[Jewelry making - Article 00915] - Re: [Orchid] 3Design Jewel

[Neil George]

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    Karen, I will answer your questions accordingly. 

>         Neil, Based on your glowing recommendation, I visited the
>     website for 3Design Jewel.  It does, indeed, look like an
>     impressive product and one that I would love to someday try. 
>     However, its pricing places it WAY outside the market for many
>     (most?) of us smaller artisan jewelers and probably out of the
>     range of many independent jewelers, with a single license being
>     $4900 (USD). 

    I fully respect your thoughts on pricing, however, in my opinion
    price means little at the end of the day when it comes to calculating
    productivity which equals profits. I agree that the front end would
    be a high priced solution for many individuals, but that's the
    problem. Are you looking at your investment as a short term scenario,
    or is this deemed as a long term investment? 

    If an individual design 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and you saved
    just 20% of your time utilizing a more practical solution, then you
    just saved yourself a full day of work in one week alone, and given
    vacations of 2 weeks being taken out of the equation, it becomes 50
    days in a year. Depending on your shop rate, and lets say its $30 an
    hour, you either took 50 days more vacation whilst earning the same,
    which is what I like, or you made an additional $12,000 for the year. 

    My shop rate is $75 to $250 per hour depending on which solutions
    are being applied.  So taking that $30 may be a low ball scenario,
    work out exactly what your shop rate is and calculated your
    situation. 

>     If you don't need machine output capability (which leaves you with
>     exactly what??), you can get a single license for $2000. 

    It means you get to use it and learn it at a reduced cost initially.
    In reality you would upgrade to the full version somewhere down the
    road. Additionally you cannot view this as a single user entity only.
    What is important here, is that a company who has several designers
    in house, purchases one master copy and as many of the $2,000 copies
    as necessary. A huge savings. 

    A lot of thought has been put into the marketing strategies and also
    how we can assist those with limited budgets to get their feet wet.
    Here are some possible scenarios 

    1)  Set up an users group of no less than ten individuals or
    Companies and hook up with a Service Bureau and come to an agreement
    where he orders the software for all 10 users which you pay for, and
    he buys the master copy to process. It would be under a one year
    agreement with the service provider enabling that entity to justify
    making an investment. 

    2) A Service Bureau as part of its customers service relations, may
    buy a master copy and 10 additional seats which he can provide to his
    customers for free, and also under a one year agreement. After that
    year is done the customer can either buy a copy and move on, or take
    on another annual contract.  I guess a quota of some sort may be
    needed, maybe not. If it did not work out the Service Bureau would
    take back his copy, and give it to someone else. 

    3) I will know more on Monday, but there is a solution in the works
    right now and only weeks away, where you will be able to run this
    software for a monthly fee. I know the question will arise if the
    amount spent monthly, will be deducted from the price when purchased.
    There will be a concession, but I will not know what all insundries
    have agreed upon until Monday 

    Many ways to look at it, only have to think outside the box a
    little. 

>         Considering that the Rhino/Flamingo/Penguin software is
>     available for a $1295 including machine-compatible format output
>     capability and full rendering, I don't see how I could justify
>     paying 3x that amount. 

    Justification is not always about price, even if the cheque book
    does allow for it, but in reality justification should be governed by
    productivity. Your investment in everyday tools in the kitchen like
    food processors attest to the fact that we do indeed look for time
    saving solutions. Yes home cooking like mama used to make, is all
    very nice and gives us all a warm feeling, but who has the time today
    to prep all of the required ingredients with just a knife. 

    I guess a rather stronger point would be, and it is not meant to
    offend, is, if an user has utilized lets say Rhino for a year or two,
    and has not accumulated the financial means to progress and improve
    capabilities, then there is something drastically wrong. Many, many
    questions need to be asked by users and potential users before they
    even consider adding more tools or entering the technological arena
    for the first time. My feeling is that if an individual or a Company
    has not increased revenue by utilizing technology, then there are
    many issues that need to be addressed before any further commitment
    is made. Those who are no better off today after adopting to use
    technology, should not invest further, because the fundamental
    foundation of the business is totally unsound. For those who are
    overwhelmed with the need for a faster turn around and see from a
    financial perspective that they have benefited from said technology,
    should re-invest in the immerging solutions and continue to grow.
    Those who did not progress and obtain some financial gain have
    issues to address. Is the software to blame?, is the user to blame?,
    or is the lack of business to blame. Well the first one being the
    software, you have a chance to improve by moving up in power and ease
    of use. The second one regarding the user, you have a chance to
    improve because of the intuitive interface. If it's lack of
    customers, well that speaks for it self. 

>          Rhino also has very attractive student/educational pricing
>     options (which those of us who take or teach jewelry classes at
>     accredited institutions quality for) that make the Rhino/Flamingo
>     bundle available for $215. 

    Personally I hope they never come out with a student bundle and that
    may look like I am being selfish or self serving towards the student,
    and why I should hope to deprive them of software. However on the
    flip side, it would be selfish and self serving of the student to
    become my or anyone else's competitor at a tenth of what I invested
    to get the same thing. I am a firm believer in "if you wanna play,
    you gotta pay". The sweat and tears that myself and many others put
    into building a business, only to have someone enter the same arena
    without the grief and financial commitment that we went through. That
    in my opinion is not right. I believe that if an individual or a
    business is investing in any form or manner in software and hardware,
    then they should be protected, and not undermined in any shape or
    form. 

>         I asked Vision Numeric and they do not have any educational
>     pricing options available.  The best they could recommend was to
>     get the instructor the $4900 version and the students each the
>     $2000 one. Obviously, they don't know diddly about the likelihood
>     of most educational insitutions being able or willing to fork over
>     that type of money for a single course track. 

    Well I guess not, but then again, they are software developers and
    not an Educational Institution. 

    Maybe the comment can be reversed, and maybe I can ask you if you
    know what it takes to write millions or trillions of lines of code to
    develop a viable solution? 

    I don't have a clue about the education environment or writing code
    at that level, so if it's any conciliation, you know 50% more than I
    do :-) 

>         So for the time being, I'll be sticking with Rhino/Flamingo
>     for my modeling needs.  Yes, it will make me do more of my own
>     work, rather than relying on a template library of stones and
>     mountings.  But that actually might force me to be more creative. 

    I do not see where you cannot be creative with 3Design also.  Maybe
    more so, because now you will accomplish more than what you currently
    may accomplish in the same time frame.It is a very powerful tool with
    or without a Library. 

    Anyway Karen, your comments where very much appreciated and I hope I
    answered them accordingly. 

Very Best Regards.
Neil George
954-572-5829



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