Selling CAD instead of Productivity

I personally would love it if SolidWorks Corporation gave up selling CAD. CAD itself is of no use to me. CAD is not what makes me money in my business. Selling CAD is a short-sighted endeavor. It is obvious that especially with this latest version getting ready to come out, SolidWorks is focused on what seems to be mass market consumer product, very concerned with the software’s visual appeal. Does this mean that they have lost touch with their core constituency, who are mainly mechanical engineers, and generally critical of unnecessary fluff? Those fading menus in 08? They cost me 2 seconds each time one comes up, and they come up frequently.

Instead, I wish SolidWorks were in the business of selling Productivity. That is something I can use. That is something I wish I had bought, and would have paid more money for than the simple CAD package I bought.

What’s the difference between CAD and Productivity? CAD is just a tool. In the same way that a hammer sitting on a bench isn’t putting a new roof on your house, CAD itself is just a static tool. Productivity is the combination of a tool and the ability to use it. It’s like a two part epoxy – either part on its own is just a sticky mess that you can’t do anything with, but put them together, and you’ve got something of value. If I buy a CAD product and have no idea how to use it, the software itself has no value to me. Ironically, the value is created by the customer, not the vendor, when the customer learns how to use the tool. So often, the customer has to pay extra for training on the tool. It is only when the abilities confered by the training are combined with the software that you have something of value – productivity.

Everyone learns differently. Some people need personal instruction to learn. That requires a lot of resources, compared to documentation, so it costs extra. There’s nothing wrong with that. People provide a service for a fee. The problem is that there is no alternative with SolidWorks. The only alternative to the incomplete Help documentation is the expensive (and also incomplete) personal instruction. The resellers also have a monopoly on this instruction, so the training costs become outlandish. You cannot learn the software completely from any documentation that exists. You pay extra for tech support, and your reseller tells you that your tech support question on the poorly documented software is beyond the scope of tech support and you should pay for training?!? Information not offered directly from SolidWorks is being held hostage by the reseller channel.

Third party materials are cheaper than the reseller training, but often lacking in completeness, detail or real authority on a subject.

Selling productivity would mean that SW comes with a complete set of documentation. I don’t care at this point if it is printed or electronic, I just want the information in whatever format I can get it. Holding back information – essentially holding information hostage – in practical terms means that SW users everywhere are frustrated with the tool because they don’t know that the power to do ______ already lies within the grasp of their mouse. There should be no “hidden functionality”. This is not some video game where a sense of wonder at finding a secret room is reward enough, we are talking about people’s livelihoods here. Full disclosure. I bought something. What is it that I bought? Oh, I have to figure it out for myself what I bought? I have to in essence reverse engineer the software to figure out how to work with it?

Paying customers are entitled to full documentation.