Dr. Peter Collins, CEO, dezineforce
Delaying decisions to explore new technologies during times of economic slowdown can be dangerous, and now is the time to invest in new processes.
A successful business never stands still. Even in times of economic downturn companies need to be prepared to take advantage of the upturn to come, and that means exploring new processes and new ways of doing business using the latest technology. Yet IT budgets are often the first to get slashed when companies start making cutbacks.
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Decisions to update IT infrastructure get delayed and IT projects shelved. For engineering companies, where the quality of the IT tools and systems available has a direct bearing on the design team’s ability to deliver successful and innovative products to market on time and on budget, cutting IT investment can sound the death knell for their ambitions.
When it comes to making decisions in a difficult economic climate about evaluating new processes and new techniques, the overly cautious usually fall into one of two camps. Firstly, there are the companies that are busy and unwilling to invest time in exploring new approaches or new providers.
These buyers will no doubt continue to do deals with existing suppliers, sticking to what they know and updating systems to protect against obsolescence: thereby sidelining innovation and long-term company objectives to focus on the next quarter’s results. While these companies may be busy today, they are unlikely to remain so in the long run.
The second group of naysayers is the companies that aren’t busy at all and are consequently afraid of incurring any extra cost no matter how great the potential reward. The engineering firm that is not very busy has no excuse for not evaluating new approaches.
In fact while they have time they should make it a priority to think about new ways to work and investigate new providers. Those worried about incurring any cost commitments may be pleasantly surprised to find new approaches to software distribution and user adoption, like SaaS (Software as a Service), are more cost-effective than existing design processes.
A Silver Lining
In recent years we have witnessed a sea change in the way companies access software and computing power. With providers like salesforce.com, Google and Oracle leading the way, more and more companies are tapping into web-based applications and SaaS portals, assigning computing tasks to remote locations, collectively known as ‘the cloud’.
There is growing, widespread acceptance of cloud computing and the SaaS business model. Siemens recently signed a SaaS deal that will see an HR product rolled out to 420,000 users in 80 countries and in 20 languages.
While SaaS has proved its suitability in areas like HR and sales, questions have been raised about its potential for adoption in more complex activities such as engineering design.
At dezineforce we have been developing CAE (computer-aided engineering) solutions for more than ten years with a view to becoming the first global player to offer a fully integrated, SaaS-based engineering design search and optimization service.
Backed by world-renowned SaaS expert Dr Steve Garnett, chairman of salesforce.com EMEA, and working with an exceptionally qualified development team, including Professors Simon Cox, Director of the Microsoft Institute for High Performance Computing at the University of Southampton, and Andy Keane, Director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Computational Engineering at the University of Southampton, we offer an easy-to-use, end-to-end design search and optimization service, combining workflow and a rich design visualization tool set along with high-performance computing, which promises to transform the way design engineers work.
The SaaS model lends itself to the project-based nature of much design activity making it possible for a new generation of providers such as dezineforce to make a breakthrough in the design process.
Instant availability means subscribers can immediately focus on designing, rather than wasting time in the definition, procurement and configuration of commodity technology. Inbuilt flexibility enables immediate and essentially infinite availability to grow capacity in response to demand.
No more the dilemma of whether to invest in additional capacity before winning the design contract, or lose delivery time after the win while procuring that capacity.
As we come out of this recession we will face more aggressive competition from companies in countries such as India, Brazil and China.
Companies in these countries are ambitious and confident, and increasing their design capabilities all the time. The new generation of SaaS-based design technologies – search and optimization techniques, high-performance computing and workflows, all delivered over the web – are the cost-effective ways to prepare for the economic upturn and fight off competitors from these emerging economies.
Decision Time
It was Theodore Roosevelt who said: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing is the wrong thing; and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
For those out there shrinking away from making decisions it is time to take into account the value of those decisions. For engineering firms the end goal of any project to evaluate new software or a new approach should be to make the design process more effective and efficient, and to make the business more agile and able to respond to client needs.
There are managers who will only consider new applications and new approaches once new business comes in, but the time to look at new, more efficient ways of working, like dezineforce, is in advance of new contract wins, not after the contract is signed. Improve your processes now, while you have the time to examine a new approach, and you’ll be better prepared when the right project does come up.
In fact new business may be won as a result of a new approach and increased productivity brought about by dezineforce’s unique combination of integrated design-simulate-evaluate processes and execution of these computationally-intensive processes on high-performance compute clusters.
When those wins come through you can access the new capacity and new capability immediately and hit the ground running. For manufacturers this means less time to market; for design houses, greater competitiveness in bidding for design contracts.
Adverse facts should not stand in the way of good business planning and engineering companies can no longer rely on traditional approaches and existing processes.
SaaS is an enabler for companies trying to work their way out of a slump and it is time to investigate new delivery methods and a new generation of providers dedicated to helping companies raise their design capability to an entirely new level.
For more information visit www.dezineforce.com