Digital transformation shouldn’t put engineering firms at risk
Digital transformation has changed the game for product development. Most engineering toolsets have now moved beyond CAD to modelling. Meanwhile, advancements in AI have generated new tools, such as Fusion 360 and Simulink, which have hugely impacted the design process by enabling firms to go from idea to prototype to a manufacturable 3D model all in one product development solution.
And we’re on the cusp of further innovation – being driven, in part, by the concentrated investment in next-gen, AI-based tools and the next generation of talent entering the sector.
Indeed, a recent Engineering.com article sheds light on the digital tools and technologies that are being introduced into curriculums and fuelling the skillsets of the engineers of the future. From simulation and modelling tools like Matlab, SolidWorks, and Siemens NX, to data analytics, IoT, Digital Twins and Generative AI.
Advances in digital technologies will bring new levels of creativity to the sector, drive productivity and free up resources for employees to focus on higher-level work. But, digital transformation is not without its challenges.
For example, much more computing power is needed since design and qualification often take place in concurrence – and that means cash. Firms need a tech setup that can cope with large, compute-heavy programmes, and that can run model computation for potentially hours on end. Which almost certainly means more investment in hardware and/ or cloud services.
Digital transformation changes the way that information is managed and made available, which both opens up huge opportunities, but also wider and increased levels of risk. Security and efficiency often do not run hand in hand, and this conflict is something that must be maintained under serious review as new technologies and operational processes are adopted.
So, how to ensure that business bottom lines and resiliency (amongst other things) shouldn’t suffer in the pursuit of innovation? A well-thought-out IT strategy that embraces leading technologies which are designed for the challenges of the modern workforce (think agile, flexible, secure, resilient and so on), but is developed in close cooperation with the ‘end user’ and leadership. The adoption of services informed by and designed to address your specific needs.
At the risk of tooting our own horn, that’s exactly the vision behind Inevidesk’s virtual desktop solution. Designed and built with sector pain points in mind, informed by extensive, lived experience in the industry, to power better ways of working and meet the needs of all key stakeholders through a focus on performance, price, administration and sustainability.
Our solution does this by:
Giving engineering firms much more control over who has access to their data to bolster security since they can rapidly reassign or disable vdesks when necessary
Creating a path to hosted cloud services with increased levels of business resiliency
Relieving the IT burden and investment needed to maintain, fix and upgrade physical workstations
Delivering the same high-performance working you’d experience from office-based workstations
Enabling employees to work on sector-specific software and programmes from anywhere with an internet connection
Read our previous blog for more information on why our virtual desktops should be an integral part of your digital transformation strategy, and get in touch about a free trial at https://www.inevidesk.uk/contact