Rediscovering Engagement with the IFWE Loop

I have a group of friends in France. We have been going to the same school together since grade 1 in Saigon. At that time, grade 1 was called classe 11ème, under the french academic system. Our teacher was French. The school name was Lycée Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was just next to the Presidential Palace. Every time I return to Paris, visiting family and catching up with my children, we always try to arrange a diner with this group of friends. No need to say that it’s almost impossible to have everyone coming together. It was so difficult to find a slot that fit everyone, despite all the modern communication tools that we have, WhatsApp or Messenger. We would be lucky if we missed only 2 or 3 guys, out of a dozen. However, it’s much better than email. We could end up with over hundred email threads for one night diner. And the next email thread would be the location. By the time we all agree on timing and location, my 7-day leave is almost over.

In the early days of SOLIDWORKS, we had only 1 product, SOLIDWORKS with few add-ons. We needed one engineer to demonstrate SOLIDWORKS to customers. And we needed 3 days to train the user with one training manual. That was it.

25 years later, we need more than 2 hands to count all the products that we are offering to customers. Those are products that are developed by us. It’s almost impossible to have 1 engineer demonstrate SOLIDWORKS to customers. We need at least 3 technical sales engineers or even more, to demonstrate SOLIDWORKS, SOLIDWORKS Simulation, SOLIDWORKS PDM, SOLIDWORKS Electrical, SOLIDWORKS CAM, etc … Now with the 3DEXPERIENCE WORKS portfolio, we almost double the number of products we are offering to customers.

Imagine what it takes the Sales executive to arrange a meeting with a potential customer. Imagine the number of Technical Sales engineers that need to be available on a particular time to meet the customer with all the stakeholders.

It’s pretty much the same resource required to organize a trade show or seminar. And you do it week after week. And the team travels altogether to the same place. Technically, it’s not sustainable. The COVID-19 pandemic and travel restriction have forced everyone to find another way to engage with the customer. We need to keep our distance while staying in the same room. We wouldn’t feel comfortable talking with the mouth covered by a face mask. We need a new tool or new way to engage with customers beyond email and phone call and messaging. Video calls or online group presentations like GoToMeeting, WebEx or Zoom, are good when you can’t travel to meet up with customers. But you need to find a time slot that is convenient for everyone.

3DSwym community would be a perfect tool. It’s on the cloud. That means it’s available anywhere, any time on any device. We make a private community where members are the customers and us. We invite whoever wants to know about the solution that we are offering. Industry consultants can join the community whenever his expertise is needed. We can share with customers design data, documents, knowledge, best practices in all kinds of format, from 3D data to PDF, images, videos, links to external sources. We build and present what would be the solution for the customers. Customers check the information and details whenever it’s convenient while keeping its activities running as usual. IFWE Loop engagement via 3DSwym community, is the most comprehensive engagement post-COVID-19 or the new normal way of working.

In another word, we engage with our customers using the same tool that we use internally, and it’s the same tool that we are offering to customers. No wonder, we call it the “IFWE Loop”.