"The price of gas on the high road is quite steep, yet those willing to pay know it is a wise investment"
-LL
This sentiment keeps coming back as challenges present themselves in professional and personal situations. A fortune cookie style reminder seems worthy of recording. Yes, that is all.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
RF CAE Kudos
I'm taking this opportunity to say some kind words about some of the vendors I deal with.
Those that make the highest tier in this list are Modelithics, Sonnet Software, and Mathworks. Read more about the basis for my praise below; first in general terms and then in more specifics
This is not a rigorous comparison; this is the impression of an independent business owner (with himself as the only full time employee). Rather than ripping apart those that leave a negative impression, I will explain why I recommend these companies to peers and clients over and over again. The list of vendors is somewhat less than half the number of vendors I actually deal with on an annual basis.
Since computer aided engineering and analysis tools represent the most important and expensive resource I use to perform my services, I will restrict my discussion to those companies right now. This is also a unique domain because of licensing; which is the burr under my saddle that manages to suck my will to live for brief periods many times each year.
When I started out as an independent consultant, I quickly realized how poor many companies are at dealing with anything but their normal corporate customer base which it would seem tolerates slow and inefficient business practices. Counter to the interest of their businesses, some of these vendors make it difficult to get transactions done quickly once a decision is made and provide customer support with that same class of service.
Leaving a really good impression with a customer like me is not necessarily expensive, and there isn't one formula that fits all. In this domain of semi-specialized, expensive, licensed software I think there are a few key elements:
Modelithics
For the last several years I have come to rely on the Modelithics component libraries for my designs. My experience with them has been nothing but positive. Sure, there have been issues and glitches as with every vendor, but they take the prize for being by far the fastest to resolve issues (either with a bug fix or with a work around that clearly took someone actual effort to provide). Their licensing has been appropriately flexible for me and their support has truly felt like it was 24/7 when I needed it.
Sonnet Software
I have done business with Sonnet for almost 15 years through previous jobs and their "lite plus" product, but personally have been a professional class customer since around 2010. Sonnet provides a great planar EM solver suite and plays very well with other tools that I use. The company is the finest example of focus on doing one thing really well that I have probably ever seen. The support they've provided to me has been top notch. Their president/founder Dr. Rautio (and several other staffers) have taken the lead in disclosing their interests/affiliations when commenting in online discussion forums, and they don't try to sell their tool if it is not appropriate for the problem being discussed. I can't tell you how refreshing this is to see.
Mathworks (Matlab)
MATLAB is of course somewhat less specialized than the others mentioned here but I wanted to mention them here because they have many things going for them that have left an impression with me over the last 18 months or so that I have been a customer.
Honorable mentions:
Mentor Graphics (PADS suite)
I don't think I've ever needed to contact support (I normally just use pads for importing RF bits and doing design reviews, I don't tend to be in the critical work path when it comes to PCB design files). They have lots of good online documentation, self-service licensing, etc. Not bad. They have finally made it so I can renew online without calling them to give a credit card each year.
Cadence (for Orcad Capture) /EMA
EMA provides the sales/support interface for Orcad. They've been responsive when I've needed support and they are easy to work with.
Those that make the highest tier in this list are Modelithics, Sonnet Software, and Mathworks. Read more about the basis for my praise below; first in general terms and then in more specifics
This is not a rigorous comparison; this is the impression of an independent business owner (with himself as the only full time employee). Rather than ripping apart those that leave a negative impression, I will explain why I recommend these companies to peers and clients over and over again. The list of vendors is somewhat less than half the number of vendors I actually deal with on an annual basis.
Since computer aided engineering and analysis tools represent the most important and expensive resource I use to perform my services, I will restrict my discussion to those companies right now. This is also a unique domain because of licensing; which is the burr under my saddle that manages to suck my will to live for brief periods many times each year.
When I started out as an independent consultant, I quickly realized how poor many companies are at dealing with anything but their normal corporate customer base which it would seem tolerates slow and inefficient business practices. Counter to the interest of their businesses, some of these vendors make it difficult to get transactions done quickly once a decision is made and provide customer support with that same class of service.
Leaving a really good impression with a customer like me is not necessarily expensive, and there isn't one formula that fits all. In this domain of semi-specialized, expensive, licensed software I think there are a few key elements:
- Make the licensing reasonable, flexible... or be able to respond to what I need 24/7 because of your inflexibility
- Make purchasing/upgrading/renewing maintenance quick and efficient (for me, time spent on this is lost revenue)
- Keep technical support as responsive as possible where those who have to respond take real ownership
- When you lack any of the above, you might be able to make up for it by having empowered employees who can make things happen rather than hide behind one-size-fits-all policies that are presented as far more rigid than they need be.
I think part of the premise of what I like about these featured companies is that they seem to realize that we're all in this together and I'm not trying to cheat them out of anything (especially on the licensing front) even if my setup is a little unique. I wouldn't be dealing with companies that have inferior products; but even good products can't save a company from leaving a mediocre or negative impression for truly stupid reasons.
Modelithics
For the last several years I have come to rely on the Modelithics component libraries for my designs. My experience with them has been nothing but positive. Sure, there have been issues and glitches as with every vendor, but they take the prize for being by far the fastest to resolve issues (either with a bug fix or with a work around that clearly took someone actual effort to provide). Their licensing has been appropriately flexible for me and their support has truly felt like it was 24/7 when I needed it.
Sonnet Software
I have done business with Sonnet for almost 15 years through previous jobs and their "lite plus" product, but personally have been a professional class customer since around 2010. Sonnet provides a great planar EM solver suite and plays very well with other tools that I use. The company is the finest example of focus on doing one thing really well that I have probably ever seen. The support they've provided to me has been top notch. Their president/founder Dr. Rautio (and several other staffers) have taken the lead in disclosing their interests/affiliations when commenting in online discussion forums, and they don't try to sell their tool if it is not appropriate for the problem being discussed. I can't tell you how refreshing this is to see.
Mathworks (Matlab)
MATLAB is of course somewhat less specialized than the others mentioned here but I wanted to mention them here because they have many things going for them that have left an impression with me over the last 18 months or so that I have been a customer.
- Excellent "self service" upgrade/renewal online. If I want to add an optional toolbox, I don't have to deal with a human.
- Excellent online community -- code is shared, discussions are had, problems are solved... without a lot of formality. Their documentation is excellent as well.
- Excellent licensing terms, the best of any, by far (License to four computers for an individual user with the expectation that there is truly a single user using one at a time). This is the kind of flexibility I need without having to beg for exceptions.
Honorable mentions:
Mentor Graphics (PADS suite)
I don't think I've ever needed to contact support (I normally just use pads for importing RF bits and doing design reviews, I don't tend to be in the critical work path when it comes to PCB design files). They have lots of good online documentation, self-service licensing, etc. Not bad. They have finally made it so I can renew online without calling them to give a credit card each year.
Cadence (for Orcad Capture) /EMA
EMA provides the sales/support interface for Orcad. They've been responsive when I've needed support and they are easy to work with.
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