CAD Manager's Newsletter #97
9 Dec, 2003 By: Robert GreenIssue Focus: Autodesk University from 37,000 Feet AU 2003 STATUS REPORT
- CAD MANAGERS WEAR MORE HATS
- TECHNICAL CAD MANAGERS
- BUSINESS ACUMEN LACKING
- CAD MANAGEMENT IS STILL TOUGH
- SOFTWARE FOR US?
- AU IS A GREAT RESOURCE
- WRAPPING UP
*************************************************** AU 2003 STATUS REPORT Well I've just settled into the airport waiting area after my last
teaching session at AU (Autodesk University) 2003. I figure the best way
to recap AU is to write it all down while it's still fresh in my mind, so
I figured I'd leverage my four-hour flight downtime to do so.
Every AU session is a mixture of technology, education, marketing, and the
chance to be around hundreds of the best CAD managers in the world. I
always come away from AU with a wide range of thoughts and perceptions
based on what I hear from CAD managers who are in the trenches every day.
So in no particular order here are the trends and interesting tidbits I
learned over the past week. CAD MANAGERS WEAR MORE HATS My last CAD Manager's Survey shows that CAD managers juggle a wider range
of design, managerial, and technology responsibilities than ever before. I
was eager to see if this trend would be validated at AU, so I polled all
my classes, by show of hands, to see how many CAD managers were squeezing
more tasks into their work week. The responses closely matched my survey
data, and further conversations led me to the following conclusions:
* More CAD managers are forced to have a higher percentage of billable
time than in years past. While 40 to 50% overhead for CAD managers was not
uncommon three years ago, the rate is now much closer to 20%. Clearly, the
economic downturn of the past few years has affected CAD managers.
* More CAD managers are managing multiple CAD systems. It's now very
common to manage AutoCAD plus any number of vertical packages, from the
Autodesk Desktop series of products to nonDWG products such as Inventor
and Revit.
* More CAD managers with substantial AutoCAD installations are managing
not only multiple Autodesk products but also products from other
vendors-for example, Solidworks or Bentley's AutoPLANT or InRoads.
All in all, CAD managers are more harried, more pressured, and more in
need of technical skills to stay on top of their company's CAD needs than
ever before. And of course, there's less time to do it all, right? Looks
like in the future CAD managers will simply have to juggle more stuff, not
less.
TECHNICAL CAD MANAGERS
This trend is where I see the most promise for future employment
opportunities. Simply put, if you're a good technologist who can manage
multiple technical systems, you're going to be in demand!
BUSINESS ACUMEN LACKING
My most popular presentations this year had less to do with technology
than with the above-mentioned business metrics. I conclude that business
education will be a very hot item for CAD managers in the coming years.
And I promise to do my part in future newsletters to highlight these
skills.
CAD MANAGEMENT IS STILL TOUGH
SOFTWARE FOR US?
Look for 2004 to bring us new software products that highlight the need to
manage information and CAD installations with less effort. I'm genuinely
excited about what I saw at AU this year and look forward to highlighting
the CAD manager-centric features when I'm permitted to.
AU IS A GREAT RESOURCE
Believe me when I say I've attended all the trade shows and I've struggled
to justify the expenses. Autodesk University provides a unique opportunity
for Autodesk product users to gain a wide range of knowledge in a short
time in a peer environment that can't be replicated elsewhere.
WRAPPING UP
As we move into 2004 I'll be looking for new and better ways to serve you,
the working CAD manager, with this newsletter. I heartily encourage your
comments and hope you'll always feel free to e-mail me at
rgreen@cad-manager.com with any ideas you may have for newsletter topics.
Because of the trend toward having less time to handle more software, the
pendulum has swung back in favor of the technical CAD manager. I spoke to
more people at AU this year who program, customize, coordinate networks,
and optimize hardware and software platforms than I have in years. It
seems that there simply aren't that many people out there who have enough
technical expertise to keep the nonhomogenous hardware and software CAD
infrastructures prevalent in industry running.
As CAD management swings back to an increasing emphasis on technicality,
it becomes ever more obvious that CAD managers, on the whole, don't
understand the business environment they operate in. Basic understanding
of ROI (return on investment), tax consequences of investment, leasing,
budgeting, and how to use all of it to make your department run better is
critically lacking for many.
I continue to observe that CAD managers have a very difficult job. I can't
think of another career field where you need to be proficient in
technology, management, and communications and and hold your overhead down
to a small fraction of your total work time. The great news here is the
same as the bad news: It's hard to be a CAD manager, so fewer and fewer
people can compete with you for the job.
I was able to attend several classified briefings for new software
products from various vendors at AU this year. I can't report specifics of
these meetings due to nondisclosure agreements, but I can report that all
these software firms understand how critical it is to understand, and
satisfy, the CAD manager's needs if they want to sell software. This is
great news because we finally seem to have arrived on the software
companies' radar screens.
There is always the question whether attending an event like Autodesk
University is valuable. I may be biased, but I can't think of a better
learning and collaborating environment for CAD managers anywhere on the
planet. There simply is no other place where you can rub elbows with 2,000
of your colleagues, as well as major software vendors, in an environment
targeted toward learning.
I'd like to thank all the CAD Manager's Newsletter readers who took the
time to look me up at Autodesk University this year. It was a pleasure to
meet so many of you and connect faces with e-mail addresses.