Are you paying too much for your SCADA? Probably!

Both Hurst and Price are intent on transforming the SCADA software market in the UK by breaking what they see as an unfair price premium being paid currently for SCADA software and integrator support. Everyone, it seems, who was questioned at the show, and many that offered their opinion having seen the banner on the exhibition stand and on the company website at www.products4automation.com agreed, with many citing examples of far lower quoted prices in other European markets.

A cure for this market imbalance is being supplied via an exclusive sales, distribution and support deal with leading Italian SCADA provider Progea. Not previously available in the UK, the Progea product is branded as Movicon 11 SCADA; on average, this package costs 50 per cent less than equivalent systems from competitive suppliers, while offering comparable or superior levels of functionality, scalability and connectivity.

Hurst comments: "To date, SCADA systems have been more expensive in the UK than anywhere else; restricted licences, rising development costs and yearly system integrator fees all add up to mean that SCADA, as a whole, has not been a great deal for UK buyers. We booked the exhibition stand at Drives & Controls with the intent of delivering a bold statement and ruffling some feathers because we know we can back that statement up, and supply a genuine alternative without the premium cost - we now offer users of mainstream SCADA systems all the functionality of their existing systems, but at a price on average 50 per cent less. What is more, we are offering unlimited free development licences for users and system integrators and asking the question: Are you paying too much for your SCADA?"

Easier, quicker configuration

With no legacy code platform (unlike some other well-known market players) Movicon 11 is claimed to be the only SCADA/HMI platform completely based on XML and Web Services technologies, Vista XP CE and soon Windows 7, which is said to make configuration easier and quicker than for comparable products. The openness and flexibility of the Movicon architecture makes it an excellent SCADA/HMI supervision system for modern applications, and it is easily applied to any sector that employs a basic level of automation.

Movicon 11 also provides integrated connectivity at the Web level, its innovative architecture being based on JAVA (Integrating easily with XML, SVG, Web Services technologies), which allows server access using internet browsers in any platform (Windows, Linux, Palm, PocketPC and Javaphones telephones, thanks to J2ME). Servers can be both Windows Vista/XP and Windows CE.

In addition, Movicon 11 is said to offer many improvements over legacy SCADA products, but two specific advantages are the implementation of an open database that enables users to specify the form of data storage (SQL, mySQL, etc) and, secondly, the inclusion of a full report generator, thereby negating the need for a separate add-on historian or reporting package often costing thousands of pounds each.