SWYM Reseller

[matt]

I had an interesting LinkedIn conversation with someone last week. It's not cool to broadcast private conversations publicly, so I'll just give the gist of things. This person signed up to be a 3dx reseller, or as they said it 3DEXPERIENCE Works. They weren't a SolidWorks user or even an engineer/designer - they were a purchasing type or something like that.

Even though I clearly thought this person was insane, they were very impressed that "It's a whole business solution rather than just a CAD tool... To me 3DEXPERIENCE is a dream come true... really excited about the solution as we have already seen incredible opportunities for business to improve their workflows and processes."

This person also said that there were some people at SW who had been there longer than this person had been alive, so clearly someone who I would say is maybe a little credulous, and possibly not very discriminating when it comes to business. They kept saying "I'm not going to try to change your mind", and "It's not for everyone." So they get that there is going to be some resistance to buying this stuff that they won't be able to overcome, thus, not completely delusional.

They did acknowledge, however "The whole Forum thing is annoying and 3DSwym hasn't been the least bit popular, with Jive being obsoleted they were kind of backed into a corner.. just didn't get it quite right on the replacement."

We were all hoping to find some examples of companies that have bought in to this plan, and here is one. Maybe they didn't buy in in the way we were hoping to see, but they still took the bait. Identities hidden to protect the gullible. But there are a couple of things you can say about this one anyway:

- bought into "the vision"
- young
- interested in the whole company, not just the engineering department

I directed this person to my recent blog post where I rail against the "company store" feeling of CAD as part of a business-wide platform. (https://dezignstuff.com/the-cad-platform-yay-or-nay/). They seemed unfazed. Undoubtedly I came across as a grouchy old man, but I'm not sure the arguments for or against the 3dx are related to age or generation. Well, younger people do seem a little more willing to believe whatever you throw in front of them.

What if it was your job? If you got a job as a technician with a 3dx reseller, could you do it? Or would you be looking for a new job?

[Frederick_Law]

What if it was your job? If you got a job as a technician with a 3dx reseller, could you do it? Or would you be looking for a new job?

What ever pay the bills.
It's easier to sell a dream then any physical product.
At least they can't refund a dream

Have a magical day!

[zwei]

I'm not sure the arguments for or against the 3dx are related to age or generation. Well

Well... I would not say it is related (I considered myself YOUNG but still find the whole 3DX stuff a pain in the *...)

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a collaborative environment that empowers businesses and people to innovate in entirely new ways and create products and services using virtual experiences. It provides a real-time view of business activity and ecosystem, connecting people, ideas, and data.

It just feel that they are trying to "FORCE" people to use all their product and once you get in, you are very unlikely to get out.

I always had the impression that they are trying to bite more than what they can chew...

[KevinC]

I directed this person to my recent blog post where I rail against the "company store" feeling of CAD as part of a business-wide platform. (https://dezignstuff.com/the-cad-platform-yay-or-nay/). They seemed unfazed. Undoubtedly I came across as a grouchy old man, but I'm not sure the arguments for or against the 3dx are related to age or generation. Well, younger people do seem a little more willing to believe whatever you throw in front of them.

What if it was your job? If you got a job as a technician with a 3dx reseller, could you do it? Or would you be looking for a new job?

Roger Miller lyrics? (even I had to look this up) And NT?

References too ancient for Gen Recent with their limited critical thinking abilities.

[MJuric]

Even though I clearly thought this person was insane, they were very impressed that "It's a whole business solution rather than just a CAD tool... To me 3DEXPERIENCE is a dream come true... really excited about the solution as we have already seen incredible opportunities for business to improve their workflows and processes."

This belief comes from the Youtube age of "Well anyone can do that". This is why SW created their own forum platform and why they are attempting to create a social media, ERP, etc etc etc. They are doing it because "Well anyone can do that".

Companies, you know like Face Book, have spent some time creating a social media platform. Companies have been making ERP systems for some time. One would think that these companies are probably better at this kind of thing than SW...who even has a hard time getting their own software to work properly. But again, anyone can do this stuff, right?

This person also said that there were some people at SW who had been there longer than this person had been alive, so clearly someone who I would say is maybe a little credulous, and possibly not very discriminating when it comes to business.

People who have been there longer than this person has been alive have lived long enough to know that everyone cant do everything. This annoys the people who think that anyone can do anything. These people realize that experience, failures and education of all types actually account for something and you can't just learn all of this by watching a Youtube video.

[Frederick_Law]

"There are not enough YouTube videos to fix stupidity."

[MJuric]

"There are not enough YouTube videos to fix stupidity."

Especially since so many Youtube Videos are actually creating a good portion of that stupidity. It's like saying we don't have enough news outlet to keep people informed...well that's because most of the news outlets we have are actually miss informing people.

[SamSpade]

These people realize that experience, failures and education of all types actually account for something and you can't just learn all of this by watching a Youtube video.

Very true, as the saying goes,"You can't buy experience, but it sure costs a lot."

[SPerman]

My guess is that last week this guy was selling used cars, and next week he will be selling solar panels. How does a person with no knowledge of the product or the customer think they can sell that product? My second guess is that his idea of "selling" is spamming users on LI. (If you can't tell, I hate salesmen.)

[DennisD]

My guess is that last week this guy was selling used cars, and next week he will be selling solar panels. How does a person with no knowledge of the product or the customer think they can sell that product? My second guess is that his idea of "selling" is spamming users on LI. (If you can't tell, I hate salesmen.)

I think I just got a call from this person. It was the sixteenth "final notice" that my car warranty was about to expire.

[Frederick_Law]

You won't have this problem if the car dealer use 3DX.

[Glenn Schroeder]

Roger Miller lyrics? (even I had to look this up) And NT?

References too ancient for Gen Recent with their limited critical thinking abilities.

Maybe this song?

[MJuric]

Maybe this song?

I'm only 52 but my brain is littered with lyrics from the 30's thru the 50's. My mothers sisters, she is the third to youngest of 12, used to bring their boyfriends home and have my mother sing songs for them. The end result was that my entire childhood my mother would be singing these same songs and now they are permanently burnt into my brain.

When I first started working in shops occasionally I'd be walking around humming a song and one of the old timers would give me an odd look and ask me how I knew this song or that song.

[mbiasotti]

@matt - Love to read your stuff. You are a talented writer and always bring an interesting and often humorous flair to whatever you type...

[Arthur NY]

Ah what can we say that hasn't already been forced even more so down our throats by 3D Widget CAD!!! It was one thing in 1995 when SW first appeared and it wasn't like it was the greatest things since sliced bread, there were many flaws and short comings, but it felt.....magical. Like when George Costanza said "It's like discovering plutonium all over again by accident!!!". We all saw something then that great to a level of greatness wit many bumps along the way but we were all in this "new" thing together. The BEST group around was the comp.cad.solidworks real designers/engineers helping each other out (at least until Jon Banquer showed up and then it just devolved into Troll City). But even still from 1995 until, I'd say 2010-ish, SW was on a roll but you could sense a slight stank in the air...we didn't know what it was but hardcore users knew there was something in the water that just didn't smell right....we speculated based on a wide range of bits and pieces that we tried to cobble together as best we could to sniff out what was really happening.

Fast Forward to today and this steaming pile of poooooo that is being shoved at us/on us just doesn't have the same look at feel like back in 1995. This 3D Widget World aka we killed the name Solidworks World and didn't really tell anyone. I was there when it was announced and most people didn't really understand that what they had known for a good 20 years was about to be pulled out from under them whether they liked it or not.

This is but just a little trip down memory lane where I've forgotten more about what I knew than what I know now....HA!!! But this "Kid" trying to tell a company what they will or won't need just smells like a disaster that's happened he just doesn't know it....Like Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense!!!

[SamSpade]

I was wondering what does the acronym SWYM stands for?

[AlexLachance]

I was wondering what does the acronym SWYM stands for?

I think it was a slip and Matt meant SWYMp

SWYM stands for "See What You Mean", don't ask me what it's supposed to represent though, I have no idea.

[Frederick_Law]

Or Say What You Mean.
Or $#!+, WTF You're Mean.

[MJuric]

I've forgotten more about what I knew than what I know now.

I was thinking about this the other day. I opened an Excel spreadsheet that I had done in 2006. It had some things in it that I know I did....but I'll be damned if I know how I did them

I wonder exactly how much I've forgotten over the last 30 years.

[Frederick_Law]

I never remember I ever forgot anything

[oldguynewbike]

This is what I like to call "progress for the sake of progress". I always use ye olde website standard of McMaster-Carr as an example. Virtually unchanged for 2 decades because they know who their customers are and will continue to be....people who need to get shite done in an expedient fashion without a bunch of BS, much like all of us OG SW users (well minus you Matt with that crazy shite you have always done....and Stolfus)

[MJuric]

This is what I like to call "progress for the sake of progress". I always use ye olde website standard of McMaster-Carr as an example. Virtually unchanged for 2 decades because they know who their customers are and will continue to be....people who need to get shite done in an expedient fashion without a bunch of BS, much like all of us OG SW users (well minus you Matt with that crazy shite you have always done....and Stolfus)

Great example. McMaster has made several changes over the years but almost every change was focused on providing their customers what they wanted, not adding things that no one will use in order to impress people to try and get them to use their site.

I can't even remember what happened at this point but a couple years ago I noted something about their site that I didn't particularly care for. They called me and asked if I had a few minutes to talk about what I thought they could improve. If I recall it was a pretty short conversation because there wasn't much. One thing I recall was to have a "Non Detailed" STEP model, take out all the threads, hatching, inner workings etc etc. They also asked me about dimensions that should be on their drawings....all of them

[mattpeneguy]

This whole thing reminds me of Carly Fiorina and HP...
I'd guess all the people working for HP were really scratching their head when she discontinued the calculator development and their printer quality control went down the toilet.
I'm guessing the SW people over at DS are experiencing something very similar? Maybe I'll post something about this over there...I'm sure it'll fall on deaf ears, but it does seem strikingly similar...Makes me wonder what move that DS has planned that's the equivalent of HP buying Compaq?

[matt]

Great example. McMaster has made several changes over the years but almost every change was focused on providing their customers what they wanted, ...

When I worked at a certain large corporation, they were making a change to their user forum. They put in charge of the project a marketing bureaucracy person - someone who didn't participate, and didn't know the product or the people involved. This person used for examples other corporate sites that weren't related to the product. They formed a team, of course, mostly populated with their own bureaucratic kind, but with a couple actual customer-related people thrown in because I think they were forced to include us. Of course we usually got outvoted because there were more clueless people on the "team". Plus, we weren't brought in until the day before they flipped the switch. I think there was some fantasy that I was going to validate what they had done. What could I do? 1 against 20, and my first day on the job to boot?

The resulting site was something that was tough to navigate, not thought through logically, wasted a lot of time and space with trendy layouts, and wasted a lot of resources on getting someone else to do the work. It was pretty much what you see in SW's case - a format they didn't control, changes they couldn't make, a lot of head scratching and unnecessary explanations, and of course angry and confused customers.

I don't know what it is about companies over a certain size that lose the ability to make good decisions. I think once you start putting people in charge of projects that don't know anything about the customers, that's where it starts becoming bad news for everyone.

[MJuric]

I don't know what it is about companies over a certain size that lose the ability to make good decisions. I think once you start putting people in charge of projects that don't know anything about the customers, that's where it starts becoming bad news for everyone.

I'm not sure this is a "Size" thing as much as a "culture" thing. I worked at and with a couple companies where it was quite obvious that the people that "Moved up" in the company didn't move up because "They were good at what they did" but because of "who they were buddies with".

Maybe this culture more easily takes place in larger companies because it's easier to get a larger group of "Like minded" people together in a large group than a small group. one company I worked at I'd say 80% of those in managerial positions had no idea what they were doing, either managerially or with the product....but they all were good buds and went out drinking with each other.

As an example I was contracted in there for four years. There was a corner conference room in the same area I worked. It had two "Exposed" walls one of which had a door in it. That single door was moved, physically, from one wall to the other three times in that four year period....but create CAD standards or train people how to actually use GD&T...never going to happen.