ChemStation/Ezchrom "merger"

[cquin1]

Anyone heard about Agilent's plans regarding EzChrom and ChemStation. My sales guy said that they are planning to merge them in 3 - 4 years. I'm trying to find out more info. Has anyone moved from ChemStation to EzChrom?

[CE Instruments]

More likely replace Chemstation with EzChrom Chemstation was state of the art when it came out on Windows 286 (out on UNIX first ??) but the porting from platform to platform has not been kind. It must surely be passed it sell by date with newer programs having been designed to run with modern PC capabilities and the benefit of experience ?

[mbicking]

I am not a ChemStation fanatic, but I do know the software pretty well. There was a time when Agilent pretty much ignored it, and some parts of the program have suffered (reporting, for example). However, it is still functional, and is now a 32-bit program.

For the novice user, and those in a non-regulated environment, it is probably easier to learn than, say, Empower. The method structure is much simpler. And although it is less flexible, you can get all your parameters set up initially in one location.

I have also heard that the MassHunter program is another template for future software. I doubt anyone knows what Agilent is thinking. It seems that sometimes the decisions are not even made on this planet!

[Bruce Hamilton]

I've been using Chemstation since it came out, and I agree with Merlin. The GC and LC versions work great for simple "walk up" roles with minimal user training. I've no idea what Agilent's plans are....

Agilent never intended Chemstation to become cGxP, and have produced/procured an amazing array of misses whilst trying to reach that market.

Chemstore - which sits on top of Chemstation ( initial standalone was a dud, Client-server version was much better, but limited reporting ),

Cerity ( dud for first two years - kept disappearing from screen. Not sure if latest version fixes that problem, but it's totally unacceptable for cGxP software ). Also, it's not possible to easily modify running sequences, which can be a real pain for interactive method development. Does have much better reporting options than Chemstore

Ezchrom - which was purchased, but then issued without support for common 1100 options, such as active seal wash - not sure if latest version supports that. Seems to be much more user friendly - can modify running sequences and has a wide range of capabilities, if I could be bothered learning all the arcane language/instructions.

I'm currently using a mixture of Chemstation, Cerity, and Ezchrom on two isntruments, but I'm not sure I'd want to purchase another software product from Agilent. They should focus on less diversity and try making their products meet actual users needs whilst exceeding current market favorites, such as Chromeleon.

Agilent seem to have rested on their innovative 1980s products for too long, and need to focus on the core GC and HPLC markets. I suspect Waters and Dionex have made substantial inroads into the Agilent HPLC market share over the last few years. Agilent seem to have focussed on larger, more expensive toys, but I'm not sure if there will be such a large market for those.

More less-than-average products will not help Agilent's share of the core HPLC and GC markets, but maybe they don't want to be in that market?.

Bruce Hamilton

[jonwelsh]

Hopefully I can clarify a little more on this topic from a view within Agilent. This is a great question and one that can be difficult to communicate clearly to customers. Both ChemStation and EZChrom Elite have very large and loyal customer bases. With ChemStation being by far the most used CDS worldwide and EZChrom a close second, combined they are a significant installed base. Agilent is focused strongly on supporting this large installed base and is committed to protecting the investment of all of our customers.

There are no plans to obsolete either platform. What we will do is take the best components of each of our platforms, refresh them to make them even better and allow those components to be shared across all of our systems. This shared component strategy will gain synergy and allow Agilent to offer better products to all of our customers. An example of this is the Level 5 instrument control of ChemStation now being enjoyed by EZChrom and OpenLAB users.

The overall program strategy was first integrate all of our software platforms into OpenLAB for data management and reporting. We are now refreshing components and sharing them across the platforms, with the goal of simplifying the product offering where needed. Any changes will be evolutionary for each platform with upgrades, as it has always been, not revolutionary, protecting your data and methods, as well as your investment.

Feel free to contact me directly if you need more detail.
Jon_Welsh@Agilent.com Laboratory Informatics Product Management

[Russ]

I hope that after the "refreshing", "sharing", and "integrating" you do not wind up with a product neither group likes. Good luck. By the way, I am an EZChrom user and had an older version of Chemstation that I did not like.

[aldehyde]

EZChrom is used by Agilent field engineers to process data from chemstation or other data systems when doing compliance (ACE) now.

Their use has become more integrated but I don't think they'll merge the two. The software people are working on so much different stuff, it will be interesting to see what comes out in the next few years. The latest revision of GC chemstation is pretty nice in my opinion.

Lab Monitor and Diagnostic is great for upgrading firmware, the other functionality is still getting there but it should be great once its a bit more mature. The electronic manuals included on the DVD are so great that even if they never update LMD again it'd be worth keeping a copy around.

[aldehyde]

I hope that after the "refreshing", "sharing", and "integrating" you do not wind up with a product neither group likes. Good luck. By the way, I am an EZChrom user and had an older version of Chemstation that I did not like.

Providing versatile, robust software to users of GC, GCMS, LC, LCMS, the different models of each, and all our other products is pretty difficult considering all the different industries and uses that we have to support. I agree that there are certainly things that needed to be added, removed, and that building onto a monolithic decade old software base is probably not going to result in anything good but I think they have been going in a good direction recently.