MCADCafe Editorial 
Jon Hirschtick
Jon Hirschtick is EVP, President of SaaS at PTC. He previously founded SOLIDWORKS and Onshape. MCADCafe’s 2020 Industry Predictions -Onshape/PTCJanuary 31st, 2020 by Jon Hirschtick
In 2020, All Product Development Roads Will Lead to SaaS
In the United States, the majority of K-12 classrooms now rely on Google Chromebooks to give students instant access to their applications and projects online – and to facilitate collaboration with classmates and teachers in real time. These students, who are the next generation of engineers, product designers and manufacturers, are already accustomed to the benefits of cloud-native Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. In the early 2020s, the professional product development world will quickly play catch up. I predict that 2020 will mark the tipping point for companies adopting a wide range of SaaS product development tools including CAD, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), simulation and generative design. The demand for more product development applications running on cloud-native architectures will be further driven by the continued growth of 5G mobile networks. Making internet browsing and download speeds 10x to 20x faster will create an even greater expectation for instant access to information in every aspect of our personal and professional lives. In this context, the delays and work interruptions resulting from the IT requirements of installed software will become more of a competitive liability.
With continued pressure for companies to deliver innovative products and improvements on accelerated timelines, the SaaS approach to product development will offer a clear business advantage over installed desktop tools. The SaaS model has already asserted its dominance in most other business applications – such as accounting, sales, human resources and marketing – and it will soon emerge as the default choice for hardware engineers as well. In 2020, we will see the emergence of cloud-native SaaS generative design tools that will significantly speed up the optimization of product designs across multiple parameters. These cloud-driven design tools will allow product development teams to simultaneously explore more iterations to optimize weight, strength, shape, materials and cost. In the early days of Onshape, skeptics were saying, “How can you possibly run CAD and data management in the cloud – how could it possibly be fast enough online?” Now, it’s more common to ask how it would be possible to run product development software on a single computer. How could you possibly run generative design, for example, on just your laptop? It would be like trying to charge your electric car with one of those pocket battery packs you use for your phone. Product design aside, SaaS platforms will also be embraced in 2020 for their cybersecurity advantages. In response to the growing threat of ransomware and viruses, more executives will trust their intellectual property (IP) security to cloud-based solutions over on-premises security software. Similar to their early CAD performance doubts, skeptics have long been asking if the cloud will ever be secure enough to protect their data. This year, that question will be flipped: “How in the world can you ever have your IP securely stored on your desktop?” Furthermore, continued geopolitical turbulence across the world will require executives to rethink their supply chains and quickly act on their Plan B (and their Plans C, D, E and F). When changing regulations and tariffs force companies to move manufacturing operations from one country to another, they will seek out SaaS product development tools that enable the instant redeployment of their software tools and data – and that can pull back their valuable IP from their old suppliers. These sudden shifts will also increase the demand for SaaS collaboration tools that speed up communications between teams – ironically the same kind of real-time collaboration now enjoyed by those K-12 students using Google Docs. On a final lighthearted note, the inevitable industry migration to SaaS tools will also put an end to workstation envy in the office. The compulsion to buy the latest and most powerful hardware will no longer be justifiable. No one’s workstation can be as big and powerful as Amazon’s cloud. No one’s workstation is even close. Tags: Industry Predictions One Response to “MCADCafe’s 2020 Industry Predictions -Onshape/PTC” |
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I personally don’t agree with Jon Hirschtick that everything is going to be “Online” regarding development software. To start with I have tried using Onshape and found it very awkward to use compared to its sister product Solidworks (desktop product). For an online software package to work it must have all of the same features and functions as the desktop products. Autodesk has been trying to get acceptance of its online product, Autocad 360, with little to no success. As the owner of a company I would never move my development software to being cloud based. The main reason is that doing so would make my business dependent upon my internet service provider. If their system goes down then so would all my CAD stations resulting in no one working. The only solution is waiting for the service provider to get back up and running. On the other hand if that occurred while using software loaded on a PC my workers can keep on working as they don’t need to connect to a cloud account and cloud based files. Supposedly the reasoning behind have browser based software is that as a user you will always be working with the most up-to-date version of the software and won’t need to buy upgrades every year or so. That might seem attractive but in reality most major advances/new features are only introduced once a year and as for updates to repair issues they are sent to the users when they are ready. As for the cost, I don’t see any advantage to using browser based software. The user still has to pay the software developer for the time used and also pay the company that does the cloud storage (unless that is included into the software rental agreement). For Onshape the cost would be $2100 each and every year. To buy a licensed product, like Solidworks or other 3D Modeling software would cost approx. $5000 after which you would pay approx. $1200 for each year after that. Based on a 10 year time span I would have to pay $21000 for a seat of Onshape where as for the desktop software I would pay $17000. So if you intend to be in business for 10 years or more the desktop option is cheaper and I don’t have to worry about the state of my internet provider. I believe the whole push to browser based software is to prevent people from hacking the software and putting pirated versions on the web as that is seen as lost revenue. The first company that moved to the pay for use software model was Adobe and I find it amazing that a majority of Photoshop users are still using the last desktop release (CS6) as there isn’t any advantage cost wise going to pay per use. Pay per use only makes sense to part time users who want the capabilities of a full featured software but only for short periods of time. What I am predicting in 2020 is that all MCAD software companies will still be promoting and selling desktop versions of their product. I can’t see a company like GM, Ford, or other massive design firm going to a pay for use option unless it can save them substantial amounts of money.