May 2017
“Who are JMP’s competitors? (maybe we have them in narrow areas) — but there is nothing else like it.
Who is as interactive?
Who else does as great a job at DOE?
Who does analysis faster and bigger on the desktop?
Who else does Graph Builder as well?
No one, because JMP is truly unique in the crowded marketplace.” -John Sall
Company
- In April 2017, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a European-based international supplier of products and services to the biopharma industry, acquired Umetrics from MKS Instruments, which had just acquired Umetrics in January of 2016. Umetrics provides software for DOE and multivariate data analysis used in modeling development and manufacturing processes. They have resellers in 10 countries and list six partner organizations on their web site.
- Over the past few years, we have hired people from Umetrics into JMP, from whom we have learned that (as of this writing) there is no sales team in Europe as many have left the company. Most of the technical staff have also left and few resources remain to provide training and consulting, which is an important part of their business. Founder, Prof. Svante Wold is no longer a part of the company.
- According to Salesforce, they have had an annual license of JMP since 2012.
- According to this Dec. 2015 Youtube video, they have > 700 customers with > 7,000 users.
Product
- MODDE Go is the entry-level offering for those new to DOE; MODDE Pro is the advanced DOE offering. MODDE 12 was released in February 2017. It is described as a major upgrade of MODDE 11. Improvements noted for version 12:
- One-Click feature, including automatic outlier detection, transformation, and model tuning.
- Generalized subset designs – a design setup to generate a sequence of reduced design sets.
- Improved advisor in Analysis wizard.
- Definitive screening designs for 4 to 30 factors.
- Response correlation effect optional in Design Space calculations.
- Qualitative factors with missing-level supported.
Target Audience
- Scientists, engineers, researchers, product developers and others with the need for experimental design.
Feature Strength and JMP Response
- They tout ease of use, but JMP has a strong claim there as well.
- They position MODDE for Quality by Design; JMP has considerable messaging around QbD, including external validation in the form of blog posts from thought leaders like Ron Kenett as well as customer success like GlaxoSmithKline and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma.
- Many of the top-ranked pharmaceutical companies use MODDE; JMP has a strong presence in pharma as well.
- Umetrics offers consulting services whereas JMP does not, however, based on information from former employees, they appear to be short-staffed in this regard. We partner with our customers leveraging our technical resources, technical support, training staff, and partners.
- They have many complementary offerings to aid their users, including SIMCA, Modde-Q for embedding DOE, SIMCA Online for multivariate process monitoring and real-time process intelligence, and SIMCA-Q (which integrates with Matlab, Excel and others) for OEM embedded multivariate analysis. In some cases, this may make them more entrenched in organizations and it provides a foundation for them to continue building on. JMP may be well penetrated in many of the same organizations, but used for different things. JMP can augment Umetrics’ offerings with more visualization and analysis capability, and we have the potential to displace MODDE with more extensive DOE, and more analysis capabilities.
Feature Weakness and JMP Response
- They do not appear to have split plot designs; JMP has more DOE capability and a stronger track record of innovation in DOE. Other weaknesses have been noted in the community.
- Their graphics do not appear to be as interactive or as attractive as JMP’s.
- They have considerable market penetration, especially in Europe, where JMP is still growing in market presence. However, there is considerable uncertainty given the change of ownership twice in the last two years creating upheaval and potential opportunities for JMP.
Opportunities for JMP
- Given the current turmoil with the second change of ownership in two years, JMP may have opportunities to capitalize on that. For those looking to get started with DOE, why not start with the market leader with a proven track record of ongoing innovation?
- Position JMP’s value. JMP provides multivariate analysis, DOE, predictive modeling, quality, reliability, and with JMP 13 text analytics, and more all in one product.
- Focus on interactive capabilities. Demonstrate Profilers, Graph Builder, Mapping, interactive HTML output, Excel Import Wizard, Query Builder, other predictive modeling tools etc. MODDE users may also be interested in the advanced analytics of JMP Pro – show Compare Designs, generalized regression, neural, partition etc. Emphasize the flexibility of JMP Pro, and the ability to build models with their data using multiple techniques and then use the Formula Depot to organize and collect models, Model Comparison to choose the model, which combines the best combination of fit, parsimony and cross-validation, and then score code generation to help put those models into production environments.
Threats for JMP
- Umetrics has integration with other tools scientists use in their workflows, so they may have a more entrenched foundation they can keep building on.
Pricing
- MODDE Pro is $3,104. MODDE Go is $411.
