The Consumerization of CAD

By BARB SCHMITZ | Published: MAR 19, 2012

Last week, Apple hit a huge milestone, announcing that it had reached 25 billion downloads off its App Store web site. While the term “app” probably wasn’t even considered a word a few years ago, today they are everywhere and they do quite literally everything. Thanks in part to the staggering popularity of Apple’siPhone and iPad, along with a host of lookalike mobile devices swarming the market, developers have raced to create lightweight, easy-to-use programs.

Advances in usability and cost-effective pricing models have helped create an entirely new market for software, and software developers in nearly every market have created a virtual flood of apps that meet the needs of nearly every market. Users, in turn, are now demanding that same ease of use and functionality that is offered in consumer apps in their work software.

The widespread adoption of these mobile devices and the prevalence of Internet connectivity have also contributed to the popularity of apps.  All these factors have created a more blended IT environment, one in which software for work and personal use are used somewhat interchangeably. Workers now demand 24/7 access to corporate email and documents, which can lead to greater productivity and flexibility and improved efficiency.

So what does all this whoopla mean for the CAD industry? Well, for one it’s created a new revenue stream for vendors still reeling from recessionary cutbacks that have affected their bottom lines. With the introduction of smaller, consumer-like apps, CAD vendors can add high-volume, lower-priced offerings to their product lines. These apps also offer a way for vendors to offer boutique services to their valued subscription customers, according to the recently released 2012 CAD Report by Jon Peddie.

What about CAD users? Designers and engineers will eventually expect the same level of usability from their design tools as they do from the other apps they run on their smartphones and tablets. They want easy, intuitive user interfaces. They want portability. And, they don’t want to spend a lot for these bite-size programs. Vendors might need to eventually need to rethink traditional licensing agreements, as users may eventually demand instant accessibility to apps via online downloads.

There are certainly signs that the CAD industry is paying attention to this trend. While these apps won’t replace the functionality of full-fledged CAD applications anytime soon, they can be viewed as mobile extensions of the CAD platform, providing additional functionality, such as remote collaboration capabilities.

With the introduction of Creo, PTC has ushered in a new way of thinking when it comes to CAD. Instead of having to buy, implement and learn a huge monolithic CAD application, the company has introduced a family of role-based apps that make it easier to get the right tools in the right user’s hands faster and more efficiently.

Caution: Roadblocks ahead

Somewhere there are IT managers wringing their hands over this trend, sometimes referred to in IT circles as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). As more work-related apps are ported to these mobile devices, how do you safeguard valuable proprietary corporate information from theft, especially given their portability? This is especially true in manufacturing industry whereprotecting IP is always of utmost importance.

Companies are racing to keep pace with this. Though many organizations have policies in place that require the encryption of sensitive data on laptops, fewer companies encrypt data on smaller, mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. More devices mean more operating systems, which in turn means added complexity for IT departments. Concerns about network security breaches, IP theft, and loss of data mean that a strategy for addressing BYOD is imperative.

The bottom line is that some of these consumer-based technologies or “apps” can be used in conjunction with traditional enterprise software to create value in the workplace, though their use must be supported by the appropriate security policies and procedures to safeguard critical business data.