July 3, 2026

In a recent episode of The Industry 4.0 Podcast with Grantek, host Matt Susi sat down with Chase Dorsey, a Sales Engineer at Inductive Automation, to talk about one of the most practical questions in manufacturing today: how do you actually start your digital transformation journey without breaking the bank or overhauling everything at once?

Chase has been helping manufacturers improve their operations with Ignition by Inductive Automation since 2020, and his perspective is refreshingly grounded. Ignition is a universal industrial application platform for HMI, SCADA, MES, and IIoT that acts, as Dorsey puts it, as “a central hub for everything on the platform and beyond”. What sets it apart for North American manufacturers is its licensing model: with a single server license, manufacturers can connect all their devices, build unlimited clients, and collect more data without paying per tag, per device, or per user.

That simplicity is a big deal for operations teams that have historically faced ballooning costs every time they tried to scale. Ignition flips that equation entirely. One of the standout themes of the conversation was how modern software practices are making their way onto the plant floor. The latest version of Ignition, 8.3, introduced file-based configuration that integrates natively with version control tools like Git, as well as deployment platforms like Ansible and Azure DevOps. As Chase noted of the shift, “bringing industrial systems into the modern age, Ignition 8.3’s new text-based resources are purpose-built for easy integration with version control systems.” For manufacturers, that means the same discipline and traceability that software developers have relied on for years is now available for SCADA and MES projects.

Chase also emphasized that Ignition is built for problem solvers across industries, with installations in over 100 countries and adoption among 57% of the Fortune 100. For manufacturers in food and beverage, life sciences, CPG, and beyond, that reach reflects a platform that has proven itself across some of the most demanding operational environments in the world.

Grantek has been an Inductive Automation partner for years, helping manufacturers deploy and get the most out of Ignition across complex, regulated environments. This episode is a great reminder of why that partnership matters and how the right platform, paired with the right integrator, can turn digital transformation from a daunting initiative into a practical, step-by-step reality.

Listen to the full conversation with Chase Dorsey on The Industry 4.0 Podcast with Grantek, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.