I passed along the news of NI’s entrance into enterprise software with SystemLink a couple of weeks ago. Later, I had the opportunity to follow up with Penny Merian, chief product marketer, Enterprise Software, at NI.
She confirmed that this is indeed a new venture forward for NI. But it builds upon the rich history of test and measurement bringing systems and data management expertise to expand and leverage the rich data environment. The goal is to enrich data, in a wholistic and real-time manner for the purpose of eliminating waste in the process. Dumping data into Microsoft Excel, which is a common way of handling data, yields “old data” according to Merian. The need is to feed KPIs that the user needs in order to accelerate actions.
Being aware of NI’s history and its customers, I asked what roles do customers of this software hold within companies. She specified several roles and their needs.
- Test engineers and technicians—standardizing ways of looking at data, time delays
- Directors—real time information, correlation analysis, enablement
- VP—shorter time to market
She mentioned a customer, Dyson, who began manufacturing ventilators. SystemLink helped with management, track pass/fail, and helped manage supply chain. From more of a pure data analysis point of view, another customer, Jaguar, used SystemLink to reduce the cost of testing.
