Besides specific Clients for specific devices, this specification also describes Software Update Clients that can update devices of various vendors (for additional details see 8.3.5).

For devices in operational use it is often necessary to consider the operation state of the software / machine / plant before performing the update (e.g. stop and start the operation). For this case a specialized Client can use additional domain-specific Information Models as part of the update process.

An update can be performed manually by a user for a single device. However, if a lot of devices need to be maintained on a regular basis an automatic update is desirable. For this scenario the Information Model also allows the transfer of software to the devices without starting the update process. For the installation a Client could control several devices simultaneously.