How SaaS-Based CAD Brings a Competitive Edge to Large Manufacturers

For decades, large manufacturers have relied on powerful, on-premises CAD software to design and rework products. But these legacy systems are costly to maintain, limit collaboration, and slow innovation.

Today’s SaaS-based CAD solutions are changing that. By moving design operations to the cloud, manufacturers gain new levels of flexibility, real-time collaboration, and data synchronization across globally distributed teams. With cloud-native tools, engineers, designers, and stakeholders can access a single source of truth from anywhere—streamlining the New Product Introduction (NPI) process and accelerating innovation.

This executive brief, produced by ABI Research in partnership with Siemens, explores how SaaS-based CAD is enabling manufacturers to modernize design, enhance transparency, and extend CAD access beyond the traditional engineering team..

Topics Covered

• Modern Design Challenges: Costly, siloed, and maintenance-heavy legacy CAD systems

• The SaaS Advantage: Always up-to-date, browser-based design tools with no IT overhead

• Lightweight CAD for the Enterprise: Making real-time collaboration and version control seamless

• NX X Essentials: Siemens’ browser-based solution delivering CAD, CAM, and CAE flexibility

• Expanding CAD Access: Enabling management, production, supply chain, and sales teams to participate in the design process

• Value Beyond the Design Team: Improving transparency, communication, and early-stage product validation

• Operational Impact: Reducing downtime, improving accuracy, and accelerating time-to-market

Download the executive brief tto learn how SaaS-based CAD solutions like NX X Essentials are empowering large manufacturers to collaborate more efficiently, reduce costs, and achieve faster innovation cycles.