Early days of CAD/CAM
There comes a time in your life when you have an opportunity to be extraordinary. Whether or not you capitalize on that opportunity is up to you. My chance began in late 2018. I had just returned from Kansas City and was ready to start a new career. My experience was in automotive and insurance, but I was looking for a more complex industry that welcomed innovation. Excitedly, I landed a sales position with a third-party Siemens software provider. If you are still getting familiar with their software, read up on computer-aided design/manufacturing solutions. The software is how engineers design products from scratch and then convert them to mass at scale. I would specialize in business development and was hungry to learn the industry.
On my first day on the job, I stared at a 3D printer completing an OEM automotive part by a customer from his mobile phone in the conference room for 30 minutes. My adrenaline had reached a whole new level. The beginning agenda was to learn about Siemens products, and my boss gave me a list to memorize. When she returned from work travel, she asked me if I was overwhelmed with the material. I laughed and told her to feed me more. The content was too exciting for the business-central entrepreneurial mindset. Dissecting every portion of the innovation process began to unfold with their solutions. NX was the Cadillac software used by OEM manufacturers. Licenses had the most robust capabilities, were best suited for complex parts, and had a strong R&D team adapting to digital transformation.
I aimed to understand how a 2D sketch could be mathematically converted into a 3D product file and memorize functionality usage for customization conversations. There was a reason some of the strictest government OEM manufacturers in aerospace, aviation, and automotive were awarding contracts to NX. I had to have a firm understanding of how the software differentiated from competitors in the market. I learned that NX CAM was a better fit for higher-axis machining. Any machine at or above a 5 had a strong relationship with the complex parts with numerous dimensions. Obtaining immediate knowledge of the competitors impressed my boss.
CATIA and SOLIDWORKS were the primary two for my target market for developing relationships. CATIA was expensive, used in some markets, and had solid historical data on complex part jobs. SOLIDWORKS had a less costly price point and functionality but was a better fit for startups. Still, many companies utilized SOLIDWORKS and controlled a large portion of the market. Siemens had a version called Solid Edge that was a better fit for startups with a small budget, but I should have pursued these leads. Solid Edge was introduced late into the innovation cycle and price point to compete but needed to be doing more hot. Due to large margins and pure maintenance profits, I focused on the NX licenses.
The next task was to understand business types and sizes. Small to medium businesses were mandatory targets for software sales. Most large companies had contracts with Siemens Direct for licenses. However, that didn’t necessarily deter me from targeting a large company. It was just a matter of communication about how existing business was being conducted. People don’t know that our industry has a unique selling proposition. We specialize in creating custom training content for specific parts customers designed and manufactured. Not only that, but we also did weekly CAD/CAM classes onsite and online. No third-party software provider or Siemens offered these custom training solutions, and therefore, the US DIFFERENTIATED SIGNIFICANTLY within the engineering community nationwide. With the correct marketing, my company brand and online profile became highly appealing to public and private engineering companies of all sizes. I was ready to begin my career in Digital Transformation 4.0.
