[Jewelry making - Article 01007] - Re: [Orchid] 3Design Jewel

[kgoeller]

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    Neil,  I had, in reading your original post, assumed that you had
    simply left off the traditional "just a satisfied customer" tag to
    indicate that you had no connection to the company producing the
    product, and that your review was, therefore, unbiased.  Your reply
    cleared that up, and I now understand that you are involved in
    marketing the product and possibly investing in it.  That gives me a
    different take on your defense of it. 

    At any rate, I think you seriously misconstrued my comments
    regarding the product's price.  I am not knocking the product or its
    possible ability to improve some jewelers' productivity.  However,
    the entry point for purchasing an initial license of roughly $5000
    makes it unaffordable for many SMALL and INDEPENDENT designers and
    jewelers, even when that cost is amortized over years. 

    Many of us have already made the investment in Rhino and Flamingo --
    that cost included not only software, but computer platform to
    process efficiently, courses, and learning curve.  Once that
    investment is made on a mental and fiscal basis, your argument must
    be much more compelling than the one stated to impel change that
    involves RElearning and REworking process as well as software.  The
    true cost of change of this nature isn't the cost of the software --
    it's the cost of the software combined with lost productivity while
    learning the new software, the "lost" cost of the old software if
    not fully amortized, the cost of transitioning existing designs and
    design libraries into the new software, time to spend on courses and
    tutorials to learn the new sofware, etc. 

    In the software industry -- where I spent over 20 years before going
    full time with my jewelry work -- we knew that the hardest thing to
    do was to convert a customer (even a dissatisfied one) from a
    competitor's product.  The argument made must be incredibly
    compelling and the customer had to see the COST of STAYING, rather
    than the cost of moving.  Additionally, the price points had to be
    very carefully targeted to the demographic segment we were
    addressing within that market. 

    If you are looking to convert small, independent artisan jewelers, I
    truly believe your price point is too high for MOST of us.  On the
    other hand, if you are looking toward high-volume production
    jewelers, then you may be right on target.  I believe that must be
    what you're targeting based on your statement that you cannot view
    this as a single-user entity.  But if that's the case, the marketing
    materials (website) should clearly state that, which they do not. 

    I applaud you and your company for looking "outside the box" and
    coming up with "pay for play" solutions and possible alliances with
    service bureaus.  If you can get some of the better service bureaus
    to agree to make the investment, that will remove part of the
    barrier to entry for some. 

    I have to tell you, though, that I was amused by the following
    quote: 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. Been in a fine
    restaurant's kitchen lately?  Prep is done with a knife almost
    exclusively -- knife skills are taught as a full semester course at
    cooking schools and a well-trained chef can outperform a food
    processor for just about any task.  It's largely the
    less-experienced home user / hobbyist who relies on the productivity
    enhancing tools like the food processor.  Extending that analogy to
    the software model, the functionality of 3Design would be more
    attractive to the hobbyist/casual designer rather than the
    professional.  NOT that I think that's true -- just pointing out
    that the obvious isn't always what you think it is. 

    Either way, you should re-think some of your approach to student
    licensing.  What students in art school are exposed to and learn to
    use -- and to make "sing" -- is what they will leave that school
    with a powerful loyalty to.  Right now, they are leaving those
    schools with good knowledge of Rhino/Flamingo.  They are going to
    employers who are looking for expertise in Rhino/Flamingo, which
    they have installed and invested in.  OR, they are going to smaller
    employers who are thinking about expanding into CAD... they become
    evangelists for the technology they know and influence the purchase
    of Rhino. 

    One way to influence change is to start with the students.  You do
    that with student/educator pricing that is attractive to the school
    community.  You get the teachers to learn the product and they
    become your marketing tool, convincing the administration to invest
    in a lab license for a course they will teach on it.  They attract
    students and teach them, then those students take the message of how
    great the software is out into the world. 

    Viewing students as "competitors" simply because they have the same
    software available to them (albeit at a lower cost than you paid) is
    like Picasso worrying about students being able to get a discount on
    their oil paints and canvas at the local art store.  It's not about
    the price of the software -- it's about what you bring to it in
    design sense and ability.  I don't know of a single student who has
    the mature design sense and knowledge of engineering required to
    outdesign most of the members of this list... people like Sam
    Patania, Cynthia Eid, Trish MacAleer, Peter Rowe, and many others
    too numerous to name.  Students are using the same equipment that
    these people are using, but don't have a mature vision that comes
    from living the art for a length of time.  No software in the world
    will give them that... it only comes from experience and life....
    it's something that I and many other aspire to. 

Respects, 
Karen Goeller
kgoeller AT nolimitations.com
No Limitations Designs
www.nolimitations.com


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