Over the next few weeks I’ll be blogging about my observations on how the Cloud is going to steamroll the CAD and GIS verticals and making beer-bet predictions to keep it interesting.
Just got back from the 2010 Game Developers Conference in fabulous San Francisco where we successfully launched and demoed our Project Immersion technology (I’ll write more about that next week). Here is my entry on what SaaS for CAD really does for everyone and of course why Aftercad makes the difference. In my previous post I talked about what I consider to be the first wave of CAD in the Cloud value – PC-Over-IP. I think that is going to be a great first step for CAD design teams and a much clearer ROI for some team configurations. I’ll outline here some of the great ROI and opportunities CAD & SaaS offer together.
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Ok before we get to far lets agree on some definitions about what SaaS is about and isn’t.
(1) SaaS is about the Web Browser
SaaS was created for the web browser as a way to create an open, proprietary technology free environment where applications and useful tools could be created and delivered to anyone everywhere – and no trickery or app installs behind the scenes is going to cut it. Web 2.0 was born when we shrugged off the proprietary shackles and the HTML/AJAX/FLEX environment turned out to be as rich if not richer for application delivery. I know some purists don’t consider Flash/Flex true Web 2.0 or SaaS but for the sake of progress, that one technology gets in under the wire. If this makes other vendors bristle then all I can say is that you shouldn’t have been such visionless sticks-in-the-mud during the 90’s and now you have to suck it. Every 3 or 4 months some vendor tries to hijack SaaS or slip some propriety garbage in and call it SaaS (you know who you are) but it either works in just a web browser or call it what it is, a proprietary application download, fraught will all of the lovely support issues that brings – and hey, Mac guys carry knives these days. Google Maps doesn’t ask you to download some crap to install on your computer, neither does Salesforce, Hotmail, Gmail, Google Docs, Expedia, Travelocity, Flickr, your online bank service or any of the other SaaS offerings we use everyday. When HTML5 comes, it will be like the cleansing flood to rid the web of all proprietary technologies.
(2) SaaS is about Collaboration
Because the Web Browser is ubiquitous, SaaS is super convenient and it means you can access and share your online goodies from anywhere, anytime when you choose to do so. We started using Google Docs at Aftercad two years ago, mandated by my pudgy iron fist. I’ll say this – we’ll never go back to Office! Trust me, the first time you get to work on a doc or spreadsheet as a team without email attachment Armageddon or just plain old grab a document you desperately need on the road – you will see the light and be healed my friends. By choosing the browser as the client side interface, that also means everyone gets to participate in the CAD project regardless of operating system, skill level, age, geography, politics or ridiculous subscription package. It also means people have a level playing field for sharing ideas, content and opinions. Here lies the real gem that unfortunately keeps getting stepped over for more tawdry gains – collaboration. The trick is that SaaS is delivered from a server side environment and when you have a common point of central delivery, you also have the ability to share tasks and work by using common files. Collaboration is a great time saver and makes document communication much, much more efficient.
(3) SaaS is about Integration
Without doubt, one of the greatest things enabled by Web 2.0 and SaaS is the concept of the mashup. Way back when, if a company wanted to integrate their data with a vendor package to produce content for the web it was practically a board level decision every time requiring IT budget, project planning and large jars of Tums. Now that integration has been liberated by the forces of light and XML, we can easily merge, mashup and present all kinds of data views to the web client often dynamically and even interactively! Expect CAD to go the same way. If you look at the thousands and thousands of Google Map mashups out there or the plethora of Salesforce Apps available, vendors are beginning to understand “its not all about you, its about the data”. Expect AEC & BIM data to act as a visual scaffold for all kinds of operations, insurance and planning SaaS applications. Expect Product and Part data to go down the path of “smart products” where users can see full 3D CAD info merged with usage, maintenance and disposal data right in the browser. By delivering your solution as SaaS, you are enabling further knock on savings to your client, often for things they haven’t even thought of yet.
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Some SaaS party spoilers we hear about in the blogosphere;
(a) Where’s my Data!
Unfortunately, just as in life, is CAD. Its much easier to be ignorant than enlightened therefore I summon a neglected quote from Mr T. for those who would rally at the gates asking the obvious - “Where is your brain foo!” I’m sorry to disappoint conspiracy theorists that the cloud is a place where the Democrats and Eric Schmidt stay up late at night reading your gmail and sending your hard begot CAD drawings to China to offset the debt. Give your tin foil hat a twist and get over yourself, your stuff isn’t that important and if the terrorists really wanted it they already have it. Like most things in our free society, you have all the choice of where your CAD data is accessed and stored by the cloud. Really the answer to this is “Where do you want to store it” and it boils down to pretty much three options depending on your security needs and budget: In the cloud, in your server or somewhere you rent in the middle. Before you ask “what if they lose my data” – backing up and archiving things is YOUR responsibility and always will be.
(b) What if it goes down and I can’t access my CAD Files?
Shrug, crack a beer or go outside and remind yourself what trees look like. These days its pretty rare and really ask yourself a series of objective questions; how many times has my computer been put down by a brown/black out, how often does my workstation itself go on the fritz or the the always-happens-at-the-worst-possible-time “sorry your CAD app is incompatible with this file version – please help Carl placate his shareholders and improve his tan by renewing your subscription” Anything can happen but if you keep a backup of critical project files with you, you can always tweak it old school. The bottom line is that yes it will happen, for a while and make you mental but really in the great sea of things that make us mental there are more usual suspects worthy of wagging at.
(c) Someone is gonna hack in and steal my stuff!
See (a) above. To try and mask my knee-jerk sarcasm for CAD guys who worry about this kind of thing, jawing at me about my newfangled ways of computering things while all the time rolling up a bunch of content sensitive CAD plots into a tube and handing them off to the courier without even making eye contact, I would say this – These days it would be easier and safer for CAD thieves to break into your office, put two caps in your ass and steal whatever they want than leave a trail of digital evidence for the coppers to follow. Its simple. If you have it with you, it can get ripped off. If its online, someone at least has to sit down and get nasty with it and leave a long trail of incriminating evidence. Oh that and get over yourself, you’re not that interesting and junkies never hacked into Google or Amazon for crack money.
Now the good stuff, the ROI of SaaS for CAD
(1) Collaboration
I already see collaboration has been called the new “c” word by a few folks in the CAD blogosphere. That is unfortunate as it illustrates the darker, surlier side of CAD that itself hearkens back to the days of old where if the nice client in the suit/tie came in to ask questions about the project and were subjected to stand-offish-ness, they knew they really were working with a top notch CAD firm with people skills. Well, unless you’re like one of the folks in Plato’s allegory of a cave and have actually been living under a rock, those days are gone and the same abused clients have had and will continue to have their pick of firms to work with. Unless your collaboration and shudder, yes, communication skills are top notch – I have a new CAD tool for you! Its called a spatula and as long as you keep the patty evenly heated thus keeping the heat transfer delta constant, avoiding a raw middle and a burnt outside, you career path is as expansive as all of the fast food restaurants that dot the urban landscape. Bottom line, if you can’t provide convenient (read web) collaboration to your clients, someone else will and then you wont have to worry about any of this.
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Here’s the truth – Collaboration is a gift for the CAD vertical. In a world of outsourcing and increasing offshore competition:
• Its a chance to solicit clients like never before
• Its a chance to engage clients like never before
• Its a chance to get them to participate in an inclusive manner
• Its a chance to immerse them in your skills & expertise
• Its a chance to share your vision-for-their-project in ways they never could have imagined.
…and the A#1 ROI point for Collaboration – Its a chance to spot errors waaay sooner and save your clients millions!
Really the old adage is true – another pair of eyes will often spot what you’ve missed. This is now the entire focus of things like digital prototyping and BIM where you get to break/edit/fix the problem virtually, which is much cheaper. The fact that collaboration has come to CAD is a great thing and literally will define the competitive landscape for the solicitation and operation of projects and contracts. For those who would malign collaboration I would suggest that from your clients point of view, they would have rather you focused your derision on three better “c” word candidates for CAD: cost, change orders and culpability.
(2) One Version of the Truth
Ok, hands up – whos
e seen it? You know when the Architect, Engineer and Construction guys are all on the job site with the plans all rolled out trying to explain to the Developer who’s fault it is and why they need another 2 weeks and a cartoon bag of money to fix the problem. Yes, we’ve all seen the Three Stooges in action and especially if you are one of the Stooges or even worse the Developer who has to go to the bank and ask for more money (thats more like Dracula) – it sucks! This is why the AIA is instituting Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and BIM – and the GSA has dropped the hammer on at least requiring BIM before bids on all new Federal projects. If these terms are unfamiliar to you, use the full-hand-eye-poke-blocker next time and go look it up. SaaS by its very nature keeps one centralized named version of anything and as long as folks can read, you have One Version of the Truth for everyone to refer to, 24×7. In the good ole days (and today sadly), there were so many rolls of paper laying around, really it was anybody’s guess to as which one had the latest change orders. This problem stems way back to the Egyptians and you can see on their friezes that is was very popular to have everybody pointing at everybody else for who’s fault it was, thus the Pharaoh never new who exactly needed to be executed when the first pyramid was built upside down.
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(3) Show Me the Money
SaaS is going to save CAD clients a ton of money because you will get the best fit to the ROI curve possible. It will be possible to subscribe a team to a CAD SaaS offering, transfer it to others or shut it down when you dont need it anymore. When you empower the individual with a use anywhere tool that can also be used in concert with others – it all sure beats that crummy per computer license restriction and cost. I’ve read a bunch of editorial about how SaaS really is for the vendors, to help stop piracy, eliminate support and maintenance headaches and rollout new feature sets uniformly. Ok, at what point does any of that not directly benefit the end user in the here and now on planet earth? How about this, clients don’t have to pay for beefy boxes that are desklocked past 5pm. Clients don’t have to burden IT with more costly support and maintenance for finicky CAD types. Clients can access and collaborate their goodies to clients anytime anywhere…hows that shrinkwrap box / shelf trophy looking now?
(4) The Aftercad Approach: Shameless Self Plug and Helping CAD Vendors
The Aftercad approach is to chop the Vendor CAD application into the CAD Engine and the CAD User Interface. The CAD Engine stays on the server, the CAD User Interface is recreated natively in the browser and sends commands to the CAD engine exactly like the Windows or Mac UI would. This approach maintains Vendor build control over their product as we only need to access it via API calls, thus Vendor development path stays in check with regular desktop application development.
Our solution has many advantages over a PC-Over-IP approach in that latency becomes much less of an issue and because there is a rich data flow between the browser and the server, it is much quicker, easier and ultimately cheaper to integrate with other client browser offerings from other vendors.
These are critical factors clients consider when opting to use SaaS as part of the ROI is the ability to freely integrate and mashup multiple tools, creating the single tuned solution interface the client needs rather than the traditional approach of multiple siloed desktop applications.
Next time i’ll talk about how Resellers, VARs and Managed Services folks can get in on the sweet CAD SaaS action and what this means for SaaS to your company.
