SolidWorks 2009 Barcelona press event: momentary escape

Ok, so I had to escape from the education presentation. I have a hard time watching people sing in church unless they are very good. I can’t listen to call-in programs on the radio, or watch American Idol. Add listening to educational harrangues to that list. Not sure why, but I just get really fidgetty and want to blurt out something stupid. Ok, so that’s not so much a change from normal. Maybe it was that I really had to go to the bathroom.

So, I have asked this question, and been asked it as well, Why are we here? That is the one question that seems to be on everyone’s mind. One of the presenters seemed to want to answer this, and said that this event is being held in Europe because the Europe, Middle East and Africa geography has produced 42% of sales, while anywhere else was less. And they had to have an event somewhere, so Barcelona was the obvious choice.

That covers the why are we HERE part, but not so much the WHY are we here. SW needs a focal point for this new release. Even though the real news about the software is widely available from bloggers, and has been for months, the message coming from bloggers is not a controlled one. The message that you get here at this press event is clearly one that has been massaged. So that’s a massaged message for anyone keeping score at home.

The first thing I notice about “the message” is that it first tries to address things that I have brought up here by stating them right up front, and trying to say exactly the right things. And then they follow up with the real massage for the press, which contradicts the need for anything said earlier. This two part message is delivered in a tailored fit first for the bloggers with short attention spans, and then for the real press who don’t seem to react until you put up a chart with dollars and financial quarters. We all have our weaknesses.

I vowed not to ask any questions, because this doesn’t seem the setting for facts or details about real users, or more importantly making a statement with a question. Rich Welch asserted that the overall approval rate is 91% and increasing. It might be that 91% of people gave SolidWorks a 50% rating or higher, which could be more easily believed, but he went on to say that support got a mark of over 80%. Again, this is believable if they are measuring the corporate support guys, who really are good, but support for most people means resellers. He says that reseller support approval has improved 15%, but wouldn’t say where it started from other than to say that it was not 0. Which I suppose he meant to be comforting. So he’s a statistics guy. And what he said can be interpreted in many ways, so it really doesn’t amount to useful information.

What am I taking from this? I think they talk a good game, at least Jeff Ray does. Still, I don’t think he’s entirely sincere about it because he is clearly more passionate about the word Profit than the word Stability. He suggested that profit is the main measure. I think changes in  profit numbers lag behind changes in customer issues, so the real measure, the predictive one, is what real customers think. And what people think and what they say to your face when you’re paying for lunch are two different things.

One of the reporters, and I didn’t catch his name, pointed out that this event was really about emotion, rather than customer issues. I thought his question had a good point, and not sure that he really got a decent response. I’ve tried to say the same thing, but less simply, I think. I do believe that this event is to make people feel good and write nice things.