The 8 Principles of Choosing Cloud-Based Software for PCB Design

But, it can be daunting when you and your team are looking to embrace cloud software for the first time. There are seemingly dozens of options out there, each with its own marketing jargon convincing you that their solution is the best. Let’s cut through the fog to help your team better understand the ins and outs of choosing the right cloud-based software. The following are the 8 Principles of Choosing Cloud-Based Software for PCB Design.

1. Identify Your Compelling Event

First things first, you need to be clear about what is driving your team to adopt cloud-based software.

Why do you need new software now? What’s pushing the urgency? Maybe your CFO demands a 12% margin increase by year-end. Or perhaps you need to ship a backlog of products by Q3. Define this compelling event, document past attempts to solve the problem, and honestly assess what worked, what didn’t, and why. 

Pro-tip: Try to solve your problem internally first—sometimes better processes can work wonders without extra costs.

2. Quantify Your Business Pains

Your team isn’t buying software; you’re buying a solution to a problem. Therefore, any software purchase must be justified with a clear return on investment (ROI). 

By understanding the magnitude of your problem in terms of time and money, your team can better determine which cloud solutions make the most sense for you. This process means gathering all the relevant data—FTE costs, current software expenses, opportunity costs—and using it to create a metric of your needs. A good software provider will help you document this and build a solid business case. 

If the ROI isn't clear, you might not be ready to buy.

3. Secure Executive Sponsorship and Alignment

Technical teams often wish they could advance projects at their own pace, but in practice, everything needs to go through corporate approval first. That means that when your team wants to switch to cloud-based software, the move needs executive backing. 

Whether you start from the bottom up or the top down, ensuring alignment with strategic goals is necessary. It’s often good practice to leverage the DACI framework (Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informed) to streamline roles and responsibilities and get all major stakeholders on the same page. By clearly defining who is responsible for each aspect of the project, who has the final say, who provides input, and who needs to be kept informed, the DACI framework helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures efficient decision-making.

As a technical team, it is also advisable to keep the executive sponsor involved at key points to maintain momentum and ensure the project’s priority.

4. Ditch the RFPs

We’ve all experienced the pain and red tape associated with requests for proposals (RFPs). What most people won’t admit, however, is that RFPs are often a waste of time. 

Your decision-making and needs are complex and nuanced, but RFPs try to reduce complex needs to binary yes/no answers. The result? Mismatches and frustration. 

Instead, after following the initial steps in this guide, your list of potential providers should be narrow enough to handle individually and more intimately. It’s far better to talk to 1-3 companies and focus on in-depth discussions rather than going through the cursory checkbox comparisons.

5. Use Case Studies, Trials, and Demos Wisely

When you’re choosing a new software, you want to know that it has a proven track record of success with other customers. Most software providers will assuage these fears by inundating you with case studies, trials, and product demos. But is all of this collateral really relevant to your team’s needs?

When going through the software courting process, you should ensure that the case studies you request are relevant. For demos, focus on your top concerns rather than generic capabilities. Trials should be approached with clear goals, success criteria, and structured test plans. 

Remember, the UI/UX shouldn’t overshadow actual value.

6. Understand Pricing Dynamics

Too often, we get caught up in arguing dollars and cents when the ROI is so much more valuable than the upfront cost. Our advice: don’t haggle for the sake of it. 

If the solution offers a clear ROI, like solving a $10M problem for $500K, embrace it. At the end of the day, the upfront cost of your software solution is just a drop in the bucket compared to the return your company will actualize from it.

Instead of haggling, it’s ideal to collaborate with the provider to articulate your problem's size and expect a reasonable investment proposal. High-value solutions shouldn’t feel like a negotiation battle but a mutual agreement. A good transaction will be one in which both sides walk away feeling like winners.

7. Embrace the Cloud Benefits

Flux, like other cloud-based EDA tools, offers real-time collaboration, AI integration, seamless updates, and scalability. These are game-changers for moving hardware teams from the 90s into the modern age, matching the pace of their software counterparts.

• Real-time collaboration allows engineers and designers to work together simultaneously, regardless of physical location, to enable greater teamwork and efficiency. 
• AI integration brings advanced analytics, automated design suggestions, and error detection to the table, each of which significantly reduces your team’s time and effort required for complex tasks. 
• Seamless updates ensure that all team members always use the latest software version, eliminating compatibility issues and downtime associated with traditional, locally hosted tools. 
• Scalability allows teams to easily adjust resources based on project demands, whether scaling up for large, complex projects or scaling down for smaller tasks.

These advantages collectively streamline the design process, enhance productivity, and enable hardware development to be innovative and agile.

8. Challenge Traditional Industry Mindsets

It often feels like the hardware industry is stuck in the past, fearing new technologies like cloud and AI. Understand that these fears are rooted in the industry's slow evolution and long-established practices. Unlike the software industry, which has rapidly adopted and benefited from cloud computing, AI, and other innovations, the hardware sector has traditionally been more cautious, prioritizing stability and reliability over agility and innovation.

Flux and similar tools are designed to help you overcome these fears and leverage modern capabilities to stay competitive. 

Adopting these technologies can transform your workflow from rigid and outdated to agile and innovative. By embracing cloud and AI, you can reduce time-to-market, improve product quality, and respond more swiftly to changing market demands. The shift may seem daunting, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial challenges.

Closing Thoughts

Buying cloud-based PCB design software doesn't have to be daunting. By following these steps, you’ll make informed, confident decisions. Evaluate your needs honestly, quantify your problems, secure executive alignment, ditch the outdated RFP process, and focus on relevant case studies and structured trials. Embrace the cloud for its real-time collaboration, AI benefits, and scalability.

Want to learn more about how to select the cloud software for your team’s needs? Contact our sales team today.