Chromeleon Vs. Empower - Pros and Cons

Discussions about HPLC, CE, TLC, SFC, and other "liquid phase" separation techniques.

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Good morning, all.

My team is coming to a crossroads soon about whether to stick with Empower or to switch to Chromeleon. We have extensively researched cost, are working to demo the software, but I am trying to be sure that we have enough information to make the proper decision using data and not preference - aka the Ford vs. Chevy phenomenon. What I am really looking forward to is some real, unfiltered advice regarding the pros and cons of Chromeleon and the same for Empower software from actual users who have previously made the switch or stuck with Empower. We are a Waters heavy lab currently. What are the challenges and frustrations when making the switch? How do the software packages compare in terms of user friendliness? Are they both as easily maintained by IT in a large, heavily regulated corporate environment? Which software package is more efficient? Trying to cut through the sales pitch and get some real user information. Thank you so much in advance!!
I can only speak about Empower as that's all I have used but for me personally:

Pros:

Reliable enough servers and data back-up service. This does depend on in-house IT and server capability though.

Good courses on all aspects of software use from beginners to complex custom fields, admin options etc- they provide an excellent Elearning catalog of courses and will hugely benefit the analyst who wants to upskill.

Fully compliant with all relevant FDA electronic record requirements, audit trail options very thorough.

A range of options for dissolution/ mass spec etc if required

Cons:

Very very steep learning curve- i learned most features from right clicking and trial and error!

Too many ways to do the one function. Want to preview publish results? Right click, Tools or Icon to do the one thing. Bit of a waste in my view.

Very inconsistent Help funtion- i tried finding a full example of how to calculate amounts using sampleweights and dilutions, thinking it would be a basic inclusion but its not there! I had to find out this from researching slidepacks on the net. Then on the Help feature for custom fields, they have a few spelling mistakes and gloss over certain features. Poor impression.

Quite a few bugs in the different versions of the software over the years- you might find yourself denied doing some work becasue of a weird glitch that locks processing methods, gives incorrect calibration curve readings etc.

I hope this gives a balanced view of the Empower software. Good luck!
My impressions as someone who uses Empower tons but has done a Chromeleon (CM) 6.8 demo and participated in an enterprise CDS selection group more than once:

Empower has edges in market share, regulator acceptance, training and support. They also tend to get reliable drivers for newer instruments into users' hands quite a bit faster than CM developers do.

CM does have a more user friendly interface and not as steep of a learning curve. Those are about the only advantages.

Both currently have analytics that will assist managers in seeing what systems and users are productive and which aren't. Empower's instrument setup is easier than CM's. Both require about the same level of IT support, same considerations when it comes to restricting antivirus software on the acquisition PCs etc. Empower comes with an Oracle backbone. CM allows for Oracle or SQL, so your IT department may have a preference in light of this.

They also both can accommodate most recent instruments from most big name vendors, but not the very newest things (ie: QDa detectors in use? Probably not going to want CM). If you're using Knauer LCs, for another example, ask before buying I don't think there's instrument support for them from Empower.

Both CDS include tools for size exclusion/GPC, dissolution and other "tricky" calculations though it may be at additional cost. Between these options and having learned a bit about custom fields in Empower, I've managed to automate AV calculations for CU assays. I do not know if this is doable in CM.
I also do not know if Fusion (S-Matrix) works as well with CM as it does Empower, nor do I know if CM has anything like Method Validation Manager available. If you need development and/or validation tools, these are Empower features worth investigating.

The developers at Waters are aware that CM has been nibbling at their market share for the past few years and they are taking steps to remedy the situation. They are coming up with cloud based Empower to alleviate things like the communication issues that can complicate multi-site/single database installations (for the Pfizers of the world), and they're talking about a major redesign of the interface.

These should both be available *soon*.

In the end, it will depend on support for your instruments, your users and your type of analyses.

Hope this helps.
Thanks,
DR
Image
Hi, one of negs w.r.t Empower is the MS war between Waters and other vendors, Thermo, Agilent, Shimadzu. If you're Waters heavy in the labs than that's not an issue. If running LCMSs from other vendors likelihood is the MS will not be supported and you'll be coaxed into swapping for full Waters line-up. Good for harmonisation (and Waters of course) but this decision is sort of removed from your hands once you've committed to Empower.
Would be intersting to know how this looks for CM.
Best
in case you cannot choose, why not have a serious look at OpenLab 2 client/server. It never hurts :)
Freek Varossieau
OpenLab CDS 2 specialist
BeyondOpenLab
beyondopenlab@gmail.com
+5977114721
Chromeleon is intuitive and has a modern, impressive GUI. Empower is the same it has always been, less intuitive. Both work, both are cgmp compliant. As another user said, Empower power users have memorized the steps, chromeleon is more logical

Personally, I would never mix OEM hardware with another vendors software. Even with the drivers, its never optimized and only has basic functionality.
If your waters alliances are aging, consider an industry leading 1500 bar Vanquish with Chromeleon as a test purchase, you may be able to get a demo on site to evaluate
I’ve used chromeleon, empower, and Chem station extensively.

Honestly, it depends on what you want to do with the software. As people have said, empower has a VERY steep learning curve and is not user friendly. I started a new job and had very little empower experience and it has taken me a while to get used to it. As others have said, empower is more accepted by regulatory agencies and has a full audit trail option. If you want to be able to use the software program to do most of your quantitation, and not rely on excel, then empower is really the only option. I think it’s really hard to integrate, and to my knowledge you also can’t integrate with chromatographs overlaid, so if you need to integrate while having the blank overlaid empower sucks. I also curse at it all day because it doesn’t really give you full manual control of your integrations, I have to screw with the processing methods for a long time while in chromeleon it could be done so simply by hand.

Chomeleom is really easy to use. Everything just makes sense. Easy to overlay and integrate. But it is not nearly as auditable and is not capable of doing nearly as many quantitative things as empower.

Good luck
My suggestion shall be to stick to Empower as there are lot of Waters system you have.Also hybrid marriages are always problematic. Chromeleon has no official deal with Waters for controlling Waters HPLCs and not sure how far they are keen in developing the same. They have some reverse engineering solutions.

Waters with their presence in the market for a long and keen understanding of regulatory requirements stands better.
Take a very good look at Chromeleon, and (non-aggressively, of course) make sure your Waters rep knows you're doing it. I don't know about globally, but I've noticed in my own environment that if a purchase is certain to go to a particular supplier, the price will be about 40% higher.
Keeping an open mind is good for pricing but is also good as a chance to get to know what clever stuff the various manufacturers have been coming up with, to try to keep their products competitive. There is not much rubbish out there - products have to be good to survive.
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