Ralph Mackiewicz is Vice President of SISCO a Sterling Heights, Michigan developer of standards based real-time communications and integration products for electric utilities. Ralph obtained a BSEE from Michigan Technological University in 1977 and worked at Westinghouse Electric's PLC division as engineering manager prior to joining SISCO in 1985. Ralph has been an active participant in MMS, UCA and ICCP-TASE.2 standards activities. Ralph has 2 patents, has authored chapters on PLCs and MMS for several well-respected industry handbooks; has authored and presented papers on IEC 61850, CIM, and ICCP-TASE.2 at technical conferences sponsored by IEEE, ISA, EPRI, Pennwell, and UCAIug;  and has conducted training programs on these topics for many of his customers around the world.