Looks like Pro-Face has been bought by Schneider Electric?

Noticing today the big "Pro-face by Schneider Electric" logo that now appear in big on Pro-face websites.

Apparently there were already some links between the two companies but the new branding clearly indicate something new.

As Pro-Face is mainly a competitor of Schneider (Modicon, Telemecanique) for PLC, HMI and integrated HMI-PLC, I wonder how it will evolve.

Will Pro-face stick with GP Pro as a software or will they use Unity?

I wouldn't worry about it. I don't see the Pro-face branded terminals using the Unity software;not ever.

Schneider has been using the Pro-face hardware for many years; same hardware but with different software. They have been tied together since at least 2002.
http://global.pro-face.com/content/business-overview-and-company-history

So, you can already buy the "Pro-face" hardware with Schneider software as the Magelis terminal.


Pro-face is an important brand name in Asia-Pacific; the name will be around for a long time. I think Schneider is just adding their name now to help bring awareness to those customers and convert them over to the Schneider brand.

You might see the Pro-face software stop getting updates, or only minor patches & feature changes. Put Pro-face into cash cow (maintenance mode) and just take the profits they can with minimal investment.
It doesn't make sense for Schneider to keep putting new investments into Pro-face.
They have too may HMI brands; it's all over the map:
- Indusoft
- WonderWare
- GP-Pro (Pro-face)
- Vijeo (Schneider Magelis)

I think eventually Pro-Face will go the way of the dinosaur. Maybe not in the next few years but I definitely see both Magelis and Pro-Face being retired and a single "unified" HMI being released to replace both. If there's one universal rule when companies buy their competitors out, it's that redundancies are eventually "taken care of."

FactoryTalktotheHand said:

I think eventually Pro-Face will go the way of the dinosaur. Maybe not in the next few years but I definitely see both Magelis and Pro-Face being retired and a single "unified" HMI being released to replace both. If there's one universal rule when companies buy their competitors out, it's that redundancies are eventually "taken care of."

Click to expand...

I agree, however there are always exceptions.
Look at what GE has done with their acquisition of Intellutions's iFix SCADA/HMI and how it still relates/competes the their own Cimplicity SCADA/HMI.