Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1236528
58 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2020 Andy Shaughnessy speaks with Scott Miller, COO of Freedom CAD Services, who shares an update on the company's current level of busi- ness operations under COVID-19 restrictions. Miller explains that Freedom CAD remains fully operational during the COVID-19 quaran- tine. Staff members have been telecommuting for years, so the company's day-to-day oper- ations are relatively unchanged. He also dis- cusses the company's plans to help employ- ees and customers during this time, and Miller asks anyone with design questions—custom- ers or not—to contact the company any time. Miller is the author of The Printed Circuit De- signer's Guide to… Executing Complex PCBs. Visit I-007eBooks.com to download this book and other free, educational titles. Andy Shaughnessy: Hi, I'm Andy Shaughnessy for I-Connect007. I'm talking with Scott Miller, COO of Freedom CAD. How are you doing, Scott? Scott Miller: I'm doing great, Andy, considering everything. Shaughnessy: These definitely are interesting times. You have offices all around. How has the government regulations and restrictions on COVID-19 caused you to change your opera- tions or your business model, or has it? Miller: Actually, Andy, it has had very little impact on our business. We've been a work- from-home company for almost all of our to- tal 17 years. We've built an infrastructure. Our business is printed circuit board design, both engineering and layouts, so this is the comput- er work, and we use web-sharing capabilities like GoToMeeting or Zoom to do video confer- encing and share the designs. We've been do- ing this really since the inception of Freedom CAD 17 years ago. We have an infrastructure that supports it. We're ITAR-compliant and NIST 800-171-com- pliant, so it has had very little impact on our business. Fortunately, none of our employees have been affected by it, which is a blessing, and we've been able to have the business as usual without skipping a beat. Like everybody, all of our employees are sequestered to their homes, but that's the world we are all living in now. Shaughnessy: It's not quite business as usual, but you're pretty much going along like before. Miller: Yes, all of our processes are set up, and we really are continuing to work the way we've always worked. Shaughnessy: That's good. Is there any mes- sage that you'd like to send to your customers? Freedom CAD's Scott Miller: Taking Care of Customers and Staff Interview by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007