When it comes to IT solutions, most mid-market manufacturing companies rely on one of two options. They have a dedicated in-house IT team, or an outsourced IT managed services provider (MSP). But manufacturing companies who care about product development and innovation know that their engineering teams don’t often receive the technology management they need. So, they usually fill that gap by having design or development engineers support their technology. However, there is a third option: Engineering Technology Management & Operations, which combines in-house IT support with Engineering technology expertise to serve their product development teams.
What is Engineering Technology Management and Operations?
Wouldn’t you love to have a dedicated, experienced team of engineering IT professionals at your fingertips? The specific IT needs of engineering requires expert handling of MCAD/EDA data and applications (Engineering Ops or EngOps) including PDM/PLM, workflow automation, and infrastructure; along with deep capabilities in DevOps — software development automation and management. An Engineering Tech team seamlessly manages the tools engineers use to design, develop, test and release products.
Having a dedicated engineering tech team manage your engineering tools allows hardware and software engineers to focus on developing better products faster, and with fewer hiccups.
An Engineering Tech team is a technical extension of your IT team, with deep domain knowledge to support engineering applications, infrastructure, and data issues. It doesn’t compete with your IT team, but rather, complements them.
While EngOps focuses primarily on the mechanical side, and DevOps on the software side, Engineering Technology Management is the overarching term that encompasses both.
Simply put, an Engineering Technology Managed Services partner gives your business more options when it comes to getting engineering IT and network stability and security right. The in-house IT department can focus on overall business IT needs, and not get distracted by engineering tech, which is its own beast. Engineering Tech addresses the specific needs of R&D, keeping engineers happy and productive.
But depending on the scope of your business and the size of those R&D needs, the job has the potential to get complicated fast. This is where having access to our expert teams comes in handy. With over 20 years of experience, our SPK and Associates specialists offer expert handling of your engineering tools, processes, data management, as well as overall security. We make engineering technology management easy and accessible!
Engineering Technology Management & Operations Brings Everything Together
You can have someone on-site who you can count on day to day, whether in IT or Engineering, but when they need assistance, they have someone they can reliably call. They have access to an incredible knowledge and experience base. But it gets better!
One major benefit of this approach is employee retention. With our team of expert engineering IT professionals, SPK and Associates can completely shift your company culture for the better.
Here’s why: small IT teams can get overwhelmed and overworked fast. Unfortunately, this issue is common, widespread, and pressing. As a result, small and mid-sized company IT departments often seem like a revolving door for those employees. This creates a broken company culture.
Without access to proper tools, knowledge or resources, it is inevitable that the on-site team will feel overwhelmed. In some extreme cases, teams also suffer major burn-outs. Moreover, in the event of a crisis, your internal IT team will face severe stress and company-wide delays.
While they might succeed in the end, they’ll be very unhappy — and will likely start looking for a new job. Given the high demand of IT services, their departure will leave you scrambling to pick up the pieces.
What are the big benefits of Engineering Technology Management?
Address Engineering Issues Immediately
With 24/7 support, our team combines network supervision, system support, database management, and engineering apps troubleshooting into one package. Our team handles the solutions quickly and efficiently, allowing your engineering network to operate at full capacity in no time.
Alleviate the Stress On Your On-Site IT Manager
Our services ensure that your company’s engineering security, data management, and patented material is in reliable hands. Though you can still be hands-on with your company’s IT, this frees you up for everything and anything else!
Regulatory Compliance Becomes A Breeze
Depending on your industry, you may have to deal with all kinds of product development compliance terms and regulations. Our coordinated team is well-versed in all things engineering-related – and we stay on top of it as things change.
Healthier Company Culture
This is a big one that often gets overlooked. Our team of award-winning SPK engineers ensures the happiness of your engineers and the stability of your business! Plus, less frequent hiring is another way to keep costs down.
If you haven’t yet considered Engineering Technology Management, or EngOps, from SPK and Associates, give it a look. We’re here to provide the unique, accessible solutions that work best for you.
Next Steps:
- Contact SPK and Associates and set up a discovery call to identify how we can help your engineers with workflow integration, CAD and PDM, and other secure, unique solutions.
- Read our White Papers & Case Studies for examples of how SPK leverages technology to help our clients advance engineering and workflow productivity.
- Subscribe to our blog to stay informed on product development and engineering efficiency topics.
