Clear Vision of the Future
Sometimes talking about your vision of the future can get you into trouble, or at least set you at odds with other people. When you’re the head of a company, people kind of expect you to talk about the future, because they want to know if your vision matches their vision.
Engineering.com has been running a series of video interviews the heads of various CAD/PLM companies called Battle of the Visions. This stuff is seriously interesting for guys like me. I like to see how what the guy in charge has to say matches the public perception of the company. Previous interviews have included Jim Hepplemann of PTC, Carl Bass of Autodesk, and Bernard Charles of Dassault Systemes.
In the interview posted April 29, Engineering.com interviewed Chuck Grindstaff of Siemens PLM. Mr. Grindstaff laid out a vision for the future that allows for new technologies, while giving the customer the choice of how it is to be implemented. Most of his comments were directed at the NX world of products, but I think the vision will serve him and Solid Edge customers well.
He was specific about “cloud” aspirations, which I think is key. Basically his point of view is that customers should be able to make up their own minds. They can run the software locally, implement a local cloud, or take it to Amazon and do their implementation there. These comments were specifically aimed at Teamcenter, but the interviewer did ask also about if managing PLM data on the cloud could be effectively separated from running CAD on the cloud.
The interview is 34 minutes, but much of it is worth listening to. From the link I’ve provided above, you can also get links to the heads of PTC, Autodesk, and Dassault Systemes to see how those visions compare to the Siemens vision.
In comparison to what the others had to say I found Bernard Charles’s vision to be quite disturbing and even more so to think this is what they are determined to do regardless because they know better or have a universal view/understanding. The whole problem with their big vision is that it pulls in a lot of stuff that isnt part of most peoples mission when they sit at their desks trying to get a surface to do this or that or get the analysis done before 11am. I think DS are going to do a lot of damage to themselves in this pursuit, but far more important, they will do a lot of damage to their customers. I have said elsewhere I think Bernard needs to be given the push before this actually happens. I dont see any sign that there is any critcal examination or testing of these ideas going on within their own organisation or any desire to serve the real needs of their customers in thier ambitions for revenue to grow. So that leaves their customers to rise to the threat and somehow do that themselves, either that or resolutely walk away to find the best alternative.
Hey Bob don’t forget to add Dassault and Autodesk to the list of bad boys. As far as I can see by their actions they are the most egregious offenders of future CAD security and uncontrollable costs. There is only ONE major CAD company out there that plans to put customers first in security and controllable costs and it is Siemens.
I absolutely despise a corporate MBA CPA lawyer greed driven paradigm such as the upcoming ones from Autodesk and Dassault. Where irrefutable proof abounds of increased costs for customers, total destruction of security exists and a whole new layer of IT/infrastructure problems will abound as their reward to their loyal customers.
Read the weasel words in the TOS from these companies to see they will guarantee nothing and accept no blame for anything and as their special bonus to you dear customer, you will have to pay more each month and forever as a data hostage. Nice guys really worried about the success of their customers.
Matt,
What a great 34 minute video/interview…. Boy if you needed a concise explanation of what Siemens versus PTC vision is going forward, this is it. There are so many quotes I would love to repeat here, I’d have to spend the morning doing so.
The stuff about Siemens view of the “cloud” is most assuring. At the 19:00 minute mark, the discussion focuses on what I think everyone want to hear…. SECURITY OF YOUR DATA! And with the new and idiotic Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) Your data is even more at risk then ever because as of March 16th 2013 the US unfortunately changed it’s Patent Laws from First to invent to First to File.
Here’s a quote from a good article on the new law:
Under the old system, if you kept lab notebooks, you could prove you were the first inventor even if you were not the first to file, so you did not necessarily have to be the first to get to the patent office. Now, with a few exceptions, you need to be the first. If two people come up with the same invention, and they often do, it is not going to matter if you can prove you were the first inventor if you were not the first to file.Before the new law, if you filed a patent, someone could have come along and told you he or she had that idea first, and with much documentation and legal wrangling, defeat your right to hold that patent. With the new law, nobody will care who came up with the idea first — only who filed it first. There has been a paradigm shift of the system’s emphasis from the date it was invented to the date its inventor filed an application with the patent office. (It does preclude stolen ideas; it’s been more accurately termed “first-inventor-to-file.”)
Read more here: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ame…cant-ch-22496/
So I was VERY pleased to see Siemens respect IP and more importantly respect the Users to decide how to handle this.
But for those SW users, I’m sure the biggest and most frightening quote was the May 12th presentation when Bernard Charles CEO of PTC stated: see 30:34 mark
“Solidworks is expanding… And as you know we have announced clearly that Solidworks will adopt V6 technology everywhere including 3D modeling. We are going to DROP Parasolid!
I know this is old news, but I do believe Chuck Grindstaff’s comments to this news is what’s so interesting. He does a great job of exposing the risk Dassault is taking, and I can’t help but believe that sticking with SW will be fun in coming years.
The other part I love is Bernard Charles claiming (24:25 mark) that “We’ve entered a new paradigm” then the interviewer goes on to say that Charles believes that Product Development and PLM is now “commoditized” WOW if that’s a fair translation of what Charles said, then the SW User truly needs to think about their CAD supplier who views their work as a “simple” commodity that’s easy to replicate.
Again great morning read… and this interview is all you need to send someone who wants to know what lies ahead for Dassault versus Siemens customers. The difference in the two philosophies is startling.
Bob