While doing some research recently I was amazed to find that there isn’t a single complete and accurate listing of all of the tools available in the EDA industry.  Did I miss something?

Gary Smith has a list of companies and where they fit within the design flow.  While a good starting point, there are no tools and unfortunately the list is “frozen in amber” as a pdf file.  There is a partial lists over at OCP-IP, but again it is semi-frozen as a static html page.

But of course, to build and maintain a list of the hundreds of development tools in the industry would be a monumental task!  Add in all of the new IP and embedded software tools and to accurately maintain this list would be a full-time job for quite a few people!

This is where the power of the community can leveraged!

There is an open, member-editable catalog of technology within the Xuropa Online Community.  Anyone can add a favorite tool, piece of IP or a chip or system.  A start has been made, but it needs your help!

Sign-in to the Xuropa Platform here and from the landing page go to Products>Add Product in the drop down menus.

The electronic design technology landscape is too dynamic for a static catalog, but together we can make a member managed catalog to bring greater visibility and understanding to the industry.

Register a product you’ve used or developed and be recognized as a contributor!

Posted under Features, industry, marketing

The fundamental challenge for marketing technology products, whether they are cool consumer electronics gadgets or EDA tools, is “getting the message out”.  Specifically, articulating and communicating a relevant value proposition to the potential user.

During these uncertain times when marketing budgets are limited, companies cannot affordably maintain consistent and engaging messaging using traditional marketing techniques.  At the same time, everyone in the company knows that if you could just get the users to see the technology they’d “get it”.

Your user base is made up of highly experienced engineers that have to deal with real challenges that your product solves - if they could see your technology in action, or better yet use your product themselves, you’d have moved the ball forward significantly in acquiring those new users.

But how can you get your product in front of a globally distributed user base when you have so few applications engineers (AE), and most of those are allocated to supporting existing users?  Even if the AE’s were available, can you afford to spend your already limited travel budget on on-site demonstrations when the chances of converting the potential user are still very much unknown?

Website Downloads Don’t Work

In order to reach their potential user base, some companies have made evaluation versions of their products available as downloads from their website.  This strategy has generally proven to be ineffective and can actually do more harm than good.  The potential user can experience problems such as installation and configuration issues; environment incompatibilities or a lack of user interface comprehension.  Worst of all, you have little to no visibility into the process and thus only limited feedback as to the user’s experience.

Xuropa Online Labs Work

The ideal solution is now available via Xuropa Online Labs.  Once your product is set up in a secure Xuropa Online Lab, the user can access it via their web browser at any time, anywhere - no downloads, no installation and no configuration necessary.  The product is ready to to go whenever they are.  Not only is everything ready to go as soon as the user signs-in, but you have complete visibility into how your product is being used and can easily follow up with assistance and support.

Here are some of the new and valuable ways a Xuropa Online Lab can be used:

• Technology Demonstrations: Introduce your product to potential users
• Technical Field Training: Train your global AE team remotely
• User Technical Training: Walk users through hands-on tutorials
• Un-hosted Evaluations: Provide potential users access to use your product so they can experience it for themselves on their own time.  All this in a secure environment.

There are many more ways that a Xuropa Online Lab can be used in order to leverage your greatest investment and to accelerate adoption of your technology.  You can get a feel for a Xuropa Online Lab by visiting our Demonstration of Xuropa Lab.

As you experience the Xuropa Online Labs, we look forward to hearing how you think this new technology can help bridge the gap between you and your products’ users.  We also welcome any suggestions or ideas as to how we can improve the Xuropa Online Labs.

How can you see a Xuropa Online Lab being used?

Posted under Features, marketing