Yokohama, Japan - JGC Corporation has on February 28, 2006 signed an agreement with Industrial Solutions and Services department of Siemens Pte. Ltd., Singapore for sales of XHQ solution. XHQ was developed and is sold by a Siemens' wholly-owned subsidiary IndX Software Corporation, a US company based in California and recognized internationally for the development and sales of real-time operations management system software. The sales agreement allows JGC to sell services including marketing, engineering consulting, system design, and maintenance support in the domestic market. JGC has already started XHQ business operations.

1. Outline and Features of XHQ

Real-time performance management (RPM) was first introduced in the U.S. in 2000, and interest in the concept quickly spread. RPM extracts live data from various operations and goes on to integrate and manage data to support quick management decisions and improve efficiency. XHQ is designed to be an RPM application tool. It is particularly beneficial in managing plant and factory operations.

XHQ’s features can be broadly summarized as follows.
1) Real-time
2) Integration of data from multiple subsystems
3) Visualization

The program extracts live data on plant operations on a real time basis from multiple subsystems ranging from enterprise integrated systems (ERP) to operation systems. XHQ then quickly and precisely provides a visual presentation of the data in its KPI key performance indicator format. (See note below) With XHQ, a wide range of users from operators to managers can search the most recent data, monitor for proper operations, and obtain integrated information, so that users can quickly improve operations and management decision-making. XHQ realizes this by internally creating a real time information model, which, in turn, facilitates the integration of existing subsystems (database).

2. Users and Results

XHQ is a pioneer in real-time operations management systems. More than a dozen companies with global operations use XHQ including ExxonMobil, Chevron Texaco and Saudi Aramco in the petroleum industry, and Dow Chemical in the petrochemical industry.
Reports from XHQ users are impressive: they include information on the 1) real time accessibility to extracted and integrated data created at different times in the existing subsystems of diversified divisions; 2) enhanced control of production volumes and operation scheduling; 3) capability to centrally monitor and manage local offices; and 4) providing data to top management for use in decision-making by accessing KPI data real time. As a result, users reported improved efficiency in performance monitoring and operation control, time saving in preparing various reports, and improvement in communications between organization divisions, including top management.

3．Services and Business Targets

With its years of experiences in plant and equipment engineering, JGC Corporation, together with JGC Information Systems Limited (a JGC fully-owned subsidiary), will offer marketing, engineering consultation for implementation, system building, and maintenance support services for XHQ in the domestic market in accordance with the sales agreement.
XHQ's features enable significant results for equipment used in continuous process industries such as oil refining, petrochemical, steel manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and foods. Targeting these sectors, we are fully committed to carrying out sales and consultation activities while obtaining annual sales of one billion yen within five years.