Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1174596
20 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2019 a large area of conversation for us and some- thing that we're currently enhancing. I jokingly said, "We're in the pizza business, but we only provide the ingredients; we've never provided the crust." Doesn't that seem oddly related to the service we provide? There's an opportuni- ty to provide greater services in the entire PCB arena, but as a distributor, how do you do that? In general, that's not a stocked item that's part of the bill of materials (BOM) that gets ordered every day. There has to be an arrangement where you have a user experience where you can buy the components as well as access to a design orientation for the circuit board and be comfortable with the dropship orientation of the circuit board going to the user as well. Nolan Johnson: The design tools market is a place where there are changes in the landscape and a challenge to bring parts into the CAD tool for selection by the designer. That's the point where the components are specified. The designers often must do a lot of work to in- clude new parts definitions into the CAD tools. It would seem that Digi-Key is in a place to help drive that conversation so that components can be selected and then channeled easily. Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team To read Part 1 of this interview, click here. The I-Connect007 editorial team recently spoke with Chris Beeson, executive vice presi- dent of global suppliers and new business de- velopment at Digi-Key Electronics, about trends and the changing landscape of the industry. In the second half of this interview, Beeson dis- cusses the EDA tools market, and how Digi- Key works with PCB designers to present the most efficient, seamless process for selecting components. Happy Holden: Does Digi-Key have or provide a PCB design EDA tool? There's one that I use a lot, and with one click, they send a quote for all of the parts within a few seconds because they're tied in with a distributor. Is this driven by the distributor, or is this a loose alliance? Do you have those value-added services like the free EDA tool? Chris Beeson: You'll see a variety of different things related to our EDA tools, and PCBs is Digi-Key on Adapting to the Changing Industry Landscape, Part 2 Chris Beeson