The Sean D. School of Business
January 13th, 2006
We have been evaluating 3D Parametric design software at work for the past few months. Our engineering department wants to transition everything from 2D drawings done in AutoCAD to 3D drawings. Additionally we are looking for a product configurator application which will work in conjunction with the 3D software to help dealers input more accurate orders and let Order Processing more easily get orders to the manufacturing floor. For the 3D software we were looking at Solidworks and AutoDesk Inventor. Solidworks pairs with the configurator software Driveworks and Inventor with a product called Engineering Intent. Despite the fact that the Engineering Intent CEO (prior to their aquisition by AutoDesk) came here and spent two days with us, they never did manage to understand exactly what we do here. We told them that we are a configure-to-order company but they kept referring to engineer-to-order processes, because that’s what they know. We told them several times that we are not concerned with an offline client to help salespeople at this time, but they kept going on about it. All-in-all, we decided that Solidworks is a better 3D package and Driveworks a better configurator for our needs.
Our head of operations emailed the guys at Engineering Intent and thanked them for all their help. He told them they had a very good product but we had decided to go with their competitor at this time because it is a better fit for our needs. In response they replied, CCing our CEO and CFO in the process, with a lengthy email telling us that we did’t try hard enough to make the right decision. They basically told us that we made the wrong decision and belittled the amount of work we put into making the decision. All this despite the fact that they still haven’t given us an up-to-date quote which was requested in November.
I have come to realize that these clowns must have gone to the Sean D. School of Business. Sean D. is in charge of a small software development firm here in town. Practially everyone I know who has worked for him (5 people at quick count) believes that he is a total clown. I have done contract work for him and, in my experience, he is a total clown. It seems that this man and the guys at Engineering Intent are of the opinion that insulting your customer or potential customer is a great way to garner their business. Well, that and offering sub-standard products.
