The architecture of industrial control is being rebuilt.
CSI is the platform company building it.
Open Process Automation has crossed the threshold from feasibility to adoption. We’ve been inside the standard since 2017 — building the methodologies, frameworks, and tools that operators, integrators, and suppliers need to convert open architecture from concept into operating systems.
We don't sell services.
We architect the OPA era.
Most firms in the OPA market are extending services they already offered into the new architecture. CSI was built differently. We were founded to do this specific work, by people who helped define the standard, and we operate under a commercial license from The Open Group authorizing the use of O-PAS in commercial offerings.
Inside the work that defines OPA
Founded by Don Bartusiak — Chief Engineer of Process Control at ExxonMobil and OPAF Co-Chair from 2016 to 2023 — CSI’s principals include Trevor Cusworth, past OPAF Co-Chair for six years and current Marketing and Outreach Lead for the Forum. This isn’t a firm with a perspective on OPA. We’re inside the work that defines it.
OCAM — how openness stays open
We’ve published OCAM — the Open Control Architecture Model — a four-layer design discipline that converts the principles of O-PAS into a structure operators and integrators can actually specify, evaluate, and govern. OCAM is how an open architecture stays open over decades of operation.
Infrastructure for an opening industry
Our COPA Control System, our partnership with the 15-company Coalition for Open Process Automation, our online training program, our published lifecycle cost models, our forthcoming reference textbook on OPA — these aren’t repurposed services. They’re platform infrastructure for an industry that’s just now opening.
A control system is a 25-year cost commitment.
The procurement comparison your team is running is missing 60-70% of the answer.
Traditional procurement compares commissioning cost. That comparison favors traditional DCS architectures and ignores the variable that actually matters — lifecycle cost over a 25-year operating horizon. When the comparison is structured properly, with capital expenditure, maintenance flow, upgrade events, engineering effort, and risk-adjusted disruption all included at present value, OPA delivers measurable TCO reductions of 60-70% over 25 years.
This isn't a marketing claim. It's the conclusion of CSI's lifecycle cost model, applied with operator parameters across multiple industries, and corroborated in our published joint analysis with Wood PLC and Cargill.
The pattern of cost matters as much as the total. Traditional architectures concentrate expenditure in major upgrade events that disrupt capital planning every 12-15 years. OPA distributes expenditure across smaller, more frequent infrastructure refresh cycles with substantially lower variability. Capital planning becomes more predictable. Risk shifts from concentrated disruption events to continuous incremental change.
If your CFO is comparing OPA and traditional DCS on commissioning cost alone, the comparison is restricted to the variable where traditional has its only advantage.
Five things operators, integrators, and suppliers need
from a partner inside the standard.
OPA Implementation
End-to-end execution of OPA projects from architectural design through commissioning. Conformance specification, multi-vendor integration, and governance discipline that prevents the failure modes most projects encounter.
DCS Migration
Brownfield modernization for operators approaching end-of-life on existing distributed control systems. Lifecycle planning, transition architecture, and execution that converts the modernization decision point into the OPA transition.
Advanced Control & System Integration
Real-time AI predictive control, advanced process control deployment, multi-vendor integration of best-of-breed components. Where the architecture meets the operating outcomes operators actually care about.
CSI Academy
Online training programs for operators, engineers, and managers adopting OPA. Architecture, configuration, cybersecurity, operations, troubleshooting. Hands-on modules developed in collaboration with COPA. The internal capability operators need to actually own the system the architecture enables.
OPA Readiness Engagement
A productized strategic engagement for operators evaluating OPA as a future architectural commitment. Lifecycle cost modeling with your parameters. Internal architectural capability assessment. Procurement structure recommendations. Integrator shortlist development. Designed to put your organization in a position to make a defensible decision when the lifecycle moment arrives.
Reading from inside the standard.
State of Open Process Automation 2026
A 40-page industry assessment from inside the standard. Covers where the standard, the suppliers, the integrators, and the economics actually stand in 2026 — and what operators, integrators, suppliers, and investors should do about it.
Open Process Automation: Architecture, Execution, and Transformation
The first comprehensive reference textbook on OPA. Architecture, project execution, organizational transformation, and the operational disciplines that distinguish successful adoption from nominal compliance.
OPA TCO Benefits — Wood PLC + Cargill + CSI Joint Analysis
Capital-committee analysis of lifecycle cost reductions from OPA adoption. 60–70% TCO savings over 25 years, modeled and corroborated across industry contexts.
Recognized. Connected. Inside the work.
CSI operates under a license authorizing use of O-PAS in commercial publications, offerings, and services, with attribution.
Recognized by Manufacturing Technology Insights for leadership in industrial IoT and open automation.
Don Bartusiak · Co-Chair 2016–2023.
Trevor Cusworth · past Co-Chair, current Marketing & Outreach Lead.
15 companies aligned around vendor-neutral, modular, lifecycle-independent process control.
The System Integrators Behind
Open Process Automation
CSI doesn’t just talk about OPA — we deploy it. Our team has completed more brownfield OPA migrations than any independent integrator, with production systems running across refining, chemicals, and utilities. We’re active contributors to the O-PAS standard and founding members of opacommunity.com.
Process Industry Expertise
What Our Clients Say
"CSI's phased migration approach let us move off our legacy DCS without a single day of unplanned downtime. The 35% maintenance cost reduction paid for itself in under a year."
"They brought a depth of OPA expertise we couldn't find anywhere else. The COPA500 deployment was seamless and our engineers actually prefer the new open architecture."
Latest from CSI
Ready to Break Free from
Proprietary Lock-In?
Whether you’re an operator evaluating OPA at a lifecycle decision point, an integrator developing OPA capability, a supplier deciding where to invest, or an investor looking at the platform structure of the OPA market — CSI works with each of these audiences, and our perspective changes depending on which conversation we’re having. Tell us which one you’re in, and we’ll route you to the right starting point.
Specialists in Open Process Automation, DCS Migration, and Advanced Process Control for refining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and utilities.
O-PAS™ is a standard of The Open Group. CSI operates under a commercial license from The Open Group authorizing the use of O-PAS in commercial offerings. Trevor Cusworth serves as Marketing and Outreach Lead for the Open Process Automation Forum. Views published by CSI are CSI’s commercial perspective and do not represent positions of The Open Group, OPAF, or its member organizations.