What is our primary use case?
I represent the consulting part of our company. We support multiple customers in India, Southeast Asia, US, and Europe. Our daily requirements involve building data science algorithm applications using Seeq Data Lab, building workflows using Seeq Workbench, and developing dashboards on top of Organizer topics.
How has it helped my organization?
The impact of Seeq's predictive analytics features really depends on the industry. In oil and gas, for example, it's all about assets and equipment. It's very important to keep assets up and running because they operate 24/7, 365 days a year. Even an hour of downtime can result in a million-dollar loss.
Therefore, building predictive maintenance algorithms is key. The outcome of these models is predictive maintenance, and the impact is significant. We're not just talking about one asset but a fleet of assets, maybe ten, twelve, fifty, or even a hundred, depending on the organization. This helps the organization plan and schedule maintenance activities, providing tremendous value on top of existing calendar-based or preventive maintenance practices.
AI-based capabilities in Seeq:
We have used Seeq Data Lab for developing AI algorithms. There's no out-of-the-box AI available, and I believe no other similar platform has that either. I've even evaluated TrendMiner, the closest solution I know to Seeq, and even that doesn't have it.
AI is great in Seeq. You have a good feature that allows you to convert a Python algorithm built in Seeq Data Lab into a user-friendly interface, essentially turning it into a vertical application. For the end user, it's just an application; they don't have to worry about the Python code. The workflow and how they've thought through the consumption of Python code is pretty impressive.
What is most valuable?
I've worked with Seeq, Cognite, Azure, AWS, DataRobot, and many other platforms. With Seeq, I've realized that it's very easy to use. You hardly need any training, maybe three hours is more than sufficient. The best part is that the entire data science workflow is automated in Seeq. You don't even have to be a data scientist; a production engineer can focus on production and still leverage Seeq.
For example, we have a customer, an Oil and Gas company in India, where I've been involved since day one with installation, implementation, and use case development. It's been four or five years now, and every quarter we go on-site to develop new use cases. We started with ten users and now have more than one hundred and fifty, all of whom are very appreciative and are developing use cases on their own.
Compared to any other platform, Seeq is the best and most adaptive. If someone focuses on Seeq, they can very easily get their hands on it and start utilizing it for their daily workflows. I've seen more than ten customers who have completely replaced Excel with Seeq.
Seeq takes care of security very well. Since it has moved to a completely SaaS model, it has to address all cybersecurity points. Seeq adheres to SOC 2 Type II security standards when it comes to the cloud.
Data integration and security:
Regarding data integration, Seeq is built to handle time series data very well. However, that doesn't cover the entire manufacturing analytics journey. There's still a lot of non-time series, unstructured data, which is where Seeq has some limitations.
But Seeq's philosophy has always been focused on time series data, although customers might compare it to other solutions. So, for data integration, Seeq can do what it does very well, but there are other opportunities for development in this area.
What needs improvement?
Seeq Organizer, which is used for dashboarding, has some limitations.
In Seeq Organizer, we've realized that process engineers want dashboards with more drag-and-drop features, like Power BI. Seeq has limitations in terms of the variety of widgets and visualizations you can use. You're limited to a few types like line charts, bar charts, and pie charts (which was introduced recently). Power BI offers a wider range of dashboarding options.
It's not that Seeq is solely a dashboarding tool; it can connect to Power BI and Tableau. But customers who purchase Seeq and expect its dashboarding feature to be competitive with Power BI and Grafana might be disappointed. So, dashboarding is where I see a lot of room for improvement in Seeq.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience with this solution. It has been more than four years.
Seeq is a US company, and my company is the exclusive partner for India and global implementation partner for Seeq in Southeast Asia. I lead the entire data science group, and we've been using it extensively.
In fact, we have supported Seeq on various product development projects for more than four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With the earlier on-premise version. But since it's now completely SaaS, I hope those issues are resolved. I'm still exploring the SaaS version, as customers in India and Southeast Asia are not always comfortable with cloud and SaaS due to government regulations.
With the on-premise version, we experienced difficulties with reliability and availability for almost a year, possibly due to hardware limitations. Seeq was unavailable multiple times each month. So, we had to restart the service or involve Seeq's system reliability engineers to resolve the issue. However, I don't think that's a challenge with the SaaS version.
I would rate the stability a seven out of ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Seeq has good scalability, thanks to a feature called asset trees. It's easy to scale up, but that's more of a sales pitch/jargon than reality. Replicating an asset is as simple as clicking a button, but the moment Seeq data models are involved, it becomes a pain because you have to create copies of your Datalab file for each asset.
So, scalability is fifty-fifty. Practical customer expectations involve scaling up data science algorithms, not just data analytics workflows. When we use Python (Seeq Data Lab) and try to scale it within Seeq, we face computational and replication challenges. It's not just clicking a button; there's a lot more effort involved. We initially anticipated a 40% reduction in effort, but that wasn't the case.
But sometimes, we have realized that maybe 100% of the effort is required even if we scale up.
Looking at the entire landscape of similar software solutions available in the market, I'll still rate the scalability of Seeq a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are very powerful in terms of response time and knowledge. It's just that with Seeq SaaS and recent organizational restructuring, everything has to go through the Seeq customer support call, which makes it a bit difficult. I only get a response once they attend to my queries.
Lately, it's been taking one or two days to get support access, whereas earlier it was more transparent, and I could directly reach out to system reliability engineers via email for immediate support within a couple of hours. But now, they are more structured and process-oriented, which could be one of the reasons. So it takes a little bit longer for them to respond.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
With Seeq SaaS, it's a lot easier to setup and deploy. Seeq itself handles setting up the instance, and I just receive the link for the dedicated customer. The only thing I need to worry about is connecting to the historians and data sources.
Seeq has many connectors, so it's relatively easy, although it can still be cumbersome due to dependencies on the customer side. Compared to other solution providers, Seeq is much easier.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is average. Seeq has changed its strategy. Most likely, it's based on the number of sites, assets, or tags, and it varies depending on the customer. There's no standard pricing.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it to other people.
My recommendation:
So, typically, when there are historians, the first thing is the limitation on the number of licenses. For example, if I'm a control engineer, I have no visibility of what's happening on the quality side because quality is measured by a different team, and the systems are themselves different.
You have LIMS. Now, a control engineer who is sitting in the control room has no visibility until they get feedback from the quality control group. That feedback usually happens through WhatsApp, phone communication, or physical communication.
With Seeq, you can monitor and trend different data streams from different sources on a single screen. There is lot of value right here. Even though it can not be quantified in terms of cost savings. This integrated visibility adds significant value for the end consumers operating the plant.
Data Integration and Cleaning:
Next is the data processing capabilities, like data cleaning. Even if you are a data scientist, you may not be aware of all the algorithms available in the market. When it comes to time series analytics, it’s different. It's no longer just AI and machine learning; you need knowledge of time series data, how sensor data looks, and the applicable algorithms. Seeq offers automated, point-and-click solutions for these workflows. You don’t need to know data science or data preprocessing algorithms. Just click, select the parameter, and you’re done.
Faster Time to Value:
These are a couple of points where I see a lot of value. Customers often try to set up their own digitalization groups and build everything on their own instead of buying Seeq. They might try to develop or reinvent the wheel, which never happens. Everything remains in Python. If that effort is spent on Seeq, they can start developing and realizing value in the first month, not in the span of years and weeks.
Overall rating:
Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten. And the reason is, Seeq was great five years back when there was no competition and digitalization was just emerging. Now, other companies are developing products like Seeq, and some features could be better and more efficient.
Seeq needs to stay competitive by understanding customer expectations, which will keep changing. Seeq needs to conduct surveys and incorporate critical features and customer expectations into their product development roadmap.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.