Over the past few days, there has been a stirring of dust among the Solidworks Blog community in regards to new fee policies being instituted by Solidworks for customers who allow their subscriptions to lapse.
The current 'mini-firestorm' seems to have been ignited over on Matt Lombard's Blog. His tirade against the new fee policies drew further harsh criticism from fellow Solidworks blogger, and photoworks guru Rob Rodriguez who went as far as to call for Solidworks users to refuse to renew their Solidworks subscriptions.
Solidworks has not been quiet on the subject however. In a response to Matt's original post, Rich Welch who is the Vice President of customer services for Solidworks, replied to the criticism with an explanation of the increased fee structure. Evidently neither Rob or Matt are buying into his response.
So is the policy fair? Well from a business standpoint our company will never find out, because we realize that software, and the costs associated are all part of doing business. Therefore we never allow our subscriptions to lapse, hence we will never have to pay the fees associated with that scenario. Granted both Matt and Rob are entrepreneurs, and software costs can be a big part of their annual expenditures. At our company, I have an annual budget that I also have to maintain, and included in that is the cost associated with maintaining four seats of solidworks, including one premium license.
So what is the solution? Well fortunately for us, we all live in a great country that offers a market system. So for those truly upset with the new policy, I offer you up a couple of links. Below you can find direct links to competing Cad software sites where you can request information about obtaining their software:
The problems with switching to any of these other brands is that they simply aren't as good as Solidworks. The problem with boycotts is they simply don't work, and are meaningless (how many gas boycott emails have you received?).
So does that mean that we should allow Solidworks to sit back, and reap the rewards of their popularity? Not at all. In fact Solidworks 2008, and 2009 is a perfect example of that. Solidworks 2008 was revolutionary in terms of changing the way the 3D Cad interface looked. Solidworks could have simply sat back and let some other company lead the way, but they once again proved that their vision was one that every other Cad company would follow. Take a look at the other Cad packages available, and they have all pretty much followed in the footsteps of Solidworks. 2009 takes the next leap in changing the performance of 3D Cad software. In those regards I believe 100% that my subscription fees have been very well spent, and I have no issue whatsoever signing the requisitions for another years service. Once I see the innovation at Solidworks end, thats when it will be time to move on. Of course, that would be the beginning of the end for Solidworks.
All in all there is one very simple way to avoid the whole fee issue all together. Stay current on your subscriptions! At a former employer, someone once recommended that we could wash the shop rags ourself to save some money. The simple reply to that suggestion was that somethings are just the cost of doing business.
So in the mean time, before Matt and Rob take my advice and switch to another package, be sure to buy their books that they have written about the Solidworks software. Links are provided below:
Matt's Solidworks 2009 Bible (sorry, no link yet)













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