By Scott Kiser
In 2020, ICONICS joined Mitsubishi Electric to become a group company of the global electrical solutions
provider, adding its expertise in automation software development to its parent company’s already extensive products and services available around the world. The combination of software and hardware offerings now available from a single source is sure to help integrators expand their own offerings, as well as provide additional benefits to their end customers.
ICONICS Institute: Develop your skills anywhere at any time
ICONICS has recently expanded learning opportunities for our clients and system integrators with our new ICONICS Institute. This is our free online learning platform designed to help you build your skills across the full spectrum of ICONICS software. This resource incorporates contributions from a team of people drawn from our Training, Solution Sales and Applications Engineering groups around the world. You can now learn how to develop your skills in advanced visualization and control solutions, with ICONICS software, from the comfort and convenience of your home or office.
The ICONICS Institute will equip your team with the knowledge of how to use ICONICS 
software through guided video tutorials, narrated by our software experts. Our videos are divided into easy-to-follow courses that teach all the relevant skills for a given topic from start to finish. The training videos are recommended for technical personnel, from system integrators to end users, and can be used at the start of an installation or for more advanced tips and tricks. Be sure to visit ICONICS Institute today to explore our training video library for free, with no sign-up required.
The ICONICS SI Partner Program is a multi-tier support system that recognizes participants by their level of experience and certifications with ICONICS brands, market focus and industry-related expertise. The goal is to keep expertise close-at-hand to each customer, no matter where they are in the world. SIs that are certified by the program have experience with a wide range of technologies — from instrumentation to valves, to drives and robots, from single-loop control to distributed and supervisory control, from data centers to building management systems.
Continuing education on ICONICS products is a priority for our system integrators. As such, ICONICS recognizes SIs, based on their training and experience with specific products, proven industry expertise and markets served. This provides SIs the opportunity to expand and grow their practice by migrating to higher partner levels as they gain experience and expertise.
NEW no-cost entry level
ICONICS has recently introduced a new, no-cost entry level to our System Integrator Program. The new level, “Registered System Integrator,” provides access to ICONICS development software, technical support and training via the ICONICS Institute and a listing in the ICONICS System Integrator directory. Contact your local ICONICS representative for more details.
Geography and history
What are the additional benefits for partners and customers by ICONICS becoming a Mitsubishi Electric Group Company? The first is broader access to the wide array of automation software developed by ICONICS that can also couple with the even wider range of integrated hardware devices manufactured by global enterprise manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric. Integrators will immediately notice the expanded channel access and larger distribution capabilities afforded by the two companies working as one. In addition to the extended channel capabilities, customers and partners will benefit from multiple decades of customer solutions experience. ICONICS, founded in 1986, will soon celebrate its 35th year of providing industrial automation software solutions. In 2021, the Mitsubishi Electric Group celebrated its 100th year of the manufacturing and sales of electrical and electronic products and systems.
With ICONICS merged into the Mitsubishi Electric Group, integrators and customers can expect even tighter integration between software and hardware offerings. One example of this, with ICONICS’ recent Product Suite version 10.97 launch, is that the Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation (FA) Connector is now available as a provider within ICONICS’ Workbench configuration and management tool. The Mitsubishi Electric FA Connector can be used to support Mitsubishi Electric devices, as well as establish connectivity with supporting connection protocols. The connector provides options such as Automatic Search for Mitsubishi Electric Devices (Network Discovery), Mitsubishi Electric Device Properties and Mitsubishi Electric Device Tag Group Properties. The Mitsubishi Electric FA Connector supports MELSEC iQ-R/iQ-F series PLCs and can auto-discover devices on the network.
Introducing ICONICS Product Suite version 10.97
Of course, improved integration with Mitsubishi Electric devices is only one of many new features and improvements that can be found within the new ICONICS Product Suite version 10.97. One of the most notable updates is the new Hyper Alarm Server, which offers ISA 18.2-compliant and redundant alarming using all new technology, allowing for better performance, more control, native integration with ICONICS FrameWorX communication, and configuration via ICONICS’ AssetWorX asset-based automation technology. Another improvement is the expansion of integration options in ICONICS’ CFSWorX connected field service solution. Version 10.97 adds integration with Maximo, ServiceNow and Azure Active Directory, joining existing Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce compatibility. Multiple other advancements include new Hyper Historian™ Data Exporter support for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Azure Data Lake Generation 2; Sankey Diagram control for GraphWorX64™, MobileHMI®, and KPIWorX™; and Project Reporting utilizing internal ReportWorX64™ technology without the former requirement of SQL Server Reporting Services; just to name a few.
Want to give the latest advances in automation software a try? Install a free trial version of the latest full ICONICS suite by visiting https://iconics.com/Downloads/Download-ICONICS-Suite.
Available on Azure
In addition to the many new features that can be found on version 10.97 of ICONICS Product Suite, ICONICS has expanded the options of how partners and customers can access its solutions. ICONICS products can be easily hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing services platform by creating a virtual machine using the ICONICS published Virtual Machine offering for users’ desired product version from the Azure Marketplace. The virtual machine offered by ICONICS on the Azure Marketplace, contains the complete installation of GENESIS64™, Hyper Historian, IoTWorX™ and AnalytiX® Suite, and are available starting from version 10.96, with the latest Critical Fixes Rollup, through to the new version 10.97. Note that ICONICS offers through Azure will be updated whenever a new Critical Fixes Rollup is released, so the offer image will always have the latest fixes for a given version.
ICONICS has published several whitepapers on the use and benefits of using its automation software solutions with cloud service providers such as Microsoft. To view these, as well as multiple other informative materials, go to https://iconics.com/Downloads, then select “Whitepapers” from the pulldown menu.
Existing or new integrators
Existing channel partners may be pleased about the additional integrated (both hardware and software) solutions from both ICONICS and Mitsubishi Electric that they can quickly learn about and offer to their clients. New channel partners might be considering which vendors they should work with that can provide a comprehensive solution to their customers, providing close cohesion between software and hardware. Both existing and new channel partners will appreciate the continuous development of solutions such as Hyper Alarm Server, Mitsubishi Electric FA Connector and CFSWorX. They will also appreciate having multiple means of installation or access, such as ICONICS virtual machine offers through Microsoft Azure cloud services.
Next level system integration
Joining Mitsubishi Electric as a Group Company has already led to multiple positive impacts for ICONICS and its automation software solutions. Ultimately, the resulting expansion of capabilities is carried through to the system integrators that partner with us and onward to the customers who benefit from our cutting-edge products and services. Utilizing solutions from ICONICS and Mitsubishi Electric will certainly help your customers benefit from an integrated software and hardware solution that will continue to become more seamless and use the latest technological breakthroughs. At the same time, it will help those who choose to partner with us to get to the next level of their business.
Scott Kiser is Director of Worldwide Channel Development at ICONICS, Foxborough, Massachusetts.
This content was sponsored by ICONICS.