Both Australia and New Zealand are renowned for their approach to investing in the technology tools they need to compete on the world stage, however, there is some debate as to whether they are using those tools to their fullest potential.

Here at Intercad, we are in a unique position to witness a lot of innovative engineering and manufacturing designs from our customers. Innovators thrive in our region, but sometimes those innovators overlook the importance of staying up-to-date with changes to the technology that is their lifeblood.

To combat this, we have implemented a free ‘health check’ for our larger customers as part of their subscription services. The health check is a personalised half-day assessment on how you use SolidWorks on a day-to-day basis, after which we can provide customized recommendations on areas on which you can focus to improve productivity. It may be as simple as changing the way you save your files to improve efficiency.

“For most businesses a productivity improvement of just five per cent can deliver real returns,” explains Intercad’s CEO, Max Piper. “For an average business a five per cent improvement roughly equates to saving two hours per week. If you have five engineers this is 10 hours a week, which is 500 hours over a working year. If you charge your engineering services out at a modest $50 per hour this is an extra $25,000 per year.”  

The health check is aimed at our medium-to-large designers, engineers and manufacturers which have three or more licenses of SolidWorks. It is these businesses which will benefit most from the improved work flows resulting from Intercad’s health check program.

For example, the more designers or engineers working on a project, the more chance there is that they won’t be working collaboratively. Each engineer will use the software in slightly, or sometimes remarkably, different ways, especially if they haven’t had any training. Sometimes the way those engineers build models or create drawings means the files can’t be used by other people in the team so they have to spend time changing files and the way data is stored.

At Intercad we strive to look beyond design problems and help solve business issues. The health check is a valuable tool to support our customers in the professional development of their teams, maximise retention and efficiency, and improve the effectiveness of business processes.

Over the years, we have seen the CAD market mature to a point whereby simply having the 3D capability is no longer enough of a competitive advantage.

“Those early adopters who implemented 3D CAD many years ago had a competitive advantage just by using the software – now almost everybody has that advantage. Our customers must invest in training and technical support services to ensure they are getting the most out of their technology. In an increasingly global marketplace this is the advantage that is going to deliver real benefits,” says Piper.

Intercad’s final piece of advice is that prevention is better than the cure.

“If we can optimise the way you are using the software initially you can save a lot of time and money down the track,” concludes Piper.