What does a long-time software industry insider think about the engineering software market’s rapid transition to the cloud? What interesting insights can we glean about Taxal Limited’s Allan Behrens during this (Not Your Typical) tech interview? Don’t miss this episode of (NYT) Tech Interview, the series where we have some fun by asking important market questions and then throw in a few others to learn more about our industry experts.
Watch this edition to see how we found out that Allan is not just another pretty face but has some real technology skills!
For more information on industry readiness for the cloud, please see the first video of this series, (Not Your Typical) Cloud Interview with Siemens’ Paul Brown.
For more information on cloud migration, please see the second video of this series, (Not Your Typical) Cloud Migration Interview with Schnitger Corp’s Monica Schnitger.
For more information cloud perceptions, please see the fourth and final video of this series, (Not Your Typical) Cloud Perceptions Discussion with Siemens’ Paul Brown.
To get insights into your own company’s cloud readiness please check out our Cloud PLM Advisor.
Transcript
Jim:
Hi, this is Jim Brown, and welcome to Not Your Typical Tech interview, where we ask a lot of interesting questions about work but also try to get to know our tech experts a little bit better.
Today, I’ve got a great opportunity to talk to Alan Behrens, he’s the Managing Director of Taxal Limited. He’s an analyst, advisor, and researcher with broad experience in the IT industry, and today we’re going to talk about how manufacturers are transitioning to the Cloud and what they should think about for their product innovation and engineering solutions.
Sit back, get some popcorn.
Alan, welcome. It’s great to see you.
Allan:
Hi, Jim, good to be here.
Jim:
Alan, what shifts have you seen manufacturers make in terms of product innovation, engineering, and industrial software over the last year or so?
Allan:
Well, I think there’s a lot more focus on collaborative technologies and making sure that people can work remotely, and I think that’s sort of part of it is brought to top of mind, Cloud-based solutions, collaboration software, lifecycle management, digital thread management over wide area networks in particular. A lot of companies in the software industry have done a good job in shifting their focus to helping people manage the current crisis.
Jim:
What was the first thing you ever hacked? And hacking in a good way, I’m not using that in an illicit way.
Allan:
Right, so… Okay, there’s two sides to this. One is when I was a student, I wrote my own word processor for a computer I designed on Motorola 6802 to do my final year thesis. So that’s when I was a student. When I was at work, I suppose the first hacking I did was I worked for Hewlett Packard, HP, and we worked on logic analyzers and microprocessor development systems, and I used to write machine code to play games on their systems at night.
Jim:
I thought you were just a pretty face.
I used to actually know what I was doing.
Jim:
How should companies think about the transition to cloud software from maybe some other traditional solutions?
Allan:
So I think the answer to that is the question. So it might be a transition, but it’s really about the job you’ve got to do, right? Think about the job you’ve got to do. What are the benefits of the solution you’re looking at? Cloud has got some great benefits on cost, on maintenance, on certain security aspects. There are many benefits of cloud, but what you need to do is make sure you’re getting the right solution to do the right job. Make sure that it fits the workflow that you need it to fix, not necessarily the workflow you had, but the one that you need for the future.
Jim:
Alan, what is your favorite web browser?
Allan:
I’ve gone back to Chrome after being on Edge for a number of years, purely because there are certain things in Chrome that just don’t work on Edge yet. So yeah, I would say Chrome.
Jim:
Alan, do you think there are any misconceptions about moving to the cloud for product innovation, product development and engineering software?
Allan:
Well, I think there are some misconceptions. I think there are some fears.. You know, people talk about fear, uncertainty and doubts. And I think there are a lot of people who make heavy on that particular aspect. I think you’ve got to look at what things can do for you. Software these days, whether it’s cloud-based or native on your PC is good software. Generally, software these days is much more robust than in the good old days, so don’t listen to other people. Look at it yourself. Try it yourself. A lot of companies allow you to try their software actually, so do it, try it, it’s easy. Software these days, isn’t as difficult as it was in the past to try especially cloud based.
Jim:
What was your first computer?
Allan:
So my first computer was a BBC Acorn microcomputer, which was developed for a program on technology in the UK, supported by the BBC. It was a computer that you’re allowed to hack basically.
Jim:
What did it look like?
Allan:
It was just like the first Apples, to be honest. But you could take the top off, you could add chips, you could modify it, you could… It had IO as well. I mean, it was a very sophisticated machine and it was open so you could access the operating system and peripherals and all that. It was a very interesting computer.
Jim:
Alan, thanks for joining. I know we’ve known each other for a while, but I feel like even I learned a few new things about you today, so thanks for having fun with it.
Allan:
Appreciate it, Jim, thank you.
Jim:
Thank you for joining the web show where we ask maybe some important questions, and a couple of questions just to get to know people a little bit better.
I’d like to thank our sponsor, Siemens. If you’d like to learn more about transitioning, product innovation, product development and engineering software to the cloud, you can learn a lot more from their website