LONDON, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --

The highly competitive industrial environment coupled with the impact of
economic crisis is forcing companies across all sectors to re-assess their
budget spending and improve their overall efficiency to stay competitive and
maintain profit margins. The move towards adopting wireless solutions could
be an effective solution to reduce costs and improve plant efficiency if
wireless technology is understood and adopted for the right application
areas. Frost & Sullivan will discuss growth opportunities and the potential
for industrial wireless devices in the one-day workshop "The Future of
Wireless Solutions in Industrial Automation", which will take place on
Thursday, 5 February 2009, in Frankfurt, Germany. Having a wealth of
experience in growth consulting in Industrial Automation for many years,
Frost & Sullivan will bring together market participants and end users to
provide insight and guidance on how to overcome the key challenges and the
issues that the market is facing.

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Wireless devices are making an entry into the industrial environment
thanks to their numerous benefits such as flexibility, cabling cost reduction
and extending measurements to critical information. According to Frost &
Sullivan's pan-European study on Wireless Devices in Process Industries and
Wireless Devices in Factory Automation, not only wireless devices can help
companies in cutting costs but they can also boost productivity. The
percentage breakdown of revenues, the drivers, and the rates of adoption do
differ per industry. The main sectors profiting from implementing wireless
are Oil and Gas, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, Food and Beverages.

Oil and Gas -- Oil and gas industry is expected to lead wireless adoption
among the process industries. The market in EMEA, which is estimated at just
over 25 million USD in 2008, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth
rate of around 23 % to reach close to 40 million by 2010. There have already
been a lot of interesting results achieved through wireless adoption in the
oil and gas industry. The need for remote and real time monitoring has been
high in upstream applications like well head monitoring. According to Frost &
Sullivan, "Remote sites are now able to communicate effectively with a
reported production increase of 5-10% and overall efficiency increase of
anywhere between 5 to 15%." Furthermore, initial investments are expected to
fetch returns in matter of months.

Pharmaceutical -- Results from existing installations of wireless in
leading pharmaceutical plants demonstrate benefits such as greater operator
flexibility and ability to remotely monitor various parameters in areas like
tank farms. Frost & Sullivan's analysts have no doubts: "Using wireless
devices for monitoring purposes has reduced total monitoring costs by close
to 30% in some cases apart from enabling safety for operators in tank farms."
Wireless devices market in the Pharmaceutical industry in EMEA is estimated
at over 3 million USD in 2008 is expected to grow at a compound annual growth
rate of around 21 % to reach close to 4.5 million by 2010.

Automotive -- The adoption of wireless devices in the automotive industry
is increasing and the trend is expected to continue. The automotive industry
contributes about 35-40 per cent of the total revenues of wireless adoption
in the factory automation. The wireless market for automotive industry in
Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Spain is estimated at 31.6 million
USD and is expected to reach 42 million USD by 2010. One of the leading car
manufacturers has increased the technicians' productivity more than 30 per
cent with the help of wireless devices. Complimenting this, another
well-established brand brought in a cost saving of 200,000 USD to 500,000 USD
per facility with the fast and ease installation of wireless devices in the
factory floor. The major drivers for wireless adoption in the automotive
industry are the need for real-time data, work-force mobility and ease of
installation/commissioning. According to Frost & Sullivan, "Deploying
wireless devices for less-critical applications results in huge cost savings
for the automobile end-user."

Food & Beverages -- In food and beverages industry, wireless devices are
employed in the robotics and packaging applications. Installing acoustic
wireless sensors by large scale beverage manufacturers has reduced the
cabling and installation cost from 6000 USD to 1000 USD. The main factor for
wireless adoption is the need for continuous data tracking, production
monitoring and ease of installation. "Applications involving continuous
monitoring such as temperature, pressure, Ph factor, humidity and yield have
increased the need for wireless adoption in this industry," note the
analysts. The wireless market for Food and Beverages industry in Western
Europe is estimated at 18.7 million USD and is expected to reach close to 25
million USD by 2010.

If you would like to attend the Frost & Sullivan workshop "The Future of
Wireless Solutions in Industrial Automation" and/or receive more information
about Wireless Solutions in Industry Automation, please contact Joanna
Lewandowska at joanna.lewandowska@frost.com with your full name, company
name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city,
state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be
sent to you by e-mail.

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients
to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting
and Growth Team Membership(TM) empower clients to create a growth-focused
culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies.
Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with
Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from
more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost &
Sullivan's Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com.

Contact:
    Joanna Lewandowska
    Corporate Communications - Europe
    P: +48-22-390-41-46 E: joanna.lewandowska@frost.com
    http://www.frost.com