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What's it worth to you?
Increasing quality of life for the
overworked CAD manager
by Ivan Pena, Vice President for Marketing, Axiom
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According to a survey conducted
by Northwestern National Life Insurance, 40%
of working people feel their job is “very or extremely
stressful”. CAD managers
are no different. |
Today’s CAD manager needs help. Whether
communicating with decision-makers or supporting all his users,
the CAD manager is spread too thin. I am willing to bet that
the bulk of the CAD manager’s time is spent handling
emergencies, instead of finding new ways to improve his and
his staff’s job satisfaction. So why not get some outside
help?
What is Utility Software?
Utility software consists of programs that enable you to get
your job done faster and more efficiently. Utility software
handles redundant and time-consuming tasks by automating processes
that take too long by the usual means. The programs in MicroStation
Productivity Toolkit are utilities. Each solves a specific
problem and increases the productivity of the user, by saving
time while performing tedious, time-consuming tasks.
CAD Managers Spread Too Thin
At Axiom, we understand that saving time is your principal
objective. According to Robert Green’s “CAD Manager
2005 Survey”, 26% of CAD managers reported that “their
number-one frustration was not having enough time to do their
job well.” Surprised? Here are some other numbers from
the survey:
• Only 31% of CAD managers perform their management duties
full time.
• 61% are in salaried positions (average salary: $53,847,
or roughly $27 per hour)
• A CAD manager supports an average of 41 CAD users.
• 16% have purchasing authority.
Cost Justification and the Return
on Investment
No matter how good the software is, you still have to explain
its value — to yourself and to other decision-makers
— in a language that they understand: money. This
is why the CAD manager has to be business savvy and understand
how the money folk think. This is where cost justification
and return on investment analysis come in handy.
Cost justification is the process of determining the return
on an investment. The savings are measured and evaluated relative
to the cost of the product.
We are on the same page if we agree that everything you spend
your budget on should greatly contribute to your production.
It is with this principle in mind that I present you four
scenarios in which having a utility program reduced frustration
and saved significant amounts of time.
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| Loosen your puchasing authority’s
purse strings with cost justification and return-on-investment
calculations. |
Scenario 1
One of our customers reported the following costs associated
with importing Excel spreadsheets into design files using
MicroStation by itself: $27 (average CAD manager hourly rate)
x 2.75 (average number of hours it takes to completely import
a spreadsheet) x 15 (number of monthly work days that at least
one spreadsheet is imported) x 12 months = $13,365 per year
spent importing spreadsheets.
Here is the cost of importing Excel spreadsheets into MicroStation
files using Axiom’s Microsoft Office Importer:
$27 (average CAD manager hourly rate) x 4 (average number
of minutes it takes to import a spreadsheet using Microsoft
Office Importer) x 15 (number of monthly work days that
at least one spreadsheet is imported) x 12 months = $324 per
year spent importing spreadsheets using Microsoft Office
Importer. Total yearly savings due to Microsoft Office
Importer: $13,041.
After subtracting software costs, maintenance fees and training
time, the return on investment in the first year of the use
of the software is a staggering 1268%.
Scenario 2
One of our FileFixer customers commented, “FileFixer
ends up saving us approximately 400 man-hours in a year. We
couldn’t be nearly as productive without it.” If
we apply the $27-per-hour rate to this scenario, we have a
return on investment in the first year of 233%.
Scenario 3
Another scenario, “whenever any MicroStation file came
back from the client, our drafters would spend an average
of about two hours finding and correcting the CAD standard
violations. If one figures that we get about 20 files sent
back to us by the client, that it took the drafter about two
hours to spot and correct the violations, and that there are
about two to three submissions in the lifecycle of our design
projects, this totaled approximately 120 man-hours per project
spent in corrections — time spent not earning any new
revenue!” Instead of doing it the hard way, the firm
now uses SpecChecker and gets the work done in five
minutes.
In dollars, that is savings upwards of $3,240 in man-hours
and a 33% return on investment after just the first project!
Scenario 4
One of our customers had 400 design files in a project where
a non-standard set of cells was used throughout the design
process. They had to replace thousands of instances of multiple
cells throughout all 400 design files. They were looking at
330 man-hours to fix this and a late delivery of the project.
However, using Global File Changer, they were able
to update all 400 design files with the “Replace Cells”
function in a little over three hours — this includes
a 20-minutes setup and about three hours of computer-processing
time without an operator present — which was only 1%
of the time the design team estimated they would have spent
making the changes by hand. In dollars, after subtracting
software costs, maintenance and training, the savings are
around $4,750 or 135% return on investment in a single run
of the program.
What’s more is that these scenarios don’t take into
account the value of work that users get done in addition
to the savings.
Preaching to the Choir
I know that most of this you have heard before, but it doesn’t
hurt to hear it one more time. Make the vendors vying for
your budget dollars work for you. Use their resources to get
your projects done faster and more accurately and don’t
be afraid to try and implement new technology.
I encourage you to contact Axiom and schedule a no-obligation,
one-on-one online demonstration with one of our product managers
to discuss how MicroStation Productivity Toolkit can
greatly increase your rate of production and maximize the
return on your budget dollars.
Call now!
For more information on MicroStation
Productivity Toolkit contact an Axiom MicroStation
Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 9559 or e-mail
9559@AxiomInt.com.
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