GE Intelligent Platforms has developed an Apple iPad app for its Proficy HMI/SCADA iFix WebSpace and Cimplicity GlobalView visualisation applications that allow users to access control room information from anywhere with an Internet connection. The free app – the company’s first – connects instantly to runtime projects and delivers full HMI/SCADA functions, including third-party application support, without needing any screen conversions.

“Many customers want the full HMI/SCADA functionality on devices like the iPad,” explains Mark Bernardo, GE Intelligent Platforms’ general manager for automation software products. The new ProficySCADA app, he says, “enables plant operators and engineers to react faster to problems with real live information and to investigate proactively in a very easy way.

“As more and more industrial companies realise the power of tablets and smartphones,” Bernardo adds, “they will want these types of software clients to expand their systems, backed by powerful platforms like Proficy.”

The ProficySCADA app can limit functions to suit the user via standard runtime project security features. It also supports multi-touch gestures for mouse and keyboard operations, and will zoom automatically into a currently active window, making it easy to tap selected items.

The app can be downloaded from Apple’s iTunes store. There are also two videos on YouTube that demonstrate its use, here and here.