that will continue to erase many traditional lines of responsibility on the job-site is simple...money...and lots of it.

Looking back over history, every time a significant shift in technology occurs, complete industries react by creating new businesses and opportunities where none existed before. Such an opportunity exists in the building control industry today as the players adjust to this fundamental way facilities are constructed and controlled.

The advent of a common technology platform that impacts nearly every system installed in a building raises many questions. Traditional building controls, lighting controls, elevator systems, fire/life safety systems security and access control systems are all available today, from multiple vendors using LonWorks control networks and conforming to the LonMark Interoperability Standard.

One of the questions being asked in the building industry today is "who is going to integrate the various subsystems together and whom do you call when something breaks?"

There is a new class of integrator entering the industry that is part electrician, part network management engineer, part controls contractor and part IS technician...The Network Integrator.

Echelon Authorized Network Integrators

The Echelon Network Integrator Program is intended to provide the industry with a pool of qualified integrators who have a core competency in the specification, installation, and maintenance of flat, interoperable systems created with LonMark products. The emphasis is on fully distributed networks that leverage the power of the LonPoint System to produce open architectures based on products from multiple vendors. These integrators have the skills needed to design, install, configure, and maintain LonWorks control networks using the following benchmark, industry-standard tools:

Learn more about the Echelon Authorized Network Integrator Program.