Does A Solid Edge Publicity Department Really Exist?

I have been thinking about this at great length and I conclude that in spite of what I was told about publicity and my commitment not to talk about it for a while I have to now comment. The reason for the original decision is I think still valid but there is another problem that is systemic with UGS/SE and now Siemens and it is a different one.  It is a publicity department that does not have a clue about the passing of time and what to do. 3D has asked me questions for instance about the rent SE by the month announced at SEU2013. And here we are a week after and just nothing.

Lets look at this particular problem. I believe this was one of the major vehicles being offered to entice potential full-time new customers. So here we are heading into SEU2013 and we know it exists. Karsten talks about it and speaks of it in the keynote address. So you publicity wonks, I now have a few questions for you. Why was there not a cohesive plan to promote this with details worked out and on the shelf ready to go on day one in Cincy? Why do I have to sit here two weeks later and tell people I don’t know because you either don’t know or can’t make a decision to tell the public about it? I thought the days of Bruce Boes advertising paralysis were over but by golly I find myself wanting to look behind closed doors to see if he is still here. Do you people understand that you only have one major event/product release a year and you have to utilize it to benefit from it? The buzz never burst upon the scene in my opinion because it is the same old same old long time employee total lack of vision and do it the way we have always done it because my head might hurt if I do something radical. And apparently profuse timely publicity and the free flow of information is a radical concept to these publicity people.

Here is another one. There is to be some sort of ST only version of SE that  I believe was created for two reasons at around $2,000.00 I think if I remember this right. My belief is that it was meant to be a competitor to things like SpaceClaim as a direct editing reduced function program for CAM users to use and also as a cheap way of getting the power of ST into more hands. I don’t hear anything about this and I thought this was a big deal. Evidently the PR department thought it was not as they can’t be bothered to talk much about it or provide many details about it that I have seen.

Where are the ready to go videos showing the power of ST in assemblies this year? Why were these not done well in advance of SEU2013 and posted on YouTube on 6-25-13? Now that I think about it why were there not videos on every important aspect of ST6 posted on YouTube no later than the first day of SEU2013? You knew what you had to work with six months ahead of time and I just have this vision of people standing in a room with a dart board in front of them. It has various PR categories around the bullseye and after the darts are thrown the arguments ensue and the whole process starts over again and again. I can just see it. A dart misses the board and now we have to debate if this means there was a category that should have been on there but wasn’t and nothing is ever decided or done.

I was forbidden to talk about some of the things I knew about CAMWorks because, well because someone somewhere decided that the perfect and anointed time to do so had not arrived. A totally farcical situation considering the fact that this whole integration and the company it was to be done with had been publicly announced A YEAR AGO! Do you people understand that if you talk about it and have a vendor there showing it in SEU2012 it is not secret to be hidden knowledge? Alright let me see if I can put it in terms you all might understand. When PT Barnum comes to town they make a big deal out of it and they have (shocking I know, the very thought scares me) a PARADE to entice the public to be their customers. So as I remember, you PR guys can help out here if you wish, the only mention for the next ten months about this came from a blogger that does not reach all that many people. But for months I did more to promote CAMWorks for SE than Siemens did and I just don’t get this disconnect. Is there something wrong here or am I just an idiot for thinking that if you want people to buy your product your better promote the bejeebers out of it?

Which leads me to my next topic. Where the heck is all the info, the Powerpoints and videos from SEU2013? Do you ever intend to release these? You do know the time to have done so was 6-25-13 don’t you? It should have been canned and upped on the site of choice and ready to go with links active the night before SEU started. You do want to create buzz don’t you? You do want to compel people to consider SE don’t you? Then here is a suggestion from Remedial Marketing 101. I say remedial for a reason because evidently some individuals have to be taught first that marketing has value before they are taught how to do it. Tell you what. I don’t have to sit in a room and argue with people or worry about perfect timing or whatever you guys do that stops worthwhile plans and efforts dead in its tracks. I was given a flash drive as were HUNDREDS of other attendees and it has the SEU2013 Powerpoints on it. (You know, the ones you have not released yet. But they are public and this is what bothers me so much. WHY oh WHY is this stuff not out there yet that I can find) I am going to help you guys get off the dime and give you a week to stop prevaricating. Then I will figure out how to post the whole thing to my blog.  Who do I send the bill to by the way for doing your job for you?

Heaven help me and I know JB will have a field day with this but the day Jon Banquer makes more advertising sense than what I am seeing from the PR wonks at Siemens or SE or whoever it is responsible for this mess I just cringe. Can you imagine that even he is getting this right but none of the paid advertising people are? I have to admit that I find defending inaction is not a task I am up to and so I am not going to. I guess the idea of “The Best Software You’ve Never Heard Of” has legitimacy as advertising genius to “The Best Publicity Department We Never Hear From”.

I think hands down SE in its combination with CAMWorks is the single most powerful mid range MCAD program for manufacturing out there. I believe in it enough to spend my own time promoting it and I don’t get compensated to do so. As a matter of fact it costs me some money and time out of my life I can’t replace because I do believe in it. It makes me furious to watch this neglect from those who are paid to promote SE not do so and not do so for year after year. I can’t conceive that once again we are heading down the path of anonymity and the opportunity provided for PR with SEU2013 is being squandered for reasons I don’t know and can’t begin to fathom.

Why don’t you people get off of your dead rear ends and start earning your money? I am at the point where I don’t care if people in the PR department are offended because I darned sure am offended. What do you people do with your time? What can you possibly be thinking to let this precious time go by? Dassault and Autodesk are doing everything they can to destroy their businesses and all the plans that Karsten and his team come up with for the future are just shot down by your incompetence. This is your last year to get it right. I don’t believe this hiatus of coherent planning at Autodesk or Dassault will last more than another year. When they get whipsawed by declining on-maintenance and new customers they will reconsider their ways and your free ride will be OVER. These guys know what they are doing in PR and they will eat your lunch.

The question is do you even care?

Update 7-9-13

Had a Faroarm rep here today at the shop. While talking I of course mention SE. I mention SE because he was talking about Faroarms being integrated through Dezignworks to work with Solid Works, ProE and Inventor. We continue talking and he is familiar with SpaceClaim because some of the machine shops that have Faroarms are using it with the new Spark program. He has heard of SE just a few times over the last five years.  WAY TO GO MARKETING AND PR!! I know very well there are a number of SE users in Tennessee which is this guys district but he does not and this is the result of a total failure to effectively communicate the SE message here.  I hate it when people look at me like I am delusional when I say this software they have rarely or never heard of is better than SW. I just wish I could send these people straight to the publicity/marketing departments of SE so they could see what dismal failures they have been at getting the word out.

The primary reason he had not dealt with SE is because nothing has been set up with Faro to work natively inside of SE. And of course the lack of any publicity for SE reaching him through the internet or other media.