Proudly South African industrial software leader Adroit Technologies has reinforced its position as a trusted digitalisation partner to the petrochemical and mining sectors through its longstanding collaboration with Sasol Synfuels. The partnership spans several years and covers multiple Sasol entities, including coal mines in the Secunda region and operations in Sasolburg, with Adroit Technologies providing the central monitoring and control backbone for environmental and safety critical processes.
At the heart of this collaboration is one of the largest Adroit SCADA environments ever deployed, used for both fire and gas detection across the entire Synfuels plant. The system monitors hundreds of fire panels, gas detectors, and alarms in real-time, enabling the central fire station to respond immediately to any risk event within roughly 136 operational units at the site.
National Sales Manager Bradley Campbell explains that Adroit Technologies is known for the flexibility of its SCADA platform, which supports rapid connectivity to diverse devices and industrial technologies. According to Campbell, this adaptability is particularly important in sectors that operate numerous siloed systems.
Unifying All Operational Processes Across a Plant
“Adroit Technologies is ideally suited to unifying all operational processes across a plant, providing a single, coherent layer of visibility and control.,” he says. Production, Building Management Systems (BMS), and environmental systems can all be unified into a single operational environment, simplifying support, reducing training requirements, and ensuring that all decision-critical data lives in one place.
In large-scale operations, it is common for multiple independent systems to support different processes across the plant. The key challenge is enabling these systems to operate as a cohesive whole without disrupting existing workflows. Adroit Technologies’ architecture is designed specifically to address this, allowing organisations to either progressively modernise or retain existing systems, while centralising visibility and control.
A Single, Intuitive Operational View, Reducing Complexity for Operators
Using native communication protocols or custom integrations where required, the SmartUI Portal delivers a single, intuitive operational view, reducing complexity for operators, improving response times, and ensuring that critical information is always accessible for faster, more informed decision-making.
This consolidation also aligns with a major workforce challenge in South Africa, where dwindling technical capacity has caused many operators to prioritise ease of use and standardisation. Campbell notes that Adroit Technologies’ recent projects reflect a shift from simple software supply to providing full architecture guidance.
“Clients require technology partners that stay involved throughout implementation and support. With Sasol, we were there every step of the way, from engineering to commissioning, to ensuring round the clock uptime through a service level agreement. It is a relationship built on trust and ongoing innovation,” highlights Campbell.
Modular Architecture Supporting Vertical Solutions
Adroit SCADA objects provide a modular approach to modelling individual process functions or entire process areas. These object libraries can be used directly in core SCADA deployments. They also form the foundation for Adroit Technologies’ vertical solutions, including BMS, energy management, fire detection, and Environmental Management Systems (EMS). This approach enables faster deployment, consistency across applications, and easier long-term maintenance.
James Adams, Key Account Manager at Adroit Technologies, notes that real time data visibility is becoming the foundation on which future digital transformation is built. “We are preparing for the wider use of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics in areas such as predictive maintenance. By getting the data architecture right now we are unlocking long term value for customers who want to shift from reactive decisions to proactive insights,” he says.
Adroit Technologies anticipates that demand for integrated digital control solutions in the mining and petrochemical sectors will continue to rise, particularly as industry embraces cloud connectivity, IoT technologies, OPC UA, and unified namespace strategies. The company’s position as a South African engineering success story, with the ability to develop new drivers, communications and features in house, sets it apart in a market that often relies on imported solutions.
Using Technology to Derisk Major Operations
The evolving partnership with Sasol stands as a compelling example of how technology suppliers can help de-risk major operations while contributing to continuous product improvement for the wider industry.
“We see Sasol as a long-term strategic partner and are proud of the contribution we have been able to make to their operational resilience and technology modernisation,” says Adams. “Their appetite for innovation has resulted in a success story that allows us to demonstrate what digital transformation can look like when it is taken seriously.”
Adams concludes with an invitation to operators in the mining and energy sectors to rethink their digital strategy. “If your organisation is still managing multiple SCADA systems in isolation or struggling to access meaningful operational data, it is the right time to consolidate and modernise. We would love to demonstrate what a unified approach can achieve.”
