Here’s to 2023!

Summer has come to a close. Autumn represents a turning point in the year for so many of us. Kids have returned to school, routines are back in full swing, the days are getting shorter, and attention focuses on finishing projects before the Holidays. This may sound like a challenging task but fortunately, there are some new powerful tools that will help the industrial manufacturing community execute strategic plans and ensure the outcomes they seek in 2023.

The 2023 release of AVEVA’s silo-breaking Operations Control software has marked a significant milestone in the industrial software sphere. The Operations Control 2023 release, as AVEVA has taken to calling it, has a dual meaning. Operations Control is the new name given to the portfolio of AVEVA’s best-known and most deployed solutions such as InTouch, System Platform, and Historian. Operations Control is also the name of a new commercial subscription offer that makes it easier and more affordable to gain unlimited access to a broad swath of on-site and cloud solutions.

Core strength to support the outcomes you seek.

The 2023 Operations Control product release focuses on significant UI/UX enhancements, more support for industrial graphics, increased flexibility for web and mobile users, and greater connectivity across AVEVA’s core SCADA offers. Specifically, the release consists of updates in the following products:

• AVEVA^TM System Platform 2023
• AVEVA^TM InTouch HMI 2023
• AVEVA^TM Edge 2023
• AVEVA^TM Plant SCADA 2023
• AVEVA^TM Historian 2023

Here’s a quick sneak peek at some of the highlights of each new package as well as some more details on the Flex Operations commercial solution.

A fresh user experience and unlimited tags – InTouch HMI 2023.

My good friend and InTouch Product Manager, Eduardo Ballina, describes the 2023 release as the single largest leap in the InTouch product in years. Here are a few of the highlights:

• New upgraded tag counts. The development team looked at perpetual license tag counts between Edge, InTouch, and Plant SCADA and converged on a common level across all. As a result, standard InTouch tag counts are going up (1000, 2500, 10000 and 100000 I/O) for the same price and an unlimited tag license is also now available via subscription. The other great news is that Customer First subscribers will be grandfathered into the new tag count model. So, if you own an InTouch 3K I/O license and subscribe to Customer First, you can receive a free upgrade to new Intouch 10K /O 2023 license.
• InTouch web client packs. If you haven’t checked out the InTouch Web, you should. It’s pretty great. Enabling the onboard web server allows an InTouch application to be accessed via a browser (HTML 5) or the InTouch mobile app on either Apple or Android. Complimenting many mobile initiatives, this puts process graphics and data at the fingertips of operators, supervisors, engineers, and maintenance personnel allowing them to stay informed, make quick decisions on the go and interact with the process remotely anytime. New Web client packs of 5, 10, or 25 clients make this a low-cost, bolt-on solution with Intouch 2023.

InTouch 2023 Web Screenshots – Web and Mobile

•  Workspaces. This new capability enables any InTouch user to develop ad hoc run-time displays, enabling seamless access to data at their fingertips, without any engineering development tools or scripting. The personal workspaces empower operators in real-time, leveraging responsive web visualization.
• Map App Web Widget. The new Map App Web Widget incorporates a zoomable map into InTouch HMI applications and displays selected graphics in a geographical context. It supports a number of popular map providers including Bing, Google, Baidu, ARCGIS, and more, and is perfect for geographically distributed applications such as oil and gas and water/wastewater. The Map App Web Widget is supported by both InTouch HMI and InTouch Web Client.

Intouch 2023 Map App Web Widget Example 

 WHAT’S NEW IN INTOUCH 2023 OVERVIEW DEMO

A bigger and better System Platform and embedded Operations Management Interface (OMI) 2023.

System Platform/OMI also boasts pages of new features that enhance performance, further enable IT/OT connectivity across data silos and improve the visualization of this data via the best graphics UI/UX in the SCADA market.

• Refreshed UI – An updated user interface provides more efficient workflows and a common look and feel across AVEVA’s Operations Control software.
• Support for Microsoft Azure Active Directory – Use Azure AD as an authentication provider to configure user roles for development and runtime.
• Cybersecurity and security identity logging – There are also additional cybersecurity enrichments across the board and new security identify logging that allows developers direct access to additional security information as well as logging security activities (such as failed logins) to the event database.
• Updates for historical playback capability – Source non-historized values during historical playback to avoid missing information. These values can optionally be flagged to make the viewer aware of the alternative data source.
• New big string data type – This new data type allows users to store and transmit huge strings by supporting a virtually unlimited string size, making it useful as an interface to non-hardware, application database silos on the plant floor.
• AVEVA PI integration – Native replication of historized I/O to replication to AVEVA PI System & AVEVA Data Hub.
• More extensions to OMI Apps – Including a new grid view widget that allows mixed-mode industrial graphic and web-widget development. There are also updates to the popular content presenter and MAP OMI apps.

Updated SP2023 Content Presenter App

Updated SP2023 Map OMI App

WHAT’S NEW IN SYSTEM PLATFORM 2023 DEMO

Newest features in Plant SCADA 2023.

Not to be forgotten, the former Citect branded platform also has gone through a significant refresh. Nathan Slider, AVEVA’s Plant SCADA Product Manager, has provided his intimate knowledge of the product and customers to guide the development of many great new features in 2023.

• UI/UX enhancements – Plant SCADA has an updated interface that provides more efficient workflows and a common look and feel across all four of AVEVA’s Operations Control applications.
• Microsoft Windows 11 and Server 2022 Support – Bring applications forward onto the latest operating systems from Microsoft.
• Embed HTML5 webpages – Plant SCADA has caught up with its siblings when it comes to web deployment. Developers can now add any HTML5-based webpage to your Plant SCADA applications with full interactivity.
• Integration with AVEVA Development Studio – Publish tag configuration data for backup and centralized management within the new AVEVA Development Studio cloud application.
• Embed AVEVA Historian Client web application – Enhance your applications with the AVEVA Historian Client web application from within your Plant SCADA projects.
• AVEVA Enterprise License Server – Web-based licensing server for centrally managing Plant SCADA, and all AVEVA software, license deployment – supports redundancy for maximum availability. Includes retirement of the Schneider Electric license manager

WATCH THE WHAT’S NEW IN PLANT SCADA 2023 DEMO

Flexibility at its best.

I also mentioned a new Operations Control commercial model that makes it even easier for AVEVA customers to access as much of the portfolio as they need with simpler licensing and an “all-you-can-eat” fixed-price subscription.

Flex Operations Control is a new SaaS commercial model that makes it simple to configure and price. Subscribers pick from one of the three core SCADA packages they would like to use.

• Edge permits access to InTouch and AVEVA Edge coupled with Local (7-day Historian)
• Supervisory permits access to System Platform or Plant SCADA and AVEVA Historian.
• Enterprise provides access to the System Platform and the Unified Operations Center tools and templates.

Included with each package are common core components – On-site licenses for communication drivers, AVEVA reports, development studio, and system monitor plus access to cloud solutions like Insight, Integration studio (cloud dev sandbox), and AVEVA Teamwork – a new tool for training, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.

Subscribers have unlimited access to traditional on-premise licensing with no I/O restrictions with a fixed yearly fee based simply on the number of named users. The solution is part of the Flex credits program, so subscribers have the flexibility to use their credits toward any software in the AVEVA portfolio, if their needs change, and can purchase additional credits as required.

There are many more updates on AVEVA Historian, Communication Drivers, Development Studio, System Platform Enterprise 2023 (formerly known as Unified Operations Center), AVEVA Reports, and Edge. If you are interested in learning more or in exploring whether AVEVA Flex is right for your plant, please let me know and we will be happy to walk you through the details and provide you with pricing.