PI DataLink

A Microsoft Excel add-in that enables information retrieval from the PI System directly into a spreadsheet.

Features

  • PI DataLink provides a graphical interface to retrieve data and build functions and calculations. DataLink functions are embedded in spreadsheet cells and can provide active updates of data from the PI Server.
  • Combined with the computational, graphic and formatting capabilities of Microsoft Excel, DataLink offers powerful tools for gathering, monitoring, analyzing, and reporting PI Data.
  • PI DataLink for Excel Services enables users to retrieve data from the PI System and view it in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format using only a Web browser.
PI DataLink add-in to Excel showing production information
Web access to the same PI DataLink production information
PI DataLink add-in to Excel showing production information
Click to enlarge image
Web access to the same PI DataLink production information
Click to enlarge image

Benefits

  • Report, analyze, understand, and implement changes in quality control, production, compliance, and any other aspect of the organization's business processes, by immediately and easily accessing process data and working with it in spreadsheets and frequently used analytical tools.
  • Realize the value of process information. With PI DataLink, process owners can extract current, real-time, and/or historic process information from PI and rapidly determine such information's impact on the organization.
  • Publish customized reports. PI DataLink facilitates efficient publication and distribution of reports leveraging the publishing capabilities of Microsoft Excel over the Internet, in e-mail messages, or in print.
  • Escape ‘Excel Hell’. Uploaded spreadsheets to Microsoft Office SharePoint portals so users can view current data in a Web browser, but will be not be able to directly edit cells in spreadsheets – ensuring data integrity and "one version of the truth".
Support   |   Datasheet

      Example of Product Implementation

Business Challenge

Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) was under pressure to provide clear, frequent reports to the EPA on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. The 10-page reports used to take one person several full days to complete.

Implementation

MWRA used DataLink to pull data into Microsoft Excel and create easy-to-read reports. Anyone at the plant can now access the reports via e-mail, the Intranet, or for a few supervisors, in hard copy.

Customer Result/Benefit

The time to complete required local, state and federal reports is now a fraction of the time previously required; for example, some reports that formerly took three days to prepare now take three seconds. The EPA and other agencies value MWRA's accurate reporting, which has improved public confidence in the Boston Harbor Project.