Archive for February, 2009
Flaming HOT Software!
Posted by Chris Williams in News on February 19, 2009
Vuuch for SolidWorks 64bit is hot off the press. If you want to give it a spin, drop us a note at contact@vuuch.com, or wait a few days and we will post it on the download page over at www.vuuch.com/download. The micro messages have been flying. It seems hardware has taken a big jump forward with everyone pushing to 64bit. Guess I need to buy a new computer. Today I was at a customer site where they are even converting their laptops to 64bit. I find this very interesting because software, well the release people use seems to really lag. At one location we found Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 in use and at another SolidWork2006. So much for all that maintenance money…
Please comment on the hardware and CAD software versions you are running at your site.
Go Fetch – Throw PLM A RSS Bone!
Posted by Chris Williams in PLM on February 15, 2009
Do you ever get the feeling that you are a dog and your design data is a stick?
All day long you are asking people for information that helps you in the creation of a design deliverable. The typical way of doing this is a cut and paste process of email back and forth. This works because it is simple to create the message and you can format the request any way you desire. The problem comes when get what you asked for, a reply! You are now left to fetch the message from the mess of a thing we call an inbox. Email, the killer app, is doing just that, killing us. Not sure this is true just google email productivity…
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with micro messaging. The problem is the management of these messages. Email or lets say messaging systems have done little to nothing relative to improving how we manage, store or organize our messages. The reality is things are getting worse… We have more messaging options today – handheld devices and/or new messaging solutions like twitter and yammer.
Don’t you feel like a dog looking for a bone when you search your inbox? I know I do! Sure search works if you can remeber enough of a string that was in the mail discussions, but typically even a day later you cannot. I’ve seen dogs that can find a stone thrown in the water if you give them enough time… Wouldn’t it be cool to stay in the your dog house, you know the place where you had a need to create a message. What if I am creating a budget in excel and I need to ask some for some information, why not click the cell, create a message and have the reply come right back to this cell? In CAD why not select the feature, right click, create message and have the replies comes back to this feature? No inbox, no search, no mess … no fetch.
Is RSS an automated fetch?I think you can say yes to this question. The problem I see is how many feeds can you manage before you have another inbox mess? My guess is this is a small number and therefore RSS ends up generating more noise than value. Unless there is a simple way to turn on and off or dynamically manage these feeds. What if you could fetch on the fly? What if you could select a cell in excel or a set of features in CAD and see all the discussions (all questions asked about this selection) and all the replies and all the supporting files people used to reply?
Brainstorming The Definition of Vuuch
Posted by Chris Williams in Social Media on February 14, 2009
Brainstorming is a great opportunity to discover new ideas to old problems. Vuuch is the result of a series of brainstorming activities with customers and we will continue this process as we continue to expand Vuuch Design Discussions. As we demo’ed Vuuch during SolidWorks World 2009, everyone reacted with great excitement and came up with many new ideas for how to expand Vuuch. So with the juices flowing and a Vuuch vibe brewing we set to work adding a new feature to www.vuuch.com. Today, well all right, late last night, we launched a brainstorming section to the web site. Anyone can post ideas, comment and vote on the ones you think really vibe and those that you think really stink!
Give it a try and see what people think about your ideas…
Why Twitter People – Twitter Your CAD File
Posted by Chris Williams in Social Media on February 12, 2009
Coming back from SolidWorks World 2009 and doing a little house keeping of my over crowd inbox… You know the joy of trying to determine what is useful and what is junk, that didn’t make it to the junk file… Well I did come across a little gem that tied together discussions we had with SolidWorks users. The idea is to have devices (none humans) message you. For example why not have your washer tell you it is done, or have your lights tell you they are on when you leave the house.
Vuuch is working this idea in reverse. Why not Vuuch or message your part files that represent the part being designed? Rather than wondering who is working on the design, just message the design, the team takes care of the rest. That way anyone on the team, that is working on the part design, is aware of the message. The idea we are exploring here is the notion that a part or even a spec document can have an inbox…
Sign up for Vuuch and let us know what you think. We want to engage the community in the development of Vuuch. Go ahead and Vuuch someone today.
SWW2009 – Vuuch Value is Vivid
Posted by Chris Williams in Uncategorized on February 12, 2009
Just back from SWW2009. It was a great event, as always. Vuuch had a steady stream of people in the booth. At times there was people waiting inline to see what Vuuch is all about… As we told everyone, we are in BETA and we want you feedback, the good the bad and the UGLY. Let us have it! We want to engage the community in the development of the tool. So sign up for the beta and Vuuch somone today. These guys are doing it, why not you???
There is a run on Vuuch… “I’ll take it!”
Posted by Chris Williams in Uncategorized on February 9, 2009
The Crowd Vibes To Vuuch at SWW 2009
Posted by Chris Williams in Uncategorized on February 9, 2009
The booth has been busy and people seem to really love Vuuch. Please keep the feedback coming…
You Need It Because I Said So!
Posted by Chris Williams in PLM, Social Media on February 6, 2009
Just because you have a better mouse trap, it doesn’t mean people need it nor does it mean people are not catching mice with the old outdated non WEB 2.0 mouse trap they are using. Over my coffee today I was reading the last few posts from Oleg and I was astonished to see him proclaim mid-market customers are out of control. I am simply amazed at how many PLM bloggers, when you read between the lines, are calling customers stupid… Oleg’s is just the latest. Sure PLM provides a better way, but this doesn’t mean people are not in control. Sure PLM improves your process, but this doesn’t mean I need it. This kind of thinking is like yelling at a referee or the score board. All it does is make you horse and get people to stare at you!
Before you reach for your gun and follow suit with Oleg do a little self examination. Maybe the value prop is not there? Maybe it is just to expensive? Maybe it is to complicated? Maybe it is you! I’m not saying there isn’t an opportunity to improve the Product Development process, of course there is. I’m also not saying Oleg doesn’t have some good ideas, actually to the contrary, he has some very good ideas. Like the concept that product development tools need to be much simpler and wiki-styled tools that use a more list like function would be a dramatic improvement. This I agree 110%. In a funny way the customer needs solutions that are not 100% complete. What I mean is they need the flexibility to use the tool how they wish. Like CAD there are 9 ways to Sunday to model the same thing. It doesn’t mean any of them are bad, just different. The user decides what is best for him and her.
Make it simple and with clear value and they will come! See you at SWW 2009.
2 Wiki or Not 2 Wiki, Shareyourpoint.
Posted by Chris Williams in PLM, Social Media on February 5, 2009
A few years back the Wiki and Sharepoint were at a frenzy or mania level with users everywhere. I wonder what has happened? From then to now many PLMers have written about how these technologies could be used in Product Development. While these assumptions are interesting and certainly not wrong, they suffer a fatalflaw. While they address the fact Product Development teams want flexibility and ad-hoc tools the wiki and sharepoint have no understanding/definition of a Product or what Product Development is all about. This leaves the users to define and manage a structure. For instance in a wiki a page about a Part would is the same as a page about a Requirement or a page about an Issue. In this case the team must manage a framework for such pages. Following on with this, let’s assume in this wiki you now want a BOM. Certainly you could just create another page and call this page BOM, but we have Part pages already… Yes you could just type each Part page URL onto the BOM page, but this seems like work, don’t you think? Would there be a real WOW factor if the BOM page grouped the Part pages together and allowed you to add Structure/Organization?
Without an understand of what the team is working to deliver technologies like the wiki or sharepoint, are just empty infrastructure.
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