National Instruments Profile
National Instruments Corporation provides flexible application software and modular, multifunction hardware that users combine with industry-standard computers, networks and third-party devices to create automated test and automated measurement systems.
The company’s software-centric approach helps its customers quickly and cost-effectively design, prototype and deploy custom-defined solutions for their design, control and test application needs. The company offers hundreds of products used to create virtual instrumentation systems for general, commercial, industrial and scientific applications.
The company provides the integration of a modular flexible software connected platform and open, flexible software systems, to consistently support organizations’ evolving test and measurement needs.
The sale of the company’s products is dependent on customers in certain industries, particularly telecommunications, semiconductor, consumer electronics, automotive, energy, automated test equipment, and aerospace, defense and government.
Products, Technology, and Services
Below is an overview of the company’s products, technology and services:
Software
NI software is the key differentiator of the company’s platform. The company has empowered hundreds of thousands of loyal users of LabVIEW, a unique graphical software platform optimized for engineers, and numerous other application software tools. The company has consistently invested to maintain and strengthen the company’s software platform to provide a simplified user interface, faster time-to-test, modern web- and cloud-enabled capabilities, and the ability to quickly create application-specific software tools.
The NI software platform spans the full range of customer needs, from high-performance driver software for NI hardware to general-purpose development tools that allow customers to create their own IP to higher-level software products that directly meet targeted customer applications. A hallmark of the NI software platform is the integration of NI and third-party software and hardware. During 2022, the company accelerated the transition of the majority of the company’s remaining perpetual license offerings to a primarily on-premise subscription license model.
NI provides a wide variety of software tools for programming automated test and automated measurement applications. This software offering includes:
Programming Environments
NI LabVIEW - A graphical programming approach that helps visualize every aspect of the application, including hardware configuration, measurement data, and debugging. This visualization makes it simple to integrate measurement hardware from various vendors, represent complex logic on the diagram, develop data analysis algorithms, and design custom engineering user interfaces.
NI LabWindows/CVI - An ANSI C integrated development environment and engineering toolbox with built-in libraries for measurement, analysis, and engineering UI design.
NI Measurement Studio - A suite of .NET tools designed for building engineering applications in Microsoft Visual Studio to acquire, analyze, and display measurement data.
Application Software
NI TestStand - Application software targeted for automated test and automated measurement applications in a manufacturing environment.
NI VeriStand - A ready-to-use software environment for configuring real-time testing applications, including hardware-in-the-loop test systems.
Flexlogger - Application software optimized for quick sensor configuration and data logging of mixed signals to verify electromechanical systems.
Operations Management and Analytic Enterprise Software
NI SystemLink - Systems management and data collection software that enables the mass coordination of connected devices, software deployments, and data communications throughout a distributed deployment of test assets.
NI Optimal Plus - Production data pipeline and analytics tools to generate insights and deploy product manufacturing actions that improve product performance, quality, output and cost.
NI DIAdem - Configuration-based technical data management, analysis, and report generation tools to interactively mine and analyze engineering and measurement data.
The Power of Open Platform
The company has made significant investments in software interfaces so customers can integrate NI-based solutions into their existing architectures of preferred development tools (such as Python, Linux, C++, Mathworks, MATLAB & Simulink, Microsoft Visual Studio, and .NET) and data analytics services. This flexibility allows for a seamless integration into legacy systems, while also leveraging previous work for a more complete final solution. Users can do more with the company’s platform to develop automated, standardized, and efficient test and measurement applications and better connect the data output from those applications to a broader network of manufacturing data. This collective and open approach can deliver the right solution for customers at an effective cost of deployment.
The company has demonstrated its commitment to the excellence of this software ecosystem by modernizing the company’s flagship software, LabVIEW, while also expanding the company’s platform by acquiring and integrating software capabilities in focus areas, such as transportation, as highlighted by the company’s 2021 acquisition of monoDrive, a provider of ultra-high fidelity simulation software for advanced driver-assistance systems (‘ADAS’), and data analytics, as highlighted by the company’s 2020 acquisition of OptimalPlus Ltd. (‘OptimalPlus’), which provide customers with the needed capabilities to manage the increasing complexity and cost of their test and measurement operations. Focused on business critical actions and insights, the company’s platform intends to support efficient use of operational assets and use advanced product manufacturing analytics to maximize product performance and overall business outcomes.
Modular Hardware
The company provides modular instrumentation that offers the company’s customers the ability to create their own unique programmable, flexible and low-cost solutions. The company’s modular instrument approach enables it to grow the company’s sales in the automated validation and automated production test market by delivering more test coverage and a lower-cost alternative for the company’s customers. The company offers two primary hardware form factors, PXI and NI C-series, both with a modular input/output (‘I/O’) approach in addition to industry standard PCI form factors. The NI PXI modular instrument platform, introduced in 1997, is a standard PC architecture in a rugged form factor with expansion slots and instrumentation extensions for timing, triggering and signal sharing. The NI PXI combines mainstream PC software and PCI hardware with advanced instrumentation capabilities. The NI C-series platform, used in the company’s CompactRIO and CompactDAQ products, is a rugged, high-performance I/O and processing platform used in a wide variety of data acquisition applications. The company’s C-series data acquisition and control products provide unique value where diverse I/O is needed, and the company can expand its user base through new distributed and rugged products. The NI PXI and C-series platforms include field programmable gate array (‘FPGA’) technology, providing customers programmable hardware capability that provides high performance and is user-customizable with NI LabVIEW software.
Increasingly, the company’s customers’ applications demand more system capabilities that more closely match their application needs. The company has continually evolved the company’s offering to include highly innovative products and application-specific systems. This way the company provides customizable increased functionalities through test and measurement virtualization in contrast to providing fixed measurement boxes. One example in the semiconductor industry is the company’s NI Semiconductor Test System (‘STS’), which combines NI modular instrumentation with NI software for radio frequency (‘RF’) and mixed-signal production testing. The STS features fully production-ready test systems that use NI technology in a form factor suitable for a semiconductor production test environment. The STS combines the NI PXI hardware, TestStand test management software, and LabVIEW graphical programming software inside a fully enclosed test head. The compact STS design houses all the key components of a production tester while using a fraction of the floor space, power, and maintenance typically required by traditional automated test equipment. With the open, modular design, engineers can take advantage of the latest industry standard PXI modules for more instrumentation and computing power. The company is seeing a similar need for application specific systems in the Transportation industry. With the increase in both the volume and complexity of electrical components in vehicles, NI customers need to increase production test capacity. The NI ECU Test System (ECUTS) reduces the cost of test by testing multiple engine control units (ECUs) in parallel in the same or similar footprint to traditional test systems. This system is defined by software and built on the NI modular hardware platform, which increases flexibility for the company’s customers and protects against rapid requirements changes in the future. In addition, electrification has become a major trend in the automotive industry and battery technology is a major contributor to electric vehicle capabilities such as range, performance, and charging time. Battery technology is also changing rapidly and requires long test cycle times during the development process. The NI Battery Test System (BTS) automates the process of testing battery performance during design validation by providing a system-level starting point for the most common battery cycle tests and is configurable for rapidly adjusting to unique testing requirements in order to accelerate the design process. The company’s acquisitions of Heinzinger Automotive GmbH (‘Heinzinger’) and Kratzer Automation AG's (‘Kratzer’) test systems business during 2022 and N H Research, LLC (‘NHR’) in the fourth quarter of 2021 expand the company’s EV, battery, test system and sustainable energy portfolio, thereby providing customers with critical power-level test capabilities.
Services and Support
The company provides global services and support as part of its commitment to its customers’ success. The company’s services and support have always played a key role in helping the company’s customers to design, deploy and create. The company’s services and support team is consisted of highly qualified engineers and experts who help the company’s customers to meet their application needs. The company’s Professional Services offering supports integration of its standard products with custom hardware and software solutions to meet the specific requirements of the company’s customers. The company’s Methodology Consulting Services offering provides strategic guidance to the company’s customers to assess, design and implement solutions to enhance their processes. With direct operations in approximately 40 countries, NI has local market expertise, on-site services, and technical support to enable customer success.
Through the company’s ecosystem, with an active community of software developers and over 1,000 National Instruments Partners around the world, the company is able to unleash the power of virtualization to deliver solutions tailored to customer needs. The company’s NI Partners have deep knowledge of NI systems and the rich domain expertise to connect the right technologies, strategies, and support based on customers’ business needs.
The company also offers software maintenance services, hardware services and maintenance and training certification.
Software Maintenance Services
Software Services for End Users: The company’s Standard Service Program provides its end users with support services through a software maintenance contract. The Standard Service Program is designed to help ensure that the company’s end users are successful with its products by providing the end user with regular product upgrades and service packs, professional technical support from local engineers, 24-hour-a-day access to self-paced online product training, and access to older versions of their licensed NI software.
Volume Licensing for Account-Level Services: The company’s NI Volume License Program (‘VLP’) and Enterprise Agreements (‘EAs’) are designed to meet the needs of the business in addition to the needs of each end user. In addition to access to the Standard Service Program for each end user, businesses that take advantage of the VLP and EAs receive account-level benefits designed to help effectively manage their software assets and lower their total cost of ownership.
Hardware Services and Maintenance
Warranty and Repair: The company offers standard and extended warranties to help meet project life-cycle requirements and provide repair services for the company’s products, express repair, and advance replacement services. During 2022, the company began to include additional service entitlements as part of the standard warranty for a vast majority of the company’s hardware offerings. These entitlements now include access to technical support and dependable repair and replacement coverage.
Calibration: To help the company’s customers’ calibration needs, NI provides calibration solutions, including recalibration services, manual calibration procedures, and automated calibration software. In 2011, the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation accredited NI Calibration Services Austin to one of the highest international calibration standards in the industry, ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (‘17025’). The company offers 17025 calibration services for original equipment manufacturers (‘OEMs’) and other organizations seeking to maintain their compliance with governmental, medical, transportation and electronics regulations. The 17025 calibration service offering is designed for companies standardizing their automated test and measurement systems on PXI modular instrumentation, which provides some of the most advanced technology for addressing the latest engineering challenges.
System Configuration and Deployment: The company offers services to provide a fast, easy way to get the company’s customers' new NI systems up and running. The company’s trained technicians install software and hardware and configure the company’s customers’ PXI, and NI CompactRIO system to their specifications.
Training and Certification
NI Training Program: NI training helps the customer build the skills to more efficiently develop robust, maintainable applications. The company offers fee-based training classes and self-paced online training for many of the company’s software and hardware products. On-site courses are quoted per customer requests and the company includes online course offerings with real-time teachers.
NI Certification Program: The company offers programs to certify programmers and instructors for the company’s products. The company’s certification program demonstrates the company’s customers have the skills needed to create high-quality applications with NI software.
Markets and Applications
NI invests to enhance the company’s offerings in software connected systems in the semiconductor and electronics, transportation, and aerospace, defense, and government (‘ADG’) industries. The company is able to leverage the investments in these areas to serve a broad base of diverse customers in the other industries the company serves.
Semiconductor and Electronics
The company is investing to increase its ability to deliver flexible, automated test, and measurement solutions that scale from characterization to production and from wafer to electronic device. This will help to meet the business needs of integrated circuit (‘IC’) and electronic device manufacturers. The company continues to innovate with solutions that span the company’s customers' product development lifecycle, focused on helping R&D organizations shorten their time to market and helping manufacturing organizations address the cost and complexity of testing driven by the next generation of smart devices. Key technologies ranging from new tools for data management, advanced analytics software, and frameworks that drive interoperability with open-source tools remain critical elements of the company’s ongoing innovation in this space.
Transportation
The company’s application-specific solutions and open test systems give automotive customers the flexibility to meet growing needs for speed, complexity, and tightening budgets. By optimizing their test workflows and connecting their test data, the company helps customers produce safer batteries faster, improve their electric powertrains, test earlier in the development cycle, minimize cost, and increase test coverage. The company’s software- and data- centric approach provides flexibility and scalability to address rapid changes in requirements and technology.
Aerospace, Defense and Government
The company helps its customers control their proprietary IP through the company’s software offering while meeting their demands for highly customized and long life-cycle systems. The company’s adaptive, open technologies are designed to reduce the cost of maintenance and support by proactively managing technology insertion and life-cycle management strategies. The company’s combination of flexible hardware and open software also allows for rapid prototyping and validation of new technologies, reducing the time to innovate. This is particularly important as the company’s customers' devices increasingly feature embedded software that requires real-time, system-level testing that is difficult to adapt with proprietary systems or difficult to maintain with in-house designs. These applications are well suited to the company’s high performance software.
Portfolio
The company has enabled engineers to develop and deliver increasingly complex solutions across life science, electrical equipment, energy, research and other industries. The company’s portfolio customers feel pressure to deliver the benefits of digital transformation and have an urgent need to improve product quality, shorten time to market and improve operational efficiency through data. Across the company’s focus areas of research and validation, production test, predictive maintenance, and analytics, the company sees customers prioritizing performance, standardization and insights across the product lifecycle. These needs align to the strength of NI's adaptive automated test and measurement capability and the company’s investments in easier-to-use systems, the company’s highly adopted software toolchain, and expanded digital and distribution channels to accelerate customer success at scale.
Customers
The company continues to have a broad, diverse set of customers with over 35,000 customer accounts worldwide.
Sales and Distribution
The company distributes and sells its products primarily through a direct sales organization. The company also uses independent distributors, OEMs, value-added resellers (‘VARs’), system integrators and consultants, each of whom the company refers to as partners, to market and sell the company’s products.
The company continues to focus on scale and efficiency in serving the company’s broad base of customers. The company has sales and support offices in approximately 40 countries.
Marketing
The company engages a broad audience and partners with the company’s direct sales force to help strengthen customer relationships at all levels of the account.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development expenses were $332 million in 2022.
Intellectual Property
The company holds a number of registered and pending patents in the U.S. and other countries. Certain of its issued U.S. patents are software patents related to LabVIEW and cover fundamental aspects of the graphical programming approach used in LabVIEW. Its patents expire from 2023 to 2041. The company also owns certain registered trademarks in the U.S. and in other countries.
Competition
Key competitors are Advantest, Anritsu, Fortive, Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, Teradyne and others. These competitors offer hardware and software products that provide solutions that directly compete with the company’s software-defined automated test and automated measurement systems.
History
National Instruments Corporation was founded in 1976. The company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Texas in 1976 and was reincorporated in Delaware in 1994.
