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The Shaughnessy Report: Who is Your EDA Company's Customer?

At first glance, that sounds like a simple question, with a simple answer. Some of you may be thinking, “I’m the EDA tool company’s customer. My tool provider serves me, the designer.”

But I’ve heard from a growing number of PCB designers who disagree. Not all designers are in this group; it’s definitely not a majority. But here’s a helpful composite of the various stories I’ve collected from designers lately:

The company’s designers discover that their company is considering a new layout tool when the CAD manager tells them. The CAD manager only found out by accident from his boss, or the purchasing manager, CTO, CEO, or any of the other executive types who need to sign off on this sort of thing. If you’re talking about multiple seats of software that runs around six figures (at least officially), the corner office folks will have to be involved.

So, the search for a new PCB design suite is underway. The designers have used other design tools at previous jobs, so they know a thing or two about the tool landscape. The designers do a little research, talk to their designer friends, check out a listserv forum or two, attend a trade show, and recommend the tool suite they think is best for their work.

Then upper management takes over, and upper management is not often composed of ex-PCB designers. Managers fly in reps from various EDA companies, and the three-hour lunches ensue. Some designers say the execs make the final decision, and the designers are the last ones to know about the new tool.

One designer said his company made a tool purchase solely because his managers were good friends with an AE at a different EDA company. It’s good to know the right people, and you should have a close relationship with your PCB design tool company.

None of which would matter if the designers still wound up getting the right tools for their particular projects. But too often, to hear designers tell it, their managers are swayed more by the EDA companies’ marketing schemes than by the tools’ actual functionality. Managers fall for buzzwords and hyperbole, designers tell me. Yes, I know that’s hard to believe.

The result? Designers end up with a tool that’s more difficult to use than their old tool, or just clunky and not right for their designs, and they wonder what the hell happened.Read the full column here.Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the November 2014 issue of The PCB Design Magazine.