The period during the war showed us the true solidarity of the people, partners, and countries. After the start of the large-scale invasion, there was a noticeable pause in business operations in Ukraine. About half of small and medium-sized enterprises ceased their activities in April 2022.

Read more about the challenges of Ukrainian integrators.

However, the other half has shown resilience in the face of the ongoing war, persevering through daily obstacles and actively contributing to the Ukrainian economy. The activity of APPAU was not an exception.

The Association of Industrial Automation Enterprises of Ukraine (APPAU) showed an excellent example of internationalization by joining the American Control System Integrator Association (CSIA), which on April 19, 2022, unanimously voted to grant free memberships for 2022 and 2023 to members of the Association of Industrial Automation of Ukraine.

This story in 2022 reflects the professional solidarity between the communities of the Euro-Atlantic bloc and Ukraine during the war. CSIA is the leading global association of industrial automation system integrators based in the USA. Integrators in almost all developed countries represent the association’s members, even though it is mainly focused on the markets of the USA and Canada. Dissemination of CSIA professional standards outside the United States is one of the main goals of this organization.

Our goal is to provide the space for Ukrainian members to network with other CSIA members and explore possible outsourcing opportunities.

CSIA GENERAL DIRECTOR JOSE RIVERA (APRIL 2022)

APPAU has maintained ties with CSIA since 2013, starting with a visit to a conference in the USA and the dissemination of CSIA professional standards among Ukrainian industrial automation integrators. In 2022, APPAU proposed outsourcing engineering services to the US and EU countries. Beyond outsourcing, CSIA and its members hope the new relationship will support Ukrainian government agencies in rebuilding their manufacturing industries.

What we appreciate, even more is the friendly and fast response of CSIA to our situation. It shows a new kind of professional solidarity that drives our community to be together and to hold the line on the economic front.

GENERAL DIRECTOR OF APPAU ALEKSANDRE YURCHAK (MAY 2022)

In 2022, CSIA encouraged its members to provide humanitarian support to Ukraine. One Hour for Ukraine (1H4U) is an original approach proposed by CSIA member the Italian company Autoware. Autoware has called on members of several industrial automation communities to donate the cost of their employees’ extra hours to APPAU. And this mechanism gave its results.

From the side of APPAU, this cooperation was supported not only by the executive directorate. Seven APPAU members accepted opportunities to join CSIA and TerraWatt Group, attending a USA conference in June 2022.

Results of Cooperation between APPAU and CSIA 2022

The amount of contributions for 2022 that APPAU received from CSIA members Autoware, Vertech, and Softwaretoolbox is $25,000. These funds and resources helped:

• To establish the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance (UCA), which already includes 60 clusters and over 3,000 enterprises. For the alliance, the UCA service team remains the leading resource supporting all UKA communication resources and channels, conducting regular communications, preparing events, etc.
• Launch the internationalization program of the Ukrainian cluster alliance and, separately, APPAU, the main element of which was the support of more than 30 online and offline events. APPAU found 15 partners from Europe and the USA and significantly increased the presence of its members in the international arena.
• Launch a fundraising program for innovative products and companies. We helped 14 of them get financing (the total amount exceeds 700,000 euros).
• To provide individual services and support to members of APPAU, which also influenced the joining of 7 new members to the association.
• To help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and territorial defense with funds, volunteer work, and provision of free software.

CSIA’s contribution is essential not only financially, but most importantly, they have shown true unity, solidarity, and willingness to help, and such interaction is the key to successful partnership and growth.

We and our Ukrainian partners are grateful for the assistance and support from CSIA.

Special thanks from our association members:

• Andriy STARZHYNSKYY a Gnostic
• Leonid KHATSKEVYCH 482Solution
• Igor KOTSUBA iSolutions
• Sergii Yevtushenko INDUSOFT UKRAINE
• Oleksii Solntsev SmartZavod
• Andriy HNAP Waste Ukraine Analytics

Expanding cooperation of APPAU with CSIA and other foreign partners in 2023

CSIA will support APPAU again in 2023. Partners from the USA have slightly changed the scheme of support and this year offer the mechanism of “honorary membership” in APPAU. We are talking about financing by paying 750 USD membership fees (see the special page of APPAU for foreign members). During a few days of promotion at the CSIA conference in May, eight companies already supported this mechanism. For APPAU, such a membership scheme is interesting not only from the point of view of financial support but also from much better networking, joint activities, and easier scaling of this mechanism to different countries and communities.

The executive directorate emphasizes that membership in APPAU will mean joining the Professional4Urkaine initiative, which promotes common values at the level of all clusters of Ukraine:

• Protection of human rights, freedom, and dignity
• Professional solidarity without borders
• Economic support, sustainability, and stability around the world.

The executive directorate sincerely thanks our members for supporting these initiatives in 2022 and 2023 for friendly and high-quality feedback in preparing communication materials and video interviews. We encourage our members to continue to make vigorous use of all available internationalization opportunities, the numerous channels of access to new markets and customers, events, business and trade missions, as well as the possibilities of our partners who offer their services (such as CSIA membership open to our members ).

New funds from our sponsors and donors will be dedicated to expanding our members’ skills and knowledge in internationalization, export, and innovative fundraising.