What each option can hold, and what it cannot.
Four ways to supervise a plant today. They differ less in features than in what they were built to keep: a picture, a tag, a trend — or the decision itself, with who made it and why.
| Capability | Indagate | BMS head-endMetasys, Desigo CC, WebCTRL | SCADA + historianTag database, historian, alarm server | Analytics overlayFDD and IoT platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One asset model shared by trend, alarm and work order | Yes. The unified namespace | Partly. Tag database and graphics, per site | Partly. Tag database | Partly. Its own model; the systems beneath do not share it |
| A record of who changed what, and why | Yes. Actor, reason and expiry on every action | Partly. Audit log of the write; the reason is not a field | Partly. Event log; the reason lives in a shift book | No. Read-only; it did not make the change |
| Supervisory write to your controllers | Yes. BACnet, confirmed, at a priority you choose | Yes. Native | Yes. Native | No. Advisory only |
| Agents with a declared, admitted reach | Yes. Reach admitted before install; every action carries its grant | No. Operators with logins | No. Operators with logins | Partly. Assistants that recommend; no grant to act |
| Life-safety priorities refused by construction | Yes. Priorities 1–2 rejected at the gateway | Partly. Configured per operator; a policy, not a wall | Partly. Configured | No. Does not write |
| Runs beside what you have; controllers untouched | Yes. Parallel run first; the old system stays available | No. Replaces the workstation and, often, the controllers | No. A migration | Yes. Sits on top |
| Your data exports on a documented schema | Yes. Namespace and record, exportable | Partly. Vendor tools; dealer graphics stay the dealer’s | Partly. Historian exports; tags stay tags | Partly. API access; the model stays theirs |
| Per-point licensing | Yes. None | No. Per point, per client, per year | No. Per tag | No. Per point or per building |
● Yes◐ Partly○ No
Capabilities vary by product version and licence; the table describes the configuration we typically find on site. Metasys is a trademark of Johnson Controls, Desigo of Siemens, WebCTRL of Automated Logic; they are named only to identify the systems.
Compared one at a time.
What a cutover from each looks like in practice — what Indagate reads, what it takes over, and what stays where it is.
vs Metasys
Johnson Controls head-end and controllers. Keep the controllers; replace the workstation and the per-point licence.
vs Desigo CC
Siemens management station. One platform in place of the station, without touching field controllers.
vs WebCTRL
Automated Logic and its dealer graphics. What moves, what the dealer keeps, and what you get back.
vs SCADA & historian
Tag database, historian and alarm server. One record where three systems used to disagree.
Bring your point list.
Send the point list and the controller inventory. We will show you the comparison on your own estate — free, before anyone talks about a contract.