iFIX and CIMPLICITY SCADA from Proficy (Formerly GE)

Short answer

iFIX and CIMPLICITY are the two HMI/SCADA platforms of the Proficy family, developed by GE and now owned by Proficy, an independent software company since TPG completed its purchase from GE Vernova in 2026. They are used in industrial plants, utilities and industrial substations to supervise the process and the electrical network.

What it is and where it is used

iFIX and CIMPLICITY are the two HMI/SCADA platforms of the Proficy family. They were developed by GE (GE Fanuc, then GE Digital and GE Vernova), and that is why they are known as «GE iFIX» and «GE CIMPLICITY». GE Vernova announced in March 2026 that TPG completed the purchase of its Proficy software business, which now operates as an independent company with on-premises and cloud HMI/SCADA solutions, MES and industrial data management.

They are found in process plants, water and wastewater, manufacturing, oil and gas and in the supervision of industrial substations, where the same SCADA that runs the process also shows the plant’s electrical network. For the general concept, see substation SCADA and HMI system.

When the plant has its own substation, it is usual for the process SCADA to see the electrical network through a gateway or the PLCs, and for the protection relays to keep their own trip logic. The SCADA reports and allows operation, but it does not replace protection. That is why the electrical integration is designed carefully: which signals arrive, with what quality and time stamp, and which commands are allowed from the control room.

Variants: iFIX, CIMPLICITY and Proficy

Product	Application	Main difference
Proficy iFIX	Plant and utility HMI/SCADA	Architecture of SCADA nodes and visualization clients
Proficy CIMPLICITY	Manufacturing and large supervision HMI/SCADA	Client-server architecture
Proficy family	MES, historian and analytics	Complementary software from the same manufacturer

Main features

Visualization and control of the process: screens, alarms, trends and events.
Server redundancy so supervision does not depend on a single computer.
Historian to store time series of measurements and states.
Integration with PLCs and controllers through communication drivers and OPC.

On the electrical side, the plant SCADA shows breaker status, meter measurements and relay alarms; the control of medium-voltage equipment must respect the substation interlocks.

Communications and integration

iFIX and CIMPLICITY connect to devices through communication drivers and OPC. In a plant’s electrical network, it is usual for meters and relays to arrive over Modbus or through a gateway that translates IEC 61850 or DNP3 (IEEE 1815) to a protocol the SCADA already reads. The gateway, such as a SEL RTAC, is usually the piece that solves the integration.

Frequently asked technical questions

iFIX or CIMPLICITY manual: the documentation is published per version; the names of menus and tools change between major versions.
iFIX and CIMPLICITY: they are two platforms of the same family; the choice was made when the plant was designed and migrating from one to the other is a full project.
Electrical measurements that do not match the relay: check the register scaling, the ratio of the instrument transformers and the data type.
Controlling a breaker from SCADA: it must go through the interlock logic and select-before-operate; a direct command to an output is a risk.
Licenses and support after the change of owner: confirm with the manufacturer the current support channel for your version.

What the 2023 generation brought

In October 2022 GE Digital introduced the new generation of both platforms, iFIX 2023 and CIMPLICITY 2023. The manufacturer’s announcements highlight for both a native HTML5 HMI interface and an MQTT 5 client that brings in data from sensors and IoT devices. They also highlight centralized project deployment, common configuration within the Proficy portfolio and accelerators for building screens, such as automatic data binding. iFIX 2023 adds a data model shared with Proficy Historian and Proficy Operations Hub, and failover over TCP/IP between networks and sites. CIMPLICITY 2023 adds Configuration Hub, with OPC UA discovery, a common model for publishing CIMPLICITY classes and objects, and security and high-availability improvements.

These features matter to the electrical engineer for a practical reason: the installed version decides what can be done. Many plants are still on versions earlier than the 2023 generation, and migrating a process screen with electrical interlocks is a project that must be tested signal by signal. The exact release notes and the support status of each are on the manufacturer’s support portal; the public sources we consulted do not detail them.

How electrical signals arrive

The public sources we consulted did not show a native IEC 61850 or IEC 60870-5-104 driver inside iFIX or CIMPLICITY. The usual practice is to add a third-party communications server and connect it through OPC or through the SCADA’s own integration interface. A documented example is the Kepware (PTC) power suite, which groups a DNP3 master driver (Ethernet and serial), an IEC 61850 MMS client and IEC 60870-5-101 and 104 drivers for substation devices, and offers an integration interface for iFIX. Its IEC 60870-5-104 client lists general and counter interrogation, clock synchronization and sequence-of-events playback. There was also Proficy iPower, a historical GE add-on for iFIX 5.0 with objects for electric utilities and a DNP3 driver; today it should be treated as a legacy solution and its support confirmed with the manufacturer.

Three engineering decisions repeat in these projects:

Where the protocol is translated. An OPC server on the SCADA computer, or a gateway in the substation such as the SEL RTAC. The gateway keeps the SCADA simpler and concentrates the signal list in one auditable place.
Quality and time stamp. A plant SCADA usually shows the value with the arrival time; if the project requires the event time from the relay, the whole chain must carry it. See event reporting and sequence of events.
Commands. Controlling a medium-voltage breaker from an industrial SCADA must go through the bay interlocks and the local/remote selector. See control levels and local/remote selector.

Points to watch in commissioning and maintenance

Signal list. Before configuring, define in writing the name of each signal, its address, its scaling and its alarm text. Most electrical integration errors are scaling or data type errors; see Modbus RTU and TCP.
Point-to-point testing. Each status, measurement and command is checked from the device to the screen. See FAT and SAT testing.
Redundancy. Check the server switchover with the real network and with the communications to the gateway, not only with the test project.
Alarm management. A protection alarm lost among hundreds of process alerts is an operational risk. Define priorities and filters for the electrical part.
Change of ownership. With the sale of the Proficy business, confirm the support channel, licenses and update plan for your version before planning an expansion.

How we help

Our team integrates the plant’s electrical network into the process SCADA: relays, meters and gateways with Modbus, DNP3 or IEC 61850, point-to-point testing of signals and commands and the substation interlock logic, in industry and in substations. The engineering and configuration work can be done remotely, worldwide; field testing in Colombia or elsewhere on request. See SCADA integration and gateways and control, protection and communications configuration. Write to us through the contact page.

References

IEC 61850 (series); Modbus (Modbus Organization); IEEE 1815 (DNP3); OPC Foundation (OPC DA and OPC UA).
GE Vernova, announcements of the agreement and of the closing of the sale of the Proficy business to TPG (September 2025 and March 2026); TPG, purchase announcement.

Frequently asked questions

Are iFIX and CIMPLICITY still GE products?

No. They were part of GE Vernova's Proficy software business. GE Vernova announced in March 2026 that TPG completed the purchase of that business, which became an independent software company with HMI/SCADA, MES and industrial data management solutions.

What is the difference between iFIX and CIMPLICITY?

They are two HMI/SCADA platforms of the same family with different architectures. iFIX is common in process plants and utilities with an architecture of SCADA nodes and clients; CIMPLICITY has a client-server architecture and is found in manufacturing and in large supervision systems. Which one your plant has depends on the project's history, not on the electrical network.