Expert CAD Management The Complete Guide phần 5 pot

Whether you decide to pay for the subscription service is up to you in theory; but in reality, the pricing policy of most software vendors now makes it punitively expensive not to do so,

soft-of purchasing and installing it:

• Existing work tasks should get easier

• Old bugs should be fixed to allow better/faster operation

• New features should allow you to design better/faster

• New methods (like transitioning from 2D to 3D design) should create radicallymore efficient design processes

The interesting point about all these factors is that they will change how yourusers work with their software In essence, the new software you install will force people

to learn new things and will jolt them out of their comfort zone The conclusion I draw

is that managing software is really about managing changes in how you design and usesoftware And managing that change is never easy

Figure 6.1 Change people’s software, and you change how they work.They may not like the change How will you manage the

change process?

and the CAD manager (juggling all the factors) I’ve presented this section on change

first in hopes that you’ll keep it in mind as you read

Understanding Software Licensing

CAD software is expensive, and it plays a key role in how your company functions, so

it makes good business sense to do your homework and squeeze every bit of cost

per-formance you can from your software But before we talk about how to stretch your

software purchasing dollars, you need to understand how software licensing works

In this section, I’ll take you through a comprehensive explanation of softwarelicensing and what it means to your business I’ve found that CAD managers with

years of experience often don’t understand how licensing works and thus don’t know

how to explain it to their management teams Take a while to read this section, and

make sure you understand it before moving on

It’s Not Really Your Software

The perception that you purchase software and elect to upgrade it every so often was

first brought to bear with early PC software titles like dBase, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3

In those days, we did purchase our software with perpetual rights, and upgrades were

offered periodically by the software manufacturers The software manufacturers sold us

software and hoped that we’d upgrade as new features were created and released In the

early years, when new features abounded and bug fixes were fast and furious, upgrading

was a no-brainer

Methods have changed, and now a software purchase isn’t a purchase at all butrather a complex leasing arrangement Read through the licensing terms of almost any

piece of software, and you’ll see that the software remains the property of the software

company; you have merely acquired the right to use it under the software company’s

list of conditions

Note: Installing software is easy Changing how people use software is hard

It’s Really a Lease

Because acquiring a software license doesn’t give you ownership of any tangible asset,you’re leasing (a glorified word for renting) the software To drive home the point ofhow software licensing is like a lease from a financial standpoint, let’s consider anexample of leasing a car and compare it to a CAD software license You may be sur-prised to learn that the software you thought you owned is really yours to use under

a highly restrictive lease

A Leasing Analogy

When you lease a car, the following lease components are almost always present:

• A lease inception fee (down payment) is collected that is usually equal to aboutone year of lease payments

• A payment schedule is agreed to (typically monthly) for a set duration of thelease term (usually several years at minimum)

• A maximum usage rate is agreed to (a certain number of total miles on the car)over the life of the lease

• A buyout price is agreed to so that at the termination of the lease, you may elect

to purchase the car for the buyout price if you choose

Worth noting is that almost all car leases give you the power of ownership at theend of the lease so that you can choose to purchase the car, trade it as collateral foranother car, or turn the car back in lieu of paying the buyout price In all cases, the

Figure 6.2 You can usually find the

terms of your end user softwareagreement (EULA) under the Help >

About menu of most CAD tions.The EULA spells out what youcan and can’t do with your software

option of how to transfer ownership of the car at the end of the lease is up to you, the

lessee During the span of the lease, how you use the car is up to you as long as you

meet the financial terms at the end of the lease The car company won’t tell you how to

drive the car, who you can drive in the car, or where you can take the car In general, a

car lease is a financial agreement that serves the interests of both parties and protects

the rights of both parties

Now, let’s contrast a software license to the car lease example to see just howrestrictive the software license is

How Software Compares

A software license begins with a lump-sum fee like the car lease, although software

inception fees are usually equal to about five years of lease payments (called

subscrip-tion or support in the software business) rather than a single year of payments as is

customary with a car Whether you decide to pay for the subscription service is up to

you in theory; but in reality, the pricing policy of most software vendors now makes it

punitively expensive not to do so, because the software company can make your license

non-upgradeable at any time they choose For example, Autodesk’s present policy states

that software older than three releases is considered old enough to be non-upgradeable

unless you pay a renewal fee that is much higher than paying the software subscription

in the first place So, although software subscriptions in the CAD business are said to

be optional, the financial reality is that they aren’t, unless you want to risk letting your

software licenses lapse

Software licenses are said to be perpetual in that as long as you pay the

subscrip-tion fee to keep your license current, you can retain the software forever However,

close examination of the software license agreement shows that the software company

is under no requirement to keep the software in production or even to deliver timely

updates in exchange for the subscription fees you pay There is no “end of lease,” so

there is no buyout option

Licensing Limitations

As you examine the software license agreement for your CAD software, you’ll likely

find a number of other usage restrictions To make sure you don’t inadvertently violate

your license agreement, I highly encourage you to read your EULA I’ll highlight some

items you should evaluate carefully:

Geographic usage restrictions Think you can use your U.S./Canadian software in another

country? You may not be able to Because software companies don’t want their software

taken to countries where it can be pirated without any chance of prosecution, their

license agreements often preclude you from using their software in other countries We

have non-enforcement of patent and intellectual property rights in the Far East,

specifi-cally China, to thank for these sorts of restrictions

Software audits Your license may grant the software company certain rights to audit

your compliance with their usage terms by specifying the ability to search companyproperty or by making you subject to the site visit and license auditing terms of theBusiness Software Alliance (BSA), which many CAD software developers are members

of (along with Adobe, Intuit, and Microsoft)

Transfer of license Think you’ll be able to move a software license to a sister company

or subsidiary in case bankruptcy or corporate reorganization requires it? Your softwarelicense may preclude such transfers and almost always requires written permission fromthe software vendor

Resale of license Think you can put an old copy of AutoCAD on eBay and sell it? Every

EULA I’ve seen specifically precludes resale of your software license Remember, you don’town your software; you’re just leasing the right to use it And because leasing terms areset by the software company, they can preclude you from selling your license

When you finish reading your software EULA terms and think about the stream

of money your company pays to retain a software license, you have to conclude thatsoftware licenses are extremely restrictive rental agreements with few protections foryou, the customer

Purchasing Software

What the lawyers take away from us in the form of restrictive software licensing ments, technology can partially restore via licensing technology With reliable networks,Internet purchase validation, and remote activation technology, you can make a smallernumber of software licenses serve more people and thus keep costs down It’s impor-tant to note that each software vendor has their own preferred licensing schemas andenforcement mechanisms, so you’ll need to do your homework for each software ven-dor you purchase from

docu-The key vocabulary words to examine in licensing schemas vary from turer to manufacturer but can generally be described as follows:

manufac-Standalone, activated license A standalone, activated license is a licensing schema for

a single copy of software that is restricted to use on one computer After installation,the software is activated, typically via the Internet, and the software’s serial number isassociated to machine biometrics like the operating system serial number or even thehard drive’s formatted volume serial number, which is then tracked

The activated license schema, currently utilized by manufacturers like Adobe,Autodesk, Intuit, Microsoft, and Symantec, has made it impossible for the CAD man-ager to install a single copy of software on multiple machines, because the activationtechnology allows only a metered number of activations to be performed There wassubstantial resistance to activated license schemas when Intuit and Microsoft startedthe trend, but activation technology is now standard throughout the industry

Figure 6.3 Simple networks like the one shown here can use standalone, multi-seat, or even network licensing mechanisms

with equal ease Cost and ease of administration are the deciding factors

Multi-seat standalone A multi-seat standalone license is a licensing schema for a single

serial number of software that can be used on multiple machines as dictated by the

number of licenses purchased After installation, the software is activated, typically via

the Internet, and the software’s number of available licenses is lowered by one

Autodesk, the maker of AutoCAD, introduced this hybrid combination of a singleserial number with multiple product activation keys, and the practice is now becoming

more common for companies that use large numbers of CAD licenses With a

multi-seat standalone license, the CAD manager can install the same software serial number

via a network and activate it on any number of machines without messing with

net-work license manager utilities

Named user network This installation method uses network-based tracking

compo-nents that require a copy of software to be purchased for every user on the network

Each user who ever logs in to the software is a billable seat of software.

Note: Named user licensing isn’t as common in the PC CAD world but is common for Product Lifecycle agement (PLM) and Engineering Data Management (EDM) software tools.This is the least cost-effective way todeploy software because it has all the costs of standalone with all the hassles of network licensing utilities

Man-Note: For CAD managers with many full-time CAD users, this method gets you back to the good old days

of easily installing a single software package over multiple machines

Network Server CAD Workstation

CAD Workstation

CAD Workstation

CAD Workstation

Concurrent/floating local network This type of network-aware installation tracks the

number of users simultaneously logged in to the system The global number of users

of the software is irrelevant; only the maximum number logged in at any given time isbillable This is the most cost-effective mode of licensing for most corporate users

Concurrent/floating WAN network This approach is essentially the same as the local

network option but is enabled to work across wide area networks (WANs) so thatlicenses can be shared by offices in different buildings, cities, or even countries in somecases Most software products that support WAN network deployment require licens-ing software to be installed on multiple servers and, as such, are more IT intensive thanother licensing options If the economy of sharing licenses between multiple locationsbalances the IT overhead, this licensing option can be a great alternative

License borrowing An increasingly common adjunct to concurrent network schemas, a

license-borrowing utility allows you to take a shared license out of the concurrent pooland place it onto a single workstation or mobile computer for dedicated use Autodesknetwork licenses, which use Flexible License Management (FLEXlm) technology fromMacrovision, offer license borrowing

Figure 6.4 WANs can

take advantage of widearea network licensingand can enable laptop

or relocating users vialicense-borrowing techniques

Note: Not all software products support this type of architecture, and several CAD products I’ve receivedspecifically prohibit such license sharing Read the fine print on the EULA of any software you plan to purchase

Note: For CAD managers with many casual CAD users, the concurrent network licensing schema offersreal cost benefits, because licenses can be shared Although some network overhead is introduced, the costbenefits typically outweigh the hassle

Informing Management

Now that you have a working knowledge of how software licensing works and how to

get the most for your licensing dollar, be sure to discuss these issues with your

manage-ment team It’s been my experience that senior managemanage-ment teams are unaware of how

little control they have over corporate software licensing terms and costs None of us,

CAD managers included, can continue to be ignorant of software licensing issues

I believe CAD managers will have to become much more aware of softwarepricing policies and EULA terms in order to keep management aware of the true cost

of software leasing and to ensure that usage terms aren’t violated Be prepared to

jus-tify software purchases and upgrades not only on features and ease-of-use metrics but

also in terms of restrictive licensing and financial conditions

Performing Upgrades

In my early days as a CAD manager, I remember the Christmas-morning feel of getting

the latest AutoCAD release and seeing how fast I could get it installed Rapid

upgrad-ing was justified in the old days when CAD programs experienced massively upgraded

feature sets on a 12- to 24-month basis These days, the metrics of upgrading are more

complex, and the enhancements to the software are much more subtle Consequently,

the most common question I’m asked when a major software package comes out is,

“Should I upgrade to this version?”

I can’t answer the upgrade question with a simple yes or no, but I can give you abenchmark by which you can make smart decisions on your own What’s required is

a methodology you can use to analyze the upgrade process to make a business decision

about when to upgrade Everything I’ll discuss is applicable for AutoCAD, MicroStation,

SolidWorks, or any other software package you care to analyze

Understanding the True Cost

The root of any upgrade decision should be an analysis of the relative costs and

ben-efits involved As a CAD manager, I find it easy to get caught up in the coolness of a

new release, but I’ve learned to force myself to be more business focused about the

upgrade decision I’ve also learned that what I think of as upgrade costs and what

upper management thinks can be two very different things For the sake of making sure

you’re on the same page with management, I’d like to run through a listing of the costs

associated with a typical upgrade and give you some brief background on each:

Software cost This cost can be either an annualized subscription or a one-time upgrade

fee Either way, you need to account for the actual cost of procuring the upgraded

software

CAD management and IT This is the amount of time you and your information

tech-nology (IT) department will spend investigating, implementing, and supporting the

User training expenses Expenses here include books, tuition, in-house training sessions

you have to create, and so on This is an easy cost to miss, and it can really add up ifyou’re training a lot of people!

Loss of user productivity This cost is something management cares a lot about You

need to be as honest as you can in tallying lost work time for each user as they trainand ramp up to speed with the new software Remember that users may not come to ahalt while learning new software, but they will be less productive until they acclimate,and management will notice this lost productivity Again, convert the loss of productivetime to dollars by using the employees’ hourly rate

Support expenses Will you need help from an external consultant or reseller? Will

you have to spend a lot of otherwise billable time supporting users during the upgradeprocess? Will you need to spend time implementing new standards necessitated by thenew software? If you answer yes to these questions, then you have to account for theexpenditure Be honest when tabulating these costs, and don’t scrimp: Few thingsdoom an upgrade more than insufficient user support during rollout

Computing the Benefits

Once you’ve tabulated the costs associated with an upgrade, you can proceed to theidentification of benefits and decide if the expenses of upgrading can be justified.Historically, these are the major areas of benefit offered by upgraded CAD systems:

Increased productivity Does the upgraded software offer new benefits that your

com-pany/users can leverage to save time on a daily basis? Will you be able to get morework done with the same staff using the new software? If so, how many hours permonth would you estimate that you can save or gain? Convert the time savings to adollar basis by multiplying saved hours per year by the users’ hourly labor rate

Bug/error reduction Did any problems and/or bugs with the last software version

cause your company heartburn? If so, have these problems been fixed in the latest version? Try to estimate the annual savings as outlined previously

Compatibility with collaborative partners If you work with outside vendors, customers,

and so on, will the new software version help you do so? If so, try to estimate the ings you could achieve on an annual basis You’ll have to use a gut-feel approach inthis area, but it’s better to make an educated estimate than to have no idea when man-agement asks about your assumptions

sav-Note: For a detailed look at costs and ROI methodologies, see “Using ROI Metrics” in Chapter 7

Making the Decision

You should now have a detailed list of costs and benefits that can be weighed against

each other to justify (or not justify) upgrading your CAD software By focusing on the

metrics of cost and benefit, you avoid the “new software is cool” trap and focus on

what management cares about—return on investment (ROI) For example, suppose

your savings are computed for a full year, and the costs you’ll absorb to upgrade will

also be realized in the first year You’ll be able to compute an ROI value for the first

year of the new software’s lifespan

Figure 6.5 There’s no shortcut to pursuing upgrades.You need to spend time with the software, list your findings, and

crunch the numbers to make a good decision

The basic rule of determining ROI is to divide savings by cost and multiply by

100 to achieve an ROI percentage value The ROI value for software upgrades

typi-cally has to come in at 66 percent so that the cost savings you generate cover the cost

of the software upgrade in the first 18 months of use (which is, not coincidentally,

gen-erally the upgrade period observed in industry) ROI values lower than 66 percent are

typically rejected, and you’ll need to wait until the next upgrade cycle to analyze the

problem again It isn’t easy to achieve a 66 percent ROI with a CAD upgrade, by the

way, which explains why there are so many old CAD licenses floating around! You

have to understand management’s mindset that a CAD program typically has only a

1- to 2-year lifespan and thus must be able to pay for itself quickly

It’s now your duty to present your ROI findings, good or bad, to senior ment and obtain their approval before proceeding with your upgrade plans By present-

manage-ing an ROI analysis, you give full disclosure to management and insulate yourself from

Schedule crunches Is the biggest project of the year scheduled for completion during

the week of your CAD upgrade? Have you scheduled your upgrade implementationwithout checking for major scheduling conflicts? If you answer yes to either of thesequestions, you’re inviting disaster Be willing to postpone your upgrade to accommo-date work schedules: I guarantee that will be your management’s priority

Staff willingness No matter how strong the case is for upgrading, you’re in for rough

sledding if your CAD user base isn’t willing to come along Make sure you cate what will be updated, when, and what sort of training and support resourcesyou’ll have available to ease the transition Your goal is to make people confident thatthe upgrade will go smoothly and won’t negatively impact their personal workload

communi-Lack of support resources Does management expect you to install some software and

then walk away while everyone magically assimilates the new release? Does ment expect you to be 100 percent billable the week after a major upgrade? If so,you’re heading for trouble If you’ve followed my advice and budgeted for proper sup-port, management should see what an important component of the upgrade process it

manage-is If management persists in believing that you can upgrade without providing support,

I suggest you postpone the upgrade until you can make them see otherwise

Lack of budget Does management want you to proceed with an upgrade without

investing in the process? If so, you’re again heading for trouble Software won’t installitself, and it’s important that you have the right resources so users can be productive.Stick to your guns, postpone the upgrade if you must, but don’t upgrade unless thebudget/resources are there for you to be successful

Lack of training After buying software, ensuring support, and gaining management

approval for upgrades, are you being pressured to cut out or cut short user training?

If so, you need to go on red-alert status Nothing will reduce user productivity morethan turning untrained users loose on new software without training Cutting trainingdoesn’t save money: It costs money, because the errors and support problems stack up

If training becomes a cost-cutting issue in your upgrade process, take the time to makemanagement understand what’s at stake, and don’t proceed until they do

Training Notes

When you’re upgrading existing software, you may encounter the belief that training

isn’t necessary because “we’re only talking about an upgrade.” I understand how

non-CAD users who breeze though a Microsoft Word or Excel upgrade can think this, so I

want to spend a moment clarifying my approach to training for upgraded CAD

soft-ware versions

When I made the case for an upgrade, I said that there had to be enough ments, changes, and new features to make the software pay for itself in a short period

enhance-of time This statement points out three brutal truths:

• An upgrade that is worth doing will change how people work

• An upgrade that changes how people work will likely change standards

• An upgrade that is worth doing has to be done fast

The only way I know to get people to change how they do their job in a shortperiod of time is to provide intensely focused, fast-paced training To not do so extends

the period of time the users will flounder and enhances the possibility that users won’t

use the time-saving new features you’ve found In cases where standards need to be

modified to reflect new work methods, you can effect the change more easily by

including it in your training

Training = Productivity Training = Standards Compliance Period

Closing Thoughts

I’ve used the techniques presented in this section to guide me through upgrade

scenar-ios since my first CAD management job in 1989, and they haven’t failed me yet If you

analyze a CAD upgrade based on what it can do for your company and keep the costs

down enough to yield a good ROI value, you’ll be well served when you upgrade If

you do upgrade, take care to avoid the upgrade barriers I’ve outlined and focus on the

economic benefits (via ROI methods), and your upgrade process should be both

prof-itable and smooth

As you quantify the costs, benefits, and barriers of a CAD upgrade, you’ll findthat you’ll adopt a managerial mindset that can advance your career more than you

ever expected

Note: For much more information on training, see Chapter 5

Easing the Transition

So far, everything I’ve covered talks about planning for software implementation; but whenthe time comes, you’ll need all the help you can get juggling technical issues and user ques-tions During implementation, it sometimes seems like life becomes a blur of repeatingquestions and frustrated users When faced with this scenario, it becomes imperative thatyou have a way to get information to your users and that you remain focused

Here are a few ideas you can use to stay sane, distribute help, and get resultswith minimum hassle:

Train continuously Even after formal training is completed, you’re still training users

every time you answer a question or walk them through a process Remember thatyou’re in training mode, and try to bring a training mindset to the process, and you’llinfuse your users with knowledge with every word When you focus on staying intraining mode, you’ll slow down, speak more clearly, and lower the user’s stress level—all of which allow the user to succeed faster, which is the desired outcome

Use e-mail blasts Put all your CAD users on an e-mail distribution list, and send out

periodic news alerts as needed to stave off time-sapping questions By sending out sages with common help topics in the subject line like, “How to select the right plot-ter” or “How to disable Active Assistance,” you can answer repetitive questions oncefor all users Of course, users need to check their e-mail for this scenario to work!

mes-Use an intranet Rather than sending e-mails periodically, you may want to implement

a browser-based intranet within your company to build a database of information forusers Put whatever the hot item of the day is at the top of the intranet page so usersknow what’s new Feel intimidated by setting up an intranet? It isn’t that hard to do ifyou pick up a web publishing software utility like Microsoft FrontPage to help youmanage the pages and layout Talk to someone in your IT department, or find a friendwho’s set up a web page before, and you’ll be off and running

Create quick-and-dirty documentation As you investigate user questions and problem

reports, document your work by pasting the command window dialog boxes andgraphic screens from your CAD application into a Word document for later trainingusage You can obtain graphic screens easily by using the Alt+PrtSc (or Alt+PrintScreen) key combination to capture a screen and then paste it into a Microsoft Worddocument using the normal paste function Once you’ve captured the screens, add textinstructions between them to complete the document This type of documentation maynot be the most highly polished or professional output, but it does the job nicely withminimal work on your part

Note: Quick-and-dirty documentation can be cleaned up later to form the basis for training guides Formore information, see Chapter 5

Debrief users You can make use of lunch breaks or quick CAD debrief meetings to

gather user input, answer common questions, and plan for the following day These

quick sessions (no more than 15 minutes) should expose common questions and trends

that could become large if not detected These sessions not only help you identify action

items but also give all users a sense that they aren’t alone in their quest to update their

CAD skills

Debrief power users frequently You may think that power users don’t need much

sup-port during new software implementation, but the reality is that they’re probably

frus-trated as well Power users have the characteristic of finding answers for themselves,

which they’ll usually be happy to share Talk to your power users more, and you’ll find

problems and solutions quickly

Communicate with management As you perform all these tasks, continue to show

management what you’re doing and why Remember that confronting problems with

proper management techniques is always better than trying to sweep problems under

the rug You should find that you’ll head off surprises and build a better reputation by

communicating openly with management, even if you have to communicate some bad

news along the way

Juggling It All

I’m confident that if you use some of the tips I’ve outlined here, you’ll find

implement-ing software easier to manage Please notice that the real trick to managimplement-ing the

imple-mentation of new software is much more about communication and personal

interaction than technology!

I stress the communicative aspects of the process because of the concept of aging change that I set forth at the beginning of the chapter Remember that changing

man-behaviors requires time, training, patience, and communication if you hope to achieve

good results After all the planning, purchasing, and installation of any new software is

complete, your ability to manage the user’s transition to the new software is where

you’ll succeed or fail

Analyzing 3D Migration

I’m frequently asked how many companies are using 3D CAD software as opposed to

2D Frequently, the person who asks the question comes from a company that is using

principally 2D CAD and feels like everyone else in the world is using 3D Before I

jump into how to move from 2D to 3D, it’s worthwhile to at least mention the market

demographics

I base my conclusions on six years of CAD manager surveys I’ve conducted and

published in my “CAD Manager” column in Cadalyst magazine, the most recent of

• Those using mainly 3D: 10%

• Those using some 3D with mainly 2D: 13%

• Those using mainly 2D but testing 3D: 26%

• Those using 2D exclusively: 51%

The conclusion I draw is that 77 percent of companies are using a principally 2Ddesign methodology It’s clear to me that we need to address a variety of topics on how

to go from 2D to 3D and justify the process In this section, I’ll build on some of thetopics I’ve already covered by outlining 3D-specific issues that any company consider-ing 3D can utilize

Handling Objections

I get asked this question a lot: “If 3D software is so great, why isn’t everybody alreadyusing it?” The reasons are many, but the basic objections to moving to 3D can be sum-marized in a few distinct categories As I present each category, I’ll give you some back-ground on the objection

I encourage you to read this section closely because knowing your company’sobjections to 3D has everything to do with your eventual success in implementing 3D.Simply put: Know what people’s objections are, and then move to eliminate or mini-mize the objections, and the process gets easier

2D Works

This is the initial bias you may face when you advocate going to 3D design methods,and you need to take it seriously Projects like the Great Pyramids, Rome, the dikes ofHolland, and the early space programs illustrate what can be done with paper-based2D design methods Although the 2D tool of choice is no longer the pencil but CADsoftware like AutoCAD or MicroStation (to name the two most common options), theend result—a 2D drawing—is still the same

Upper-level engineering management learned on 2D CAD or drafting boards, sothey have a comfort with 2D that is hard to challenge The point is that upper manage-ment has seen 2D CAD work for years, and they’ve grown comfortable with its use(even if they were adamantly against it years ago) You can mention that 2D took years

to prove itself and justify the costs of hardware, software, training and implementation,

so why should 3D be any different? Sometimes just mentioning this makes peopleremember that 2D CAD didn’t just happen: It took some planning as well