CAD Forum

Hello All... so one of the biggest reasons for the overall success, like them or not, was the Value added reseller (VAR)....due to sales team, direct tech support, training, and help with implementation. To be fair this wasn't a new thing, there had been other VAR channels for software before..... maybe it was the combination of CAD being done on Windows, Solidworks' "ease of use"... etc. Back in the'90's and I day up until around 2010 Solidworks was really THE goto CAD software in the mid-range offerings. The others were Inventor and Solidedge. (some could argue Rhino 3D but that's for another topic of discussion.) The ground was already starting to get shaky, in terms of a change happening, it could be "smelled in the wind" if you will. Even when hardcore users started noticing these changes and pointing it out to SW-HQ/DDS employees the answers were "Hey nothing is changing here..." or "Solidworks isn't going away...". Which, for the most part is still al true but if at this point in time you haven't felt the pushing/shoving of 3D Experience down your digital throats then consider yourself fortunate.

But I digress this post is about Monster VAR's (MVAR's) and what this means for users....

I'd say at the height of things there were maybe about 50 VAR's across the US. (I'm just pulling this number out of thins air, but there certainly were a lot of VAR's at one point). With today's acquisition of Go Engineering's buying out CATI which had just not too long ago bought Fisher Unitec and with Tri-Mech acquiring Javelin, this pretty much leaves under 10, I dare say maybe 5, VAR's left. There are some mom & pop VAR's here and there... CAD Dimensions, CimQuest...etc but the MUCH bigger question at hand is end user(s) experience.

Back when I did tech support, even though it was mainly the North East, filled with about 1000 customers being supported in 3D Printing, 3D Scanning, and mainly Solidworks and all related products.... you got pretty familiar with client's, what their general issues were...etc. Even back then there were end SW users that had more experience than the tech support people being hired. (let's face it 5 MAYBE 10 years of tech support and you're either going to get burned out and move on or your being promoted to some other higher areas of training or implementation. And the knowledge continuity each time a knowledgeable tech support person would leave or move up left a huge deficit that took time to backfill. This would also leave end users quite peeved and kind of rightfully so, they're paying the same amount annually yet getting "less" service.

Much of the consolidation of the VAR's was inevitable, but the size, scope, and magnitude I don't think anyone would have imagine happening 25 years ago. From what I know a lot of this got started with Private Equity/Venture Capitalist's getting there $$$ into the mix to help the acquisitions happen. That the overall 70% - 90% retention rate of companies staying on the annual maintenance of Solidworks is just easy $$$ to these companies. Basically with very little overhead needed to cover what the VAR's were already doing meant that this is easier than taking candy from a baby. The $$ just rolls in automatically without very little effort... I mean what company doesn't want to be the "latest and greatest" version of Solidworks. (Though I've seen some people hold out 2 or 3 versions behind just due to their production pipeline or it's just a basic P.I.T.A. to install a new version onto everyone's computer).

Now here are some of the downstream things that I've already started to notice across the board..... tech support has not equaled the new shifts in scope, scale, and magnitude. Sure there is much more of a chance for their to be overlap but does that mean they newly formed company keeps both people or if more then all? What about time zone shifts....? This "might" be a plus because tech support or training can happen outside of just 9am - 5pm. Familiarity, as mentioned previously, some of these VAR's stretch from Maine to Florida, Wash State to Texas... there were times when certain tech support people were assigned to automatically handle certain types of cases or certain client's only but this is somewhat theoretical I don't know. Overall I don't see these MVAR's truly rising to the occasion that warrants the size of territories that they now cover.

Another VERY big change is the tail is now wagging the dog. Any OEM that these MVAR's currently sell/support are in for a pounding..... Stratasys, 3D Systems, Creaform, Artec, Solidworks....etc they could have told and small mom & pop shop what to do, what pricing to keep to hold the line. And not that there weren't times when an OEM would be flexible with what would Ultimately be the end client's needs but they'd only go but so far. Now these MVAR's can basically say "Hey we're going to do X, Y, and Z with the product and if you don't like Mr.OEM then sure go ahead and lose 1/2 the country overnight with no back up VAR's to take our place". Now this is somewhat of an exaggeration but not without some merit to the idea that the OEM's now HAVE to listen to these MVAR's.... they're equals, no longer peons. Of course the VAR's that sold a lot got preferential treatment because the name of the game is sales.

Here is a perfect example......I've seen Solidworks HQ cut off a VAR simply because they started selling Space Claim.... There was no warning, no heads up, no "hey don't sell that competing product".....that won't happen today. That's what I mean by tail wagging the dog. These MVAR's really are "too big to fail" for these OEM's. In the 3D Printing world, you couldn't sell both Stratasys and 3D Systems.... just wasn't going to and still can't happen. Not saying that this is what any MVAR is going to do but if they wanted to, these OEM's have no back up for sales and especially enough internal technicians that can go out and help with repairs the wealth of machines out in the field.

There are many more examples that I could dive into, maybe I'm completely off base here, would love to get some feedback about maybe some of your lived experience with your MVAR. Are there access to new resources that you didn't have before? Are you seeing any additional efforts from the MVAR's to provide you extra support, training...etc? Are you seeing any price increases?

To be brutally honest, the first price increase I see in my support services, I'm gone.

I just filed 2 support requests for my VAR. The first I've filed in a long time for something other than (stupid) activation issues.

Neither was resolved.

One was a video driver issue, that I figured out on my own.

The other was clarification of the API minutiae using VBA.

The var sent me a C# file that allegedly did what I wanted.

Gee, thanks.

I work in a protected enclave. We don't got no C#. I got VBA.

GoEngineer is our VAR. While I don't need tech support often, when I do I've never been disappointed with the speed or quality.

Our long time VAR just announced yet another acquisition/renaming because GoEngineer bought them out. I think this is the 4th or 5th time they've changed hands in the years we've been using SW.

If the people that we've been dealing with stay the same, I'll be happy. But if we get thrown into the cogs of the massive VAR with no access to our responsive and helpful resources we're used to, there will be more incentive for us to do something about it.

This whole topic makes me sure that the product I supported 25 years ago is dead. The first reseller I worked for was kind of an unscrupulous guy with his wife running the accounting. I was his first straight SW focused employee. The office started at 5 and was always less than 10 people. Aside from the owner and main salesman being a little shady, I enjoyed this job. It was low on formalities, and very much a git-er-done kind of atmosphere. If you needed a tech support database, you created it.

I worked for Trimech once upon a time. They had just finished the first level of consolidation (2002). They hired me at about 60% of what I was worth, and I think I intimidated them more than a little. My first employer was overtly unscrupulous, but Trimech would smile at your face and do something else behind your back. Not just to me, but anyone who acted like they were capable of independent thought, including other owners. Trimech proper was one office, and they joined with a couple of other offices. All of the original owners are gone. Now they are half the country or more, and as I understand it run by one of the original SW tech support people.

Look at any new industry, and what happens to it over time. It starts as a thousand points of light. Then it's 100 points of light. Then 10. Then it becomes Amazon (remember Amazon started by selling books). When you consolidate power like that, things inevitably become more corrupt, or at minimum forcibly unfair.

Customers don't like being railroaded into the subscription model? Tough cookies. That is what you are getting. And the bigger the CAD conglomerates get, the harder they're going to force feed it to you. The bigger and more centralized the resellers become, the less they are going to listen to your complaints. They no longer have to. There is no motivation for them to listen to Moe's Machine shop. They might listen to Airbus.

Not to be a retrogrouch, but 1995 - 2010 was the golden era for engineering software. Get used to it, it's over. Now we have platforms that aren't required to play together. Like the rest of the world around us, you have to pick sides, and live or die by that choice. Obviously, I'm not a fan of all the consolidation.

The inevitable march to merge and acquire in the name of increasing profits year to year. Eventually leads to bloat and inefficiencies.

Here in AZ DDi was our VAR forever until Pat decided to retire and sell it, it then went to Dasi and now Go has them.
I did work for DDi as Tech support and trainer for 3 years. only a couple people left from 2004.

I don't know if it's a good thing or bad, but one thing I do know is back in the early 2000's I knew the local support people, I had meet them in person and had direct contact numbers/emails for them. You knew if someone was good and knew the software. Simple questions would require a email and I would get an answer. Now I have to fill out a form just to get back a request to do a SolidworksRX with my issue and send it in, then they get back to me to do this or that. They get back to me pretty quickly, but it takes over an hour of my time just to do all the "paperwork" they want for a simple question. It's just not as efficient as it was back then, that's why it's usually my first choice to post a question here then to submit a support ticket.

I left the VAR in late 2010.
A couple years later they split/sold the offices to two different VARs.
In the last 2 or 3 years, GoEngineer bought out both of those VARs.
It would have been an interesting "reunion" for us to be working under the same umbrella again, but I don't think many of the AE's are left from the original VAR.
Luckily, it seems like most of the teams are retained after the acquisitions, however there is usually some "restructuring" each time it happens.
Personally, I really like GoEngineer, and I know a ton of people that work there.
I don't know that I would be able to work at a VAR again, it seems to have lost the "personal touch" - I really liked actually knowing the customers, their companies, their products, and so on - support calls ended up being a chance to "catch up" on new product releases, kids sports, hot rod restorations, home projects, and so on.