Driving Innovation with SaaS: NX X for Product Design

SaaS is here to stay!

Since 2017, the SaaS (Software as a Service) industry has expanded by more than 500%, with projections estimating the global market will reach around ten trillion dollars by 2030.

The rise of SaaS has been nothing short of revolutionary in the tech industry. Over the past decade, businesses of all sizes have embraced SaaS solutions to streamline operations, reduce costs and scale more effectively. Looking ahead, the momentum shows no signs of slowing down. This growth reflects not just the technological advancements but also the evolving needs of modern businesses, as SaaS continues to play an increasingly integral role in the digital transformation of organizations worldwide.

In this episode of the Next Generation Design podcast, Greg Arnot interviews Tom Spangler, a Product Marketing Manager from Siemens, to discuss the transition to Software as a Service (SaaS), the cloud and the benefits of Siemens’ NX X solution. Tom provides in-depth insights into how cloud technology impacts design software, the advantages of using SaaS, and why Siemens is embracing this future-forward approach. They also dive into NX X user-centric features, licensing options and its unique advantages over traditional on-premises solutions.

What you’ll learn in this episode of the Next Generation Design podcast

• What is SaaS, cloud streaming and cloud licensing? (02:00)
• What challenges are driving companies to the cloud, and how is SaaS helping them overcome these issues? (04:35)
• Why is Siemens offering SaaS products? (05:50)
• What’s the difference between on-premises NX and NX X? (07:30)
• What companies are using NX X? (15:40)
• What the future holds for Siemens, SaaS products and NX X (18:10)

You can always listen to the Next Generation Design podcast right here, or wherever you do podcasts.

Read the summary or watch the video version of this episode: What is NX X? | The benefits of combining Siemens SaaS with NX CAD for product design

Listen to or read the next episode of the Next Generation Design podcast: Designing Formula SAE Cars with Rensselaer Motorsport Releasing Tuesday, January 7, 2024

Listen to or read the previous episode of the Next Generation Design podcast: AI-Enabled CAD: Enhancing Design Efficiency with Siemens’ NX 

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Connect with Tom Spangler:

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Podcast transcript for Driving Innovation with SaaS: NX X for Product Design

Tom Spangler: Since 2017, the SaaS industry has grown by over 500%. The whole global SaaS market is expected to hit about ten trillion dollars by 2030.  More specifically for Siemens, it’s being able to reduce costs for our customers, giving them greater flexibility, scalability, and things like that. Network infrastructure has now reached a point where the cloud is a sustainable solution. The internet is fast enough, and there’s sufficient connectivity to different places all over the world with things like satellite internet and fiber that make it a viable solution in more places than ever before.

Greg Arnot: You’re listening to another episode of the Next Generation Design podcast. I’m your host, Greg Arnot. On today’s episode, I’m joined by Tom Spangler, Product Marketing Manager for Siemens Digital Industries Software NX Go-to-Market team. Before we begin, let’s meet today’s guest. Welcome to the podcast, Tom. Can you tell our listeners a bit about yourself and your role at Siemens as part of the NX Product Marketing team?

Tom Spangler: I’ve been with the company for a little over 15 years in various marketing roles, with a lot of responsibilities over the years for product launches, industry campaigns, and various other things. Before that, I worked as a designer in the automotive industry, both at the OEM and supplier levels. I also worked in Data Management, where we did some outsourcing, so I kind of did a little bit of everything. I used a lot of different CAD applications. When I was in college, I worked for a civil engineering firm, doing design layout work for things like subdivisions, sewer systems, and things like that. So, I have a wide variety of experience in the CAD industry—various industries, various applications, and various types of work in that area.

Greg Arnot: That’s quite an impressive resume! Now, I’d like to jump straight into today’s topic. Can you help our listeners better understand what SaaS is?

Tom Spangler: So, SaaS is, of course, Software as a Service. It’s also known as the cloud. One thing that IT people like to say is, “There is no cloud; it’s just someone else’s computer,” which is true in a sense. Basically, the cloud is where you’re running an application remotely, like a streaming application, and you stream that to your device. With cloud licensing, like what we do with NX X, you’re still installing the application on your own computer, but your licensing is done remotely. So, if you think of something like Microsoft 365, where you fire up Excel or Word and you have your little picture up in the corner, it always knows where you are, no matter what computer you’re on or what application you’re running. All that licensing is handled in the cloud.

Greg Arnot: I’m hearing a lot of terms being bandied about. Can you help me understand the difference between cloud streaming and cloud licensing?

Tom Spangler: So, with cloud streaming, as I mentioned, it’s basically running on someone else’s computer. The application itself is being run on a server through Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or someone like that, and it’s being streamed to your computer through a web browser. So, you’re not actually running the application on your computer; it’s being run on a remote server somewhere and streamed to you. With cloud licensing, like I said, you’re still running the application on your own computer, but the licensing, provisioning, user logins, and all those things are handled through the cloud.

Greg Arnot: And what are the benefits of transitioning to the cloud?

Tom Spangler: What we’re seeing is that for a lot of customers, it can be more cost-effective because you can do it with reduced upfront costs. You have lower IT expenses, and with a lot of cloud applications, it’s more pay-as-you-go rather than making larger lump-sum payments. So, it can be easier for customers to deal with. It also has better accessibility because you can access your license or your software from wherever you are. It’s easier to scale, and we’ll go into a little bit more detail on that when we talk more about NX X. It’s also easier to deploy, and you get automatic updates, so no matter what version you’re using, you’re always on the latest version. 

Greg Arnot: And what about security? Sometimes there’s a perception that the cloud is less secure than local data storage.

Tom Spangler: That’s not really true anymore. There are some really excellent procedures in place now. Cloud companies recognize the importance of security, and they really put a lot of effort into making sure their data is secure. When it is in a secure, central location, it can be accessed from anywhere. And that’s becoming more and more important, too, as we see more remote work and things like that.

Greg Arnot: What challenges are companies facing that prompt them to transition to the cloud? How is SaaS helping them address those challenges?

Tom Spangler: One of the things we’re seeing is that infrastructure costs are going up. Hardware costs, especially during the pandemic when we had chip shortages, there was a pretty significant uptick in the cost of things like computer hardware. So, with the cloud, you don’t need as many servers, and you don’t need as much of that infrastructure locally. I mentioned data security a minute ago—that’s becoming more and more of a concern as we’ve seen some of these large data breaches affecting companies around the world. Licensing can be pretty complex for some software, but when you have a cloud SaaS application, it can be greatly simplified on the customer end. And then, of course, there’s a greater need for collaboration, not only with remote work but what we are seeing in a lot of industries is companies are having to collaborate more globally than before. We’re seeing a lot more situations where engineering is done in one location, but manufacturing is spread all over the world. So, you need fast communication and collaboration between those groups in order to successfully design these new products.

Greg Arnot: Why does Siemens offer SaaS products?

Tom Spangler: The whole software industry is moving this way. Since 2017, the SaaS industry has grown by over 500%. The whole global SaaS market is expected to hit about ten trillion dollars by 2030, so there’s a larger trend at work here. But more specifically for Siemens, it’s a lot of the things I just talked about a minute ago: reducing costs for our customers, giving them greater flexibility, scalability, and things like that. Another reason we’re seeing interest from our customers is that network infrastructure has now reached a point where the cloud is a sustainable solution. The internet is fast enough, and there’s sufficient connectivity to different places all over the world, with things like satellite internet and fiber, that make it a viable solution in more places than ever before.

Greg Arnot: Can you walk our listeners through the SaaS products that are currently available?

Tom Spangler: So, of course, we have NX X. We have our PLM solution, Teamcenter X. We have Zel X, which is a browser-based, lightweight CAD, CAM, and CAE solution that can do some basic things—just as a browser-based streaming option. And then we have a few coming soon: Capital X, which is electrical design software; Solid Edge X, which is our mainstream CAD application; NX CAM and Simcenter are coming very soon.

Greg Arnot: While we’re there I’d also like to give a shout-out for PCB Exchange Connect, a browser-based app that works with NX in the electronics space. Let’s talk more about NX X. Tell me, how similar is NX X to traditional desktop, on-premises NX?

Tom Spangler: In most ways, it’s very similar. It’s the same data model, the same user interface, and the same functionality. So, you can use NX X and NX with no translation; they work the same, look the same, and feel the same. Just like NX, you can work across NX CAM, Simcenter, Zel X, and all these different applications using that same data model with no need to translate. It also comes in the same bundles as desktop NX. So, there’s NX Design Standard, Design Advanced, and Design Premium. We also offer value-based licensing on both NX and NX X, where you get one subscription and a set of tokens. There are over 100 items in that token pool that you can use as needed to give you that flexibility. It installs on your desktop like Microsoft 365. You use Siemens Software Center to install NX X on your desktop, and all of your licensing and user provisioning is handled in the cloud, so it is a lot simpler than it has been in the past. 

Greg Arnot: And what about the differences?

Tom Spangler: As I said, all that licensing is handled in the cloud, so it’s a huge reduction in IT overhead. It used to be that IT people would have to do a fair amount of work to get everything provisioned correctly for all the different machines and set up all the licensing. Now, that’s all handled by Siemens. It’s named user, and this is really a key thing. So, as you fire up your NX session, you’re logging into your Siemens account to access NX, and that has some pretty significant benefits. It really gives you a better, more personalized user experience. Another thing it does is enable you to use a lot of our AI-based features, of which we have quite a few right now, with more on the way. As we go forward, there are going to be a lot of new, innovative things that will only be available on NX X. Another thing it does—going back to things like remote work—is enables you to synchronize your settings across multiple machines. So, if you’re working in an office one day, in a factory the next, or wherever, you log into NX X wherever you are, and it is still your login. It’s going to have your user defaults, your data, and everything will be the same as it was in the other location. It also comes with built-in data management. That’s a difference as well. Now, the first thing I want to say about the built-in data management is that it is optional—you don’t have to use it, but we think most people will choose to do so. It gives you cloud-enabled data management with basic functionality like check-in and check-out, version control, and some visualization. You can look at where an item is used and things like that. Now, on the topic of data management, you can also use Teamcenter X, which I mentioned earlier isone of our other X products, or it can be used with on-premises Teamcenter as well. With NX X, you also get Teamcenter Share, which helps you do ad hoc collaboration with external collaborators, suppliers, partners, and so on.

Greg Arnot: So with all that being said about the similarities and differences, what are some reasons that a customer might want to move from on-prem NX to NX X?

Tom Spangler: Well, the first reason we think a customer would want to do it is that they get immediate access to new functionality as soon as it comes out. For instance, we have some new, cool stuff coming in immersive later this year. You also get immediate updates—any kind of fixes or anything that comes out—so you are always up to date, always on the absolute latest software. And again, the simplified installation—we can’t emphasize this enough—it really takes a lot of burden off the customer and reduces their IT costs quite a bit. The personalized user experience. So, you log into NX X on whatever machine you’re on, and you get your user interface, your roles, your custom settings, and your defaults—everything is going to be exactly the way you have them set up on any other machine. You get that same familiar NX experience that you’re used to on the other machines that enables you to get up and get going right away without having to move things around, fix things, or do anything like that. With this personalized user experience, you get access to some of the AI features that we have around our user interface: the customizable and adaptable user interface that learns as you use the software, making things easier for you by using AI to predict what commands you’re going to use next, and things like that. All of that is possible because of that named user experience. And, of course, there’s value-based licensing, which is something we offer on both desktop NX and NX X. It’s really a massive advantage for flexibility and scalability. The way it works is you purchase a bundle of tokens from Siemens. We have various applications—things like advanced sheet metal and routing—that are all accessible through those tokens. So, if it’s an application that you don’t need all that often within NX, but when you do need it, you can spend some of those tokens, use it for the day, and then put the tokens back. The next day, if you need a different application, you can use tokens on that. It’s really a good way to access the full functionality of the whole NX suite without having to invest in a more expensive bundle. It’s a great solution for our customers, especially for some of the small or medium business customers that don’t necessarily have a need for all those features all the time, like an enterprise customer might.

Greg Arnot: I’ve been hearing quite a bit about those different options coming up. Can you expand on some of the features included in NX X in the Standard, Advanced, and Premium options?

Tom Spangler: The standard NX X bundle is called NX X Design Standard and it gives you things like solid modeling and synchronous modeling, which allows you to work with data from any source and move it around, adding intelligence to it. Convergent modeling enables you to use facet data as if you were using any other data—things like drafting, assemblies, basic sheet metal, and HD3D, which is our built-in reporting tool. Now, NX X Design Advanced adds Check-Mate, which is a more robust reporting tool added onto HD3D. You also get routing, more rendering capabilities to create photorealistic images of your designs, and PMI (Product Manufacturing Information), so you can actually do your manufacturing information right on your 3D model. You can create it there and use it down the road for things like inspection, manufacturing, and quality checks. You also get user-defined features. Finally, in NX X Design Premium, you get advanced assemblies, surface analysis, and freeform modeling. This is where more of that AI-driven selection, prediction, and “select similar components” features reside in the Premium bundle.

Greg Arnot: Now, if I’m an NX X user who’s just purchased my new software, how long does the installation process take? How many clicks would it take to fully deploy NX X with built-in data management?

Tom Spangler: So, keeping in mind that you do need to install Siemens Software Center, which is fairly easy to do, for the end user, it’s only about five clicks to install NX X, which is quite an improvement over previous installations for any software as complex as NX.

Greg Arnot: And how can people go about buying NX X?

Tom Spangler: We offer it through all of our current sales channels, so you can purchase it directly from Siemens or from our channel partners. We also offer it on the Siemens Digital Exchange, which is our online store. So that’s really an easy way to do it. If you go to the Exchange, you can see all the different options, and you can also buy value-based licensing tokens on the Exchange as well. So, all the same ways that you’ve been able to buy NX in the past, and now on the store too.

Greg Arnot: Looking beyond Siemens a bit, can you tell us about some of the companies that are actually already using NX X? And is there any feedback from them that you’d be able to share with us?

Tom Spangler: Yeah, we have quite a few customers. We’ve only been on the market for about six months, but we’ve seen strong growth in that short time. A couple of the companies we’ve talked about are Dovetail Aviation. This is a company based out of Australia that’s developing electrified aircraft to reduce carbon emissions. They were using one of our larger competitors, reviewed their offerings, looked at what we had, and decided to make the switch—mostly because of the scalability and flexibility I mentioned earlier. And obviously, the capabilities are there as well. NX is still world-class design software—enterprise-grade and can to handle any kind of engineering challenge—but it also gives you that flexibility with things like value-based licensing and scalability with different bundles and the ability to grow with a company that’s just starting out, and as they grow and maybe become an enterprise themselves, NX can be there the entire time to support their engineering needs. We also have a company called HELIXX, which is a mobility company based in the UK. They’re focused on affordable, zero-emissions vehicles. One of the challenges they’re dealing with is what I mentioned earlier—global design with local manufacturing. So, they’re doing all their design in one place, but their manufacturing is spread around the world, so collaboration was a major challenge for them. I have a quote from their CEO and co-founder, who said that “having access to cutting-edge product engineering software and the associated digital twins, wherever and whenever we need it, is fundamental to achieving our vision.” I think that’s really a great endorsement of the kind of collaboration we see with NX X. It’s really enabled by that built-in data management and that scalability with the value-based licensing in the bundles. There are a couple of others that I can’t name, but we have a truck manufacturer based in Asia that made the change from one of our competitors because that competitor was not able to grow with them like they can with NX. They were using a cloud-based solution that didn’t scale to the next level. We also have some customers in Korea and the United States that were brought to us by our channel partners. So, we’re really seeing a lot of success with NX X so far in this short time it’s been on the market.

Greg Arnot: Should our listeners and existing and prospective customers expect Siemens to ever only offer SaaS products? And what about companies in that case who prefer to keep things in-house?

Tom Spangler: I’ll give a disclaimer that it’s hard to predict the future, but I can say right now, no, we do not plan on offering only SaaS in the future. Siemens has been committed and remains committed to an open philosophy. We believe in giving our customers the choice to use the deployment method that works best for them. We believe that our customers can make the best decisions about their business processes, and we don’t want to force them into any model. However, we do think that more and more of them are going to choose our SaaS solutions as we go forward because of all the advantages we’ve been talking about—things like scalability, built-in data management, and personalized experience. Some of those things are going to become very compelling as time goes on. As far as the competition, I can’t really speak to their strategy. I do know some of them have a tendency to force their customers into one deployment model or a closed system where the customer can only use all of their applications in their suite. We don’t believe in that. Again, we believe that the customer knows best and can make the best decisions about their business.

Greg Arnot: While we have you here, can you tell us anything more about the future and the evolution of NX X going forward?

Tom Spangler: Just to reiterate that it is built on NX, so you get all the advantages of this world-class engineering software. It’s powerful enough for enterprise, and you get strong integration with the rest of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio. NX X is award-winning—it has been awarded Best Software Awards from G2 and TrustRadius. It’s also really good for sustainability; it was named the 2023 Sustainable Product of the Year. We have best-in-class quality, best-in-class workflow productivity, and we’re ahead of the curve compared to everyone else in upgrade deployment as well. We continue to innovate. A lot of people think that CAD is a static technology, that it’s mature and there’s not much room to improve. We don’t see it that way. We actually had 60 patents in fiscal year 2023 for innovations in CAD. Another thing we pride ourselves on is backward compatibility. You can take a 30-year-old part that was designed back when NX was called Unigraphics, and you can open it in the current version of NX. It will open right up, it will have a full history tree, and you can modify it and do everything. That’s part of our philosophy of never letting a customer fail. We always make sure that whatever the customer needs, we’re there to maintain and keep it up. As for the future of NX X, it’s built on that foundation, and we’re going to keep innovating. As I said, we’re going to be pursuing more and more of the things that named-user enables—things like personalization, AI features, and more of these cloud features. The new immersive capabilities are coming as well. We are constantly pushing to improve and make everything better with NX and NX X.

Greg Arnot: And before we go, where can people go to learn more about NX X?

Tom Spangler: I would encourage them to search for us on the web—Siemens Digital Industries Software, Siemens NX—and look for our hashtags. One of our most popular ones is #NXMakesItReal. If you search for that on any of your socials, you’ll find some really good examples of the things our customers are doing with NX and NX X—some of the really innovative and cool products that are being designed with our tools. Again, go to Siemens DISW, search for our Digital Exchange, where you can find our store and a lot of great demos. We have a blog where we provide constant updates about what’s new and what’s coming. We have tips and tricks that we publish very often for how to use some of the newer features in NX and things like that. So, there’s really a lot out there for our customers to learn as much as they want. And of course, I would encourage them to contact us, and we’d be glad to help them out.

Greg Arnot: Thank you for that, Tom. Definitely something for our attentive listeners to keep in mind. And I’d like to thank you for joining us today. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you and hearing you expand on Siemens’ offerings in the NX sphere. Thank you once more to Tom, we hope to speak with you again soon. Thanks also to our listeners for tuning in to today’s episode. Join us next time for more discussions about the latest in design innovation and software applications. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to our podcast on your favorite platform. And if you’re enjoying the content, please leave us a review. I’m your host, Greg Arnot, and this has been the Next Generation Design podcast.