From the CEO: Why and How We Do What We Do
Helping Manufacturers Market and Sell Their 3D CAD Products by Investing in Their Future
The traditional method of lead generation has fallen down.
Forty years ago, manufacturers could rely on product catalogs, magazine, and mail-order product samples to get their products in front of engineers. But today, their buyers aren’t there. Digitalization has changed the industry, but what have manufacturers done to change with it?
“Technology changes exponentially; organizations change logarithmically.” –Martec’s Law, by Scott Brinker @chiefmartec
As Scott Brinker, computer programmer and entrepreneur, points out: the trends of technology and organizational change do not line up. Technology continues to grow and change exponentially, and many buyers follow those trends. However, organizations are slow to adopt these changes and get stuck doing things the old way.
Manufacturers especially, do not readily adopt industry changes – they pause and question which new browser or tool their buyers have and have not adopted. Then they consider all the organizational changes they would have to make, the countless product updates they would have to maintain, and all the money and manpower that change of this magnitude would take. “Is providing 3D CAD products on our website really the lead-generation tool that fits our customers’ needs?” Yes, it is!
Meanwhile, innovative companies are eating their lunch by meeting buyers where they are: sailing up the “Technology Trend River”.
This is where we come in. We help manufacturers not just keep up with the Technology Trend River, but to build a robust boat prepared for the next chapter of technological change.
Future-Proof Your Investment
Our clients are creators. They are good at developing new and innovative products that improve their customers’ processes and equipment. We’re good at developing integrations into the new systems that come on the scene in the design environment that they need to support to grow their business.
When a client works with us, we never want them to worry about industry changes around CAD, BIM or Mechatronics software products ever again.
In that same 40 years, 3D CAD software was brand-new to the scene. Now, there’s cloud-based CAD systems, digital twin technology, PDF data sheets with interactive 3D previews, and hundreds of different CAD software providers used by engineers, consumers of 3D data around the world. And next year, more design engineers will access and use these tools from their smartphones.
Our solution ensures that our client’s products are available in all those required formats, new and old. Through our technology and platform, our clients’ products are backward-compatible and future-proof. No matter if the engineer needs a 2D drawing of a component part or a 3D rendering in the latest Autodesk Revit, our clients can provide it. And we’ll be there for our clients through any CAD software update, new web browser, system changes and new devices yet to come.
We never want our clients to worry about the digital customer experience for their CAD products. We want 24/7/365 access to our clients’ products, enabling them to focus on what they do best, creating new inventions.
The industry standard for getting product samples to customers continues to evolve, in most cases, those days are gone. Today, the industry standard is 3D CAD models. However, some manufacturers have either not adopted a digital product model or have a poor implementation of one. For either situation, the cost is a bad customer experience, which today means loss of business.
“The standard in our industry is getting CAD models online.”
– Christopher Nook, CEO at Helix Linear Technologies
Chris Nook, CEO at Helix Linear says this well.
“The standard in our industry is getting CAD models online,” Christopher Nook, CEO at Helix Linear Technologies, said. “By delivering high-end customer service from the second a customer visits our website and by making it simple for them to download a CAD file, we make it easy for our customers to do business with us.”
Our solution enables manufacturers to provide a remarkable digital customer experience for customers on any device by building a product configurator that is easy to use, ensures accurate and quality product data, and gets the CAD, BIM or Mechatronics download to customers faster.
We also simplify the process for product changes, so the manufacturer can focus on what they do best while we handle the necessary product updates.
This is why we do what we do: to ensure the longevity of your business. Here’s how we do it.
Building Long-Term Relationships
We believe that our success is bound to the success of our clients. That’s why we don’t “disappear” after launching a configurator with our clients. We’re focused on long-term growth and strategic involvement with our customers.
From day one, our job is to educate our clients on the tools they need to keep up with industry trends and technology. Afterward, our experts are there to support them during and after the process.
We work together with our clients to build a configurator that fits their exact needs, and we are in constant contact with their team to keep them updated on the project’s progress. When the project goes live on our client’s website, our marketing team works with theirs to show them the best practices for success. We also set up a maintenance plan, so we’re prepared when our clients come to us with product updates, support questions, and new product lines.
We are invested in our clients’ futures. That’s why so many of our customers have been with us for over a decade. PHD Inc. was my first client back in 2000, and we’ve worked together with them on several additional product lines and their mobile sales configurator – the PHD, Inc. 3D Mobile App. Parker Hannifin recently released their one-of-a-kind T-Slot Aluminum Design Architect Tool, which breaks the boundaries of what people thought a CAD configurator can do.
Every 96 seconds, an engineer downloads a Samtec product model from their website. That totals around 26,000 downloads per month.
Because of our commitment to our clients and our capabilities, we’re a unique system that companies can grow with.
We create a personalized solution for each customer by listening to what they need and delivering on our commitments. We get excited when our customers adopt digital transformation and we create a digital tool that changes the industry.
Brennan Industries doubled their online CAD downloads overnight after launching our configurator on their website. PFA saw a 99% customer adoption of 3D CAD models after implementing their catalog configurator. That’s significant to a manufacturer of any size.
Samtec’s 3D component configurator is a groundbreaking solution in the electronics market, and the results are stunning: Every 96 seconds, an engineer downloads a Samtec product model from their website. That’s around 26,000 downloads per month.
Grow with Us
The fact is, nobody does exactly what we do or how we do it, nobody! When you consider the full circle of tools and services our platform provides, homegrown solutions or using a competitor only kicks the can down the road. Users expect state-of-the-art integrations, and only we can provide that.
By keeping our clients moving with the current of the technological trend river and bolstering their CAD product library for success, our clients can rely on us for years to come.
So, you ask why and how we do what we do? We invest in our customers’ success because we believe in a successful future together.
Adam Beck
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