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Alibre
972.671.8492 phone 972.671.8493 fax
Sales Information: sales@alibre.com
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This Q&A is with Greg Milliken, vp of marketing for Alibre, and someone who's been around this industry as long as me. Remember AccelGraphics? He co-founded it, and also spent time at Intergraph, Autodesk, and Knowledge Revolution. Alibre launched during the dot.com craze. On the day of its launch, it was handed a lawsuit from SolidWorks. Like PlanetCAD, though, Alibre found that a pure ASP model was not the way to go. And it didn't help when customer began using Alibre Design like a standalone CAD system, and then found it had fewer features. Alibre found it had to teach users how to use the product in teams and emphasize its collaborative capability. So, Alibre, the company, changed itself from an ASP to direct sales. They targeted large manufacturers and workteams within firms. Alibre admits their software, at this point, has just 80% of the MCAD features its competitors have. The difference, Alibre feels, is their p2p architecture supporting real-time 3D design between teams, and integrated Web-based data sharing.
Q: How does this p2p [perr to peer] stuff work with your MCAD software? A: We firmly think that p2p is the future of CAD. We don't see the software running off a central server, or as an ASP [application service provider, which serves the software over the Web] as some vendors are trying. Instead, we think you should be using local computing power to share data. The data might be stored on a server, but just as often is distributed in Web-based repositories on client machines. Everyone has access to the data -- and not just a streamed or facetted representation of the model (as in Autodesk Streamline). P2p means that data can reside anywhere, on the local hard drive of any peer client. Anyone who needs to access and edit the model can do so, regardless of location, whether the designer or the manufacturer.
Q: Who's your closest competitor? A: CoCreate and their OneSpace, but that is just a visualization/collaboration tool. To do true design you'd have to also buy SolidDesigner, and then it is a separate product based on a traditional desktop architecture. Another is ImpactXoft, but they target consumer product companies, which is not our market. We target heavy industry, like power generation, aerospace and automotive. You could take any number of collaboration/visualization products, but no one else is similar to our MCAD software built on a native Web architecture.
Q: In their earnings call, PTC announced they are adding Groove p2p technology to the next release of Pro/E. Does that worry you? A: No, it validates what we're doing. Even if UGS, Dassault, and everybody else adds p2p to their MCAD software, we'll compete by becoming the low-cost supplier. PTC, UGS, Autodesk, Dassault all have a high-cost model -- channels, staff, marketing. We the Web to keep overhead low. We employ just 50; even if we double our workforce, we're still a lot smaller than anyone else. We license our software for US$1,000/year/seat.
Q: What's the "Alibre Experience?" I couldn't figure it out from the press release. A: It's a no-charge program targeted at potential mid-range customers, where we come in and help you get Alibre Design installed, help you translate data from other MCAD systems, give you training. Your only expense is the time you spend using it. You try out Alibre Design on a real project for a length of time that we agree upon.
Q: What happened to the lawsuit from SolidWorks? A: It was basically over us hiring a SolidWorks employee. They were worried we would get access to confidential information. We agreed not to, and that satisfied them. The employee has since moved on.
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