What's happening at SolidWorks?
In this blog, Greg Milliken, CEO of Alibre, writes:
Today most of the original SolidWorks team is gone. Their vision, which was laudable, is a thing of the past. A new CEO with marching orders to toe the Dassault line has been installed. Development has moved offshore to India. Dassault now actually refers to SolidWorks as the “Dassault Volume Channel.” This clearly spells out Dassault’s plans for SolidWorks. It’s not the company it used to be.
I'm not sure that development has "moved" offshore. I believe that key development is still in the US.
Yet this is the first mention in writing I've seen of something been an unspoken question among the CAD industry cognoscenti for the last several months: What's happening at SolidWorks?
One guy I know and respect (no, I'm not naming him) said he thought something was different... not right... but he couldn't put his finger on it. This was 3 months ago.
More recently, I've seen little clues that made me wonder... but it wasn't until Greg -- admittedly a competitor to SolidWorks -- said it out-loud that a conversation I'd had maybe 6 months ago finally clicked.
It was a conversation at the last COFES (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software.) I don't remember exactly what was said, but my sense was that someone (who I respected) was making a bigger deal of Dassault's control over SolidWorks than I thought was warranted. From what I'd seen in the past, Dassault had largely left SolidWorks alone -- which let SolidWorks create its own vision.
Yet, what if this has changed? What if SolidWorks has now been "reeled in?"
The people that I know that work at SolidWorks are incredibly talented. Yet, I can say the same thing about people I know who work at other CAD companies. It is the top management of a company that sets the environment that empowers employees to actually do the right things. In the past, John McEleney was very good at isolating SolidWorks from Dassault. Yet, John is gone -- replaced by Jeff Ray. Jeff, though a brilliant guy, comes to the job from the COO position. COO is about operations -- it's not about vision.
If SolidWorks has lost its vision (and its independence), it's not going to bode well for the company, or for its customers.
Evan Yares
in The CAD Industry
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4 Comments
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Reader Comments (4)
Coming from the VAR channel my opinion might be a little sleighted, but the biggest reason that SolidWorks is where it is today is because of their VAR channel. If anyone disagree's, look at where SolidEdge is with concern to customer loyalty/base. Hirschtick did an incredible thing by letting Vic Levanthal (the father of the SW VAR Channel) do his thing. You can still see the benefits of this channel.
So in my mind, as long as Jeff doesn't forget this or doesn't do anything detrimental to the channel, you will still see SolidWorks continute to grow and have success.
I'm also concerned about the new direction of the company and the product. McEleney was a certified SW user, and could go toe to toe with users about nuts and bolts. Jeff Ray is decidedly detached from that sort of involvement. I've seen him nearly implode when talking to end users.
To some extent, Dassault becoming more involved may be a good thing. Dassault holds the access to higher level functionality that could benefit SW directly such as Icem, ImpactXoft and even Seemage.
On the other hand, it doesn't take cognoscenti to notice what has happened with the software in this past release. There is a decidedly different tone about it. SW is following MS into that bog of software becoming a visual toy for retail mass market consumers. SW will follow Autocad onto the shelves of big-box chain stores before you know it.
Regarding the changes in the 2008 interface, I personally like them, a view that has been echoed by other users I've spoken to.
The initial release quality of the 2008 release also seems to be above par.
I for one don't think SolidWorks has hit their peak yet.