Providing Input

In my last blog I talked about the different inputs that go into defining the content of Solid Edge. One of the more important inputs comes from those people using it every day. Do something right and they will tell you. Mess up on something and they are even more vocal!



The best way for a customer to provide feedback is via GTAC (either directly or through your VAR). When you do this, GTAC will create an incident report (IR) that can then be tracked by different people in the company. Depending on the content of the IR, GTAC may change this into a PR for problems or an ER for enhancement requests. GTAC also searches our database for similar requests so they can be linked together.



Problem reports then go off to the developer responsible for the functionality. The developer will know it’s a problem identified by a customer and if it was found during beta testing or found in the field. Obviously, if the problem is found by multiple customers or is more critical, it moves up in priority.



Enhancement Requests are the one’s that product planning is interested in. By their nature, they can sometimes be more difficult to manage. What do you do if you get conflicting requests? Sometimes they can involve future functionality that we may not be ready to discuss publicly. I have a few ER’s like this now and would love to call up a few customers to say “I’m working in it”.



Dan Staples had a slide about how to write impactive ERs (i.e. get your ER to get our attention):

• Before submitting your ER…
  
  
  
  
  
  • Post your idea for discussion in the solid_edge.enhancements newsgroup.
    
    
    
    
    
    • Refine the raw idea and build enthusiasm/support for it
      
      
  
  
  
• In your ER submission…
  
  
  
  
  
  • Make sure the workflow it fits into is clear
    
    
    
    
    
    • Need the birds eye view, not just ground level
      
      
    
    
    
  • Provide a justification
    
    
    
    
    
    • mpact on production, productivity, $, etc.
      
      
    
    
    
  • Provide mockup images when possible
    
    
    
    
    
    • A picture is worth a thousand words
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• After submitting your ER…
  
  
  
  
  
  • Post the ER number back to the solid_edge.enhancements newsgroup
    
    
  • Ask people to call and log an IR asking for ER XXXX to be implemented
    
    
    
    
    
    • Increases the customer count and likelihood of implementation
      
      

I caught one of my colleagues in GTAC who also said test cases, images, AVI’s, and even Power Point slides are very useful… the more documentation, the better. As I said in my earlier blog, there are lots of ways we get input from customers but this is the best way to get your input tracked and “into the system”.