That’s what some are saying. Jeff Waters, in his “Life Upfront” blog, recently penned “PTC Creo: big promises, bold timelines, boatloads of risk.” And while he acknowledges that the “vision sounds pretty darn good” he warns about the dangers of failing to execute. Valid point.
With Creo, we at PTC are doing something big. Really big. And whenever you mess with business-critical solutions, there’s always a risk. But, I’d suggest a few things are working in our favor:
- We’ve done it before
- We’re doing it in a way that will preserve our customers’ present investments in data and tools
- We’re doing it because our customers are asking for it
You can look at Creo like a huge technological effort. And, no doubt, it is. But, you can also look at it as a huge philosophical shift. When I started at PTC in 1992 in technical pre-sales, Pro/ENGINEER was all we had. It solved problems. It was differentiated. It sold like hotcakes. But its goodness was predicated on a single, fixed approach: parametric modeling. That was right for then. But the world is different now. More people with diverse skills working on product teams. Less tolerance for technology that is more complex than it needs to be. There is no better way to assure your own demise, than to rigidly adhere to the old ways while the world keeps going round. So, we dropped the hard-line stance around the exclusivity of parametric modeling. We learned from our customers. We changed.
Is this a validation of direct modeling? I’d say more so that it’s a reflection of the importance of design and the intensely cross functional nature of product development. It’s an affirmation that there’s a place for MANY ways of working. 2D. 3D. Direct. Parametric.
So, will Creo succeed? You know my answer. But stay tuned to see for yourself. It won’t take 20 years to tell.
(image source: one of my alltime favorite movies and Brian Harrison)
2 Comments
Dear Tom
You’ve hit us so hard with all of this that I’ve immediately had a meeting with our VP Engineering about our future using the PTC products. I’m saying “all of this” because I still don’t understand position of Creo and why on the Earth you’ve killed Pro/ENGINEER!
First, engineering aspect of this is project is OK, definitively thumbs up. Creating better interface, merging documents…etc. That is all OK, but don’t get me wrong it is not revolutionary. Not even close to revolutionary. It was just messy job to put different files formats together, better UI, and so. But not even close to radical approach what PTC did 30 or so years ago introducing parametric 3d design, while others were drawing just dummy 2d lines. So, slow down…
Second we figured out, probably there was strong political lobby for creating new product like Creo, which is coming from someone who pushes CoCreate. OK, that wasn’t hard to figure. That is PTC internal issue and we cannot go into that. You’ve made decision not consulting users, obviously. You’ve asked your out-of-MBA-marketing-school-grads. Now you’ll pay the price.
Third, what you didn’t realize, and that is most important, what are the consequences of killing Pro/ENGINEER.
And here is what I have to say: I think that what you play is not fair. We are on the same boat, we committed to the Pro/E as a brand (we are not calling PTC as a brand!), build library of parts, develop our design practice, and now you literally betrayed us.
We purchased Pro/ENGINEER long time ago and fought bad with our seniors, technicians, shopfloor guys that Pro/E is the best in industry, better than SolidWork, better than Inventor because it can do this, it can do that and so. We put so much effort to prove that brand is good, honest and stable. We fought to build Pro/E name. But we didn’t know that it is not loyal.
Now what? What I should tell my guys? There are no more Pro/E! It’s gone, over night? Now there is new guy Creo! What? Who is going to believe that I know what am I doing!? Now there is something new, which is mix of everything and sitting on the shoulders of giants and calling itself revolution.
We as customers always have to struggle anytime when you create new interface, and change our old habits. That is fine and we are not happy when this is happening but we have to. So we learn to swallow that. But this! This is too much. You’ve went to far. You’ve showed so much disrespect to us that I feel sick now when I open PTC home page and don’t see Pro/ENGINEER anywhere on the product list.
Even more, when I open PTC website I don’t understand the names at all. What means Creo Elements/Pro! Who is giving such a wrong an confusing names? I couldn’t even find Pro/Mechanica so I have to use Google search. What a mess, what a shame. Even worse, there is creo.com color service. Oh… this hurts.
But after all and the most important, there is hope for us. Yes, we do have a future by staying with Pro/E. (I’m not going to say Cr.. because it just sounds awful). It is not bright, rather just good enough for having some shelter. Files will be safe, drawings like before, but we are not going to upgrade any time soon. We’ll wait. You just hold tight, this is going to be rough ride for you and as you said, you will not have to want 20 years to see the results.
Pred
Desing Development Manager
IEM, California
P.S. If this is happening at the time when we made decision what software to purchase, I wouldn’t make blink of my eye. I would put SolidWork as a platform. I don’t need such week brand that doesn’t care for customers at all, a company that is driven by MBAs, not customers. Imagine that Microsoft kills Microsoft Office? Would that ever happen? I’m asking you?
Pred
I completely feel and appreciate your passion. And I certainly can’t/won’t suggest that there’s a magical response I can give you to ease your concerns. But I can assure you that Pro/ENGINEER is not dead. Yes, the name has changed, but the same capabilities (plus many more) will exist in Creo and all existing Pro/E data will be fully usable.
I think we may soon reach the limits of a good and valuable dialog via social media. Speaking live may be the best. If you agree and contact me at shoe@ptc.com with a number, I’d be happy to discuss your specific concerns live.
Thanks,
Tom
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