As a engineering software development firm, we offer a complete range of services to help our clients maintain a competitive edge in their respective markets.

Any general-purpose engineering software can help a particular organization to a extent, but will not completely meet all the needs. Most good software packages are open ended, which allows great amount of customization by the users. However, a majority of the organizations are not in a position to exploit the customization capabilities of such software. This leads to a general disappointment over the productivity increase expected from the use of the software.

A company using a CAD package, like AutoCAD, for more than one year would have definitely felt the need for customizing it so as to improve their productivity by automating the routine design and drafting jobs. Such a task requires in-depth knowledge of the programming aspects of the CAD package. While this knowledge can be acquired through various training programs, a high level of expertise is required before any effective and timesaving programs can be written.

Advantage of a customized solutions
Using computers as an aid in our day to day work is possibly the first step in increasing productivity. But using it just as a replacement to whatever method we use manually will not justify the usage. For this the potential of a computer and the software that run on it should be properly explored and leveraged.

Customization capabilities
Most general-purpose CAD software like AutoCAD offers programming capabilities to the user to customize in his own way. Using these programming interfaces, a number of additional applications can be developed which can automate most of your day-to-day activities and many not so often used ones too. Despite this, in most of the cases, AutoCAD is used as a costly electronic drawing board, with very little customization and almost no automation. There are two possible methods with which the capabilities of AutoCAD can be greatly enhanced.

a) Third party applications
The first one is to buy a commercially available third party application, which should meet most of the immediate needs of an organization. The disadvantage of this option is that the add-on software, since it in itself is generalized, cannot meet the complete requirements of the organization.

b) Customized solutions
The second one is to have a completely customized solution developed specifically for your organization. The advantage of this option is that the software will be developed to meet all your requirements, as the technical specifications for the software will be totally defined by you. Therefore, you can make the add-on application as exhaustive and problem-specific as possible. All the standards used by your organization, even if they are developed by your own organization, can be incorporated as the default engineering system into the software, with an option of supporting as many different standards as required.

Even after the development is complete, any changes to the specification or any additional features required can be incorporated, which means that the software can evolve over a period of time. Any bugs can be fixed easily, as the software will undergo extensive testing before being actually implemented.

Though this process seems to meet all the requirements of the organization, it is a very lengthy and time-consuming option. Many a time, the time taken to implement larger solutions extends beyond 7-8 months. This might even result in teams getting changed, which would mean an ideology change. This might even kill the basic idea with which the solution was envisaged.

Any solution needs time to get accepted by an organization. It also needs time for the company to realize return on investment (ROI) made on the solution. Due to some of the disadvantages inherent in the method mentioned above, many companies have failed to implement automation solution despite spending valuable time and money.

c) Customized solutions
A new trend has evolved in the last couple of years where large organizations have opted for a blend of both the above mentioned ways. They first choose a product, which can be termed as a core product meeting 75-80% of their requirement. This core product will then be customized to meet some of the very specific requirements of the organization. The advantage of this method is a reduction in the overall implementation phase. The core product can be implemented as a product and in a shorter time and further customization can also be done on this core product.