Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1411055
42 PCB007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 some of theirs, and it's really important to allow them to be able to have multiple people work in the tool that they feel comfortable with. Johnson: It feels like there's a shi here. I'm oversimplifying, but it feels like you're creat- ing an industry-specific operating system with- in which the applications play. You used to de- velop apps; now you've created an operating system from design through to manufacturing. Pawela: I think you're absolutely spot on. at's the transition that we're undergoing as a com- pany. Look, we think we're pretty darn good in the CAD side of things, but our future and our aspiration is to be more than CAD. We know that's about solving problems for customers. at's what we've been talking about, and it re- quires an operating system for the industry, if you will. We hope to make it as open as we can; we hope we can draw everybody in from our competitors on the CAD side, to equipment manufacturers, to the fabricators and contract manufacturers, and everybody involved in that ecosystem. Johnson: Back when the industry was driven by the application, and the CAD tool com- panies were at the fore, the CAD tool folks knew where their bread was buttered: it was the engineers who were buying the soware licenses. Spending R&D money to put togeth- er channels to make manufacturing easier was not a money-maker. Manufacturers didn't have a way to buy in to become a customer, if you will. You have finally changed that, it seems. Pawela: I want to be a little cautious not to overstate where we are today. Our goal is to change that, and we're taking the first small steps to make that possible. We're also try- ing to involve those stakeholders in a way that we're architecting this. Working with Macro- Fab, as an example, gives us the opportunity to see things through their lens and for them to provide us feedback, "No, design guys, you don't get the fact that something else happens over here in our world. ese are the things we have to deal with, and you can't forget about those or what you're doing will not be relevant." Everybody has different needs and we're trying to open it up, to make it feasible for them, and take their feedback so that it's valuable to them as well. Andy Shaughnessy: Can distributors who are competitors of Octopart join as a partner?