Boosting design, engineering and business training at Queens University

in2grates business software solution d2order is being used at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland to help students gain a greater insight into the technical and business aspects of design and engineering, with guidance from The Northern Ireland Technology Centre (NITC). The d2order solution was implemented at the University by its author, in2grate.

Tom Edgar, Director of The NITC, commented: The Centre is one of the primary links with industry at Queens University Belfast, and by using d2order to prepare students for the competitive and demanding world of industry, we are underpinning our responsibility of transferring best practice in design and manufacturing technologies.

Edgar continued: Often the perception in industry is that engineering students seek and acquire a strong technical competence at Queens, but often fall short in understanding the finer points of business matters. The NITC therefore focuses not only on ensuring students have a sound grasp of CAD CAM software tools and engineering skills, but also gain an insight into such business disciplines as billing, sales order processing and financials. d2order is an excellent package for putting design, engineering and business issues into context, and is representative of the type of state-of-the-art software packages students are likely to use when they go out into the workplace.

Edgar added that another key benefit of d2order is the way it ensures the end user can re-use existing business process data without duplication of effort, for example each time a new business win is secured. In Edgars view, students and the companies they will eventually work for need to understand a raft of internal business processes and the cost of these processes so they can become as profitable as possible over the long term. d2order is one of the most appropriate tools on the market in this respect because it has the scope of functionality to deal with a number of business processes, and because it links so well with the universitys SolidWorks design package, one of the most popular and flexible CAD tools on the market, he says.

Bob Clements, Managing Director of in2grate, commented on the project: We too feel that it is becoming increasingly important for graduates to understand the mechanics of business rather than simply the technologies used. The partnership between NITC and in2grate clearly demonstrates a mutual appreciation for this need in academia. It is also of significant importance to in2grate as it provides us with a valuable partner that is able to provide balanced feedback about our solutions and potential directions for future development.