Evan on Engineering Software

Don't play the video below before you've read the text.

Deke Smith is the executive director of the buildingSMART Alliance, an  outgrowth of the  NIBS (National Institute of Building Sciences) National Building Information Modeling Standard initiative.

Yesterday, on the buildingSMART listserv,  Judd Peterson (an architect now working in the facilities management software business) pointed out an article from Engineering News Record: Lack of Interoperability Is Biggest of Many Gripes

Deke wrote back today, saying:

I did find this interesting and actually, I think it should be very helpful to our cause. It clearly identifies that we have a problem in the industry.  In fact, we believe it to be a $300B problem.

We also have a plan on how to fix it! Hopefully this will help gather the resources we need to change things. We have done VERY well to this point with virtually no resources. I would hope that no one really expects us solve a $300B problem with $300k!

Certainly an incredible ROI, but not very realistic...

Stop and think for a moment:  Interoperability, just in the building sector, is estimated to be a $300 Billion problem?  That's such an astronomical number that it's not even worth arguing about.  Who cares if it's high by even $100 billion dollars?  It's the kind of problem that demands attention.

Over time, I've thought about this problem a lot... And I think I know who could actually solve it.

Consider this potential scenario:

It's April 2009, at the Congress On the Future of Engineering Software, in Scottsdale Arizona.  At an executive conference room, away from the crowd, a handful of powerful industry executives are gathering.  Carl Bass, from Autodesk.  Bernard Charles, from Dassault.  Greg Bentley, from Bentley Systems.  Tony Affuso, from Siemens PLM.  Dick Harrison, from PTC.  Halsey Wise, from Intergraph.  Georg Nemetschek, from Nemetschek AG.  Richard Longdon, from Aveva. Shantanu Narayen, from Adobe. Sam Palmisano, from IBM.  Larry Ellison, from Oracle.  Henning Kagermann, from SAP.  Steve Ballmer, from Microsoft.

As each of the executives tries to find a seat where they're not sitting next to someone they don't like, Al Gore wanders in. 

All of a sudden, there's silence, as everyone realizes who it is.  Gore smiles, and says "Don't mind me.  I just came because I was curious who managed to convince you all to sit down in the same room together.  Maybe I could get them to help me with the global warming issue."

After a few chuckles, everyone manages to find a seat.  It's strangely quiet, considering the egos in the room.

Almost as if on cue, Dr. Joel Orr, the gentleman visionary of the CAD industry, walks in, pulling the door closed behind him.  Looking relaxed, and wearing a festive shirt, he smiles genuinely, and starts to addresses the group.

"Ever since the second computer program was written, there has been an interoperability problem.  Great minds have tried to solve the problem, but to no avail," Orr says.  "The only true solution is for software vendors to openly document the structure, syntax, and semantics of the APIs and file formats used by their products.  Yet, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars in costs to your customers every year, and despite some of you facing FTC and EC investigations and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines..."

Orr is suddently interrupted.  From the back of the room. Ellison shouts out "Hey, Ballmer, better you than me!"

"Play nice, Larry," cautions Joel, ever the diplomat. "Everyone here has some blame in this."

Orr continues. "It took tremendous work to get all of you here today.  But, it will be worth it.  We have found the one person we believe is capable of convincing each of you that it is in your best interests to fully embrace open interoperability. This person will be facilitating this meeting."

There is confusion in the room, with everyone looking around, trying to figure out who the facilitator is.  Gore sits in the back of the room, trying to keep a straight face, as if he knows something no one else does.

Walking towards the door, Orr continues speaking. "I'll be leaving now, so you can get started.  I'm quite confident that, within the hour, you will have a definitive agreement on interoperability, and the problem will be solved, for good."

Pausing just for a moment, and taking in the incredulous faces around the room, Orr opens the door, and says "I take great pleasure in introducing your facilitator...  Please welcome the man who will solve the interoperability problem...

(Play the video now.)