Startup Challenges
The irony of running a startup is that it’s never easy to know where to begin. How do you set priorities when everything is business-critical? Whether it’s finding talent, managing budgets, or inventing new processes, simplicity is a key component in the early days of any successful startup.
Manufacturing startups face additional challenges unique to their industries. They’re often developing intellectual property, which usually exists in the form of vast amounts of data. That could be product renderings, historical reports, file versions, and a lot more.
So what happens if that data is lost? Without proper data management best practices in place, manufacturing startups are one disaster away from extinction.
The Cost of Data Management
In established manufacturing companies, data management is a complex and finely tuned machine. There are many roles associated with system administration, and those admins are consistently testing security protocols, backing up data, and improving operational efficiencies. And that’s just the data.
There are also hardware considerations to be made. Servers are expensive; they use a lot of energy, which turns into heat, which needs to be cooled, which uses even more energy. They also require physical office locations with consistent on-site support. Machines age and eventually need to be replaced. Employees turn over and need to be trained.
Navigating Challenges as a Startup
For most manufacturing startups, building and maintaining data management systems of this scale and complexity simply isn’t feasible in the early stages of production. The job is often left to an overworked and understaffed IT department, which is also managing every other technical aspect of the business.
We said earlier that simplicity is a key component in the early days of a successful startup. So how do you simplify a data management strategy?
Data Management Tools for Manufacturers
Fortunately for manufacturing startups, there’s an entire industry built around creating and storing their data. Software tools like Autodesk Vault allow users to integrate with Autodesk design tools and other CAD systems to keep everyone working from a central source of organized data.
These tools have solved issues associated with file versioning, engineering workflows, and user access management. Even better news for this audience, the tools are often offered at reduced costs to manufacturing startups with more immediate budgetary priorities. This allows new companies to establish data management best practices early in their growth, rather than struggling to fix broken data later on.
Many startups choose to implement new technology through an authorized reseller who understands the intricacies of these programs. For example, startups must meet revenue, employee size, and company age requirements specific to each program. Contact your authorized reseller to learn more about getting started.
What is Cloud Data Management?
With reduced-cost access to industry-standard data management tools, we start to solve the issue of file storage. But what about the other costs mentioned earlier? Personnel, hardware, and space are expensive and limited resources for startups.
That’s where cloud data management comes in. Major advancements in recent years have resulted in safe, high-performing cloud management solutions that don’t break the bank. They’re also highly scalable, allowing your startup to grow at whatever rate you need to without struggling to keep up with data management constraints.
How Cloud Data Management Works
The idea is that you still have dedicated servers to manage data, but those servers exist in an off-site facility. As part of that agreement, you receive around-the-clock support for any issues that may occur as well as data security best practices like scheduled backups.
Cloud data providers invest considerable resources into backup protocols and cutting-edge security protocols. In many cases, cloud data management is more secure than on-site management has any chance of being.
These services do come with a fee, but when compared to the cost of running all of these processes in-house on a smaller scale, the choice for a manufacturing startup becomes clear. In fact, users of Autodesk Vault as a Service by KETIV offering experience up to 67% savings on a three-year cloud data implementation, as compared to in-house servers.
Getting Started with Data Management as a Startup
As we mentioned earlier, startups often partner with companies like KETIV to navigate the implementation of new manufacturing technologies such as Autodesk and Ansys. We assist with licensing new products at reduced rates for Startup companies, and then we provide customized training and support throughout the implementation.
Vault as a Service is a unique offering pairing Autodesk’s file management tool with a cloud data management solution. This offering is a perfect fit for manufacturing startups because it addresses the immediate software and data management needs of growing companies while allowing them to outsource the management of those needs with significant cost savings.
Want to learn more?
Contact KETIV today to speak with an expert about your data management needs. We’re committed to helping today’s manufacturing entrepreneurial companies develop and become leaders in their industry. KETIV’s partnership with Ansys & Autodesk Start-up Program is built for early-stage entrepreneurs in manufacturing sectors with limited funding and resources.
We will partner with you to connect you to the right technology to help you grow your company cost-effectively. Our experts can help with FEA, CFD, electromagnetic simulation, design, and manufacturing technologies, just to name a few. Start-ups will also gain access to guidance and support provided by KETIV’s experts.