( SNUG 05 Item 4 ) ----------------------------------------------- [12/20/05]
Subject: Synopsys Local Support
LOOKING GOOD -- As I said before, last year I did this same survey with very
similar questions for Cadence in 2004:
"What do you think of *Cadence's* local support in your area?
Are they around after you've bought their tool (Y or N)?"
Yes: ############################ 56%
No: ###################### 44%
"Are they helpful?"
Yes: ############################ 55%
No: ###################### 45%
- from http://www.deepchip.com/items/icu04-05.html
The same questions for *Synopsys* in 2005:
"Are they around after you've bought their tool (Y or N)?
Yes: ####################################### 77%
No: ############ 23%
"Are they helpful (Y or N)?"
Yes: ###################################### 75%
No: ############# 25%
I was a bit surprized to see the Synopsys Local Support scoring so much
better than the Cadence Local Support. Cadence 55% vs. Synopsys 75%
helpful Local Support ratings. That "are they around after the sale"
question appears very telling. Cadence Local Support was around only 56%
of the time after the sale in 2004 while Synopsys Local Support in 2005
hangs around 77% after the sale. An interesting difference in support
philosophies there between the Big Two.
In addition, I asked in the Synopsys 2005 survey:
"What do you think of *Synopsys* local support in your area?
(choose one) Pretty good, so-so to mixed, or pretty bad?"
pretty good: ############################### 62%
so-so to mixed: ################ 31%
pretty bad: ### 7%
Getting a 62% "pretty good" rating (or more importantly only getting a 7%
"pretty bad" rating) is something for Synopsys to be proud of.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Local support is very good. Very responsive and all.
- Gzim Derti of Agere
Synopsys local support in my area is pretty good. Yes they are
around after we have bought their tool. Yes they are helpful. My
employer is in Europe and we buy the tools there. Some European sales
guy gets the commission, yet the local ACs in the Boston area are
more than willing to help if I have a question with their tools.
- Jonah Probell, consultant
Our local sales support is excellent but his hand are tied with so much
bureaucracy that it is difficult for him to get much of anything done.
The technical help is pretty good but the price gouging cancel anything
positive I have to say about them.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Great!
- David Black, consultant
Synopsys local support for certain Synopsys tools is better then others.
The tools I use most often are PhysOpt and Design Compiler.
PhysOpt support has been very good even though a lot of this support is
based on tool bugs which requre R&D fixes. The AE is available most of
the time and provides quick response from questions.
Design Compiler AE is more difficult to get a hold of and not as willing
to drop other tasks to work on urgent issues. Many times we feel like
we are not the lead priority for ongoing issues. However, he usually is
effective at delivering workarounds or solutions to our issues.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Pretty bad. We have been using a Synopsys/Avanti tool flow for a long
time and we get very a poor support. Not very helpful.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Our Synopsys local support is truly awesome! They are pro-active in
identifying any application questions or issues. They pull in R&D
people whenever a real bug is encountered.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
So-so to mixed local support.
Yes they are around after the sale to some extent but it took talking
to the GM to make it happen.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
When they are available, they are so-so. We've tended to figure out the
hard problems on our own. They wrapped themselves around us prior to
the tool purchase. After the tool purchase they suggested that we contact
tech support because that will ensure a prompt answer. We are still
solving our own problems.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
so-so
- Benjamin Chen of Socle Tech.
We get pretty good support, but then that may be partially due to the
size of our company.
- David Smith of STmicroelectronics
Pretty good, but Intel is a major customer, so that's explainable.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
So-so to mixed. Good Astro support, poor on synthesis tool suite. They
cater to the largest company in the area (Intel), and everyone else is
2nd tier.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Support is so-so to mixed.
- Nandakumar Natarajan of Agilent
Mediocre at best. Delay tactics galore!!
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Better than pretty good. I have worked with their ACs in VCS/Vera, DC,
PT and TetraMAX. Yes, they have been around after the buy. They hold
regular trainings for us at our site (with free food, of course :-)
Yes, they are also very helpful and knowledgable.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Pretty bad. I think they are hindered by corporate culture though.
They often don't seem to have the ability to get us direct access to
R&D, or even make sure our problems get solved. That being said, seems
like whenever we get a good support person, they last about a year
before they end up leaving the company.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Support is pretty bad. We keep several versions around only to get past
known bugs. No support after the sale. Very willing to send price quotes.
- Richard of Reindl of L-3 Communications
Our Synopsys local support has been very good. Their AE are still
around after we bought the tools. And they are definitely helpful.
- Wanhao Li of Zoran
Not using Synopsys anymore. Used to be so-so support (until you find the
right guy). Usually easier to find a work around yourself.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Pretty good support. Historically they've been helpful even after tool
purchase.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Local support is good. They are helpful.
- Joe Xu of Huawei Technologies
service so-so. Local support are not helpful.
- Chih-Hao Chung of Ali Corp.
Munich office has some highlights, but also some lowlights. Ranges from
pretty good (TeraMAX - Mr. Mittermaier, STA - Mr.Grimpe) to mixed for DC.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
So-so. When we need it, we can push and get it, but they're not exactly
calling us up to help us use their tools effectively.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
What support? When we submit an issue (typically with Formality), it
takes months to get a resolution. If you are a small company, you are
sent to the web.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Quite good.
- John Gedde of Aeroflex Laboratories
particularly better in the last few months, not sure why?
- Brendan Barry of S3 Ltd.
Support in my area is very good. They definately here after we have
bought the tools and they are very helpful.
- Are Arseth of Atmel
What the hell is support from Synopsys?
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Sales/licensing pretty helpful beyond that being so small we really
have to beg
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Local support is pretty good. I would say they rank 3rd behind Mentor
and Synplicity.
- Kevin Broe of Britestream Networks
We are a small company. Synopsys local support is non-existant. I use
SolvNET for any support.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Synopsys support is pretty bad. Pre-sales support is okay, but post
sales is absent. I filed 15 ticket in 15 weeks and have been closed
without solving the problems.
- John Schritz of Tektronix
very mixed, some v good. Basic problem is day-to-day bugs vs flawed
design, quick fix vs design it right. For example Astro CTS doc is
100+ murky pages; FEs is 10, clear, well designed.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
I feel Synopsys has one of the best support structures than any other EDA
vendor. Sometimes I've seen not so precise/rational response, but if I
pursue it with indepth questions, usually someone more experienced and
knowledgeable jumps in and takes the thread to closure. In summary I
would rate 'em "Pretty good".
- Jay Pragasam of Open Silicon Inc.
The local AE and Sales are great but the bureaucracy they have to go
through causes lousy response.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
So-so. Our problem is that our FAE for our account changes every few
months. On DC most are helpful. On various other products the FAE
support is mixed.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Mentor Graphics is pretty good
Synopsys is so-so
Cadence is pretty bad
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Very good support, but you do need to push on them a bit. They can't do
a thing unless you can distill the problem down to a very simple testcase,
which is frustrating sometimes as I'd like them to do that work so I can
do something else more productive.
The issues I have had are around SystemC and VCS. BTW, they don't support
use of a memory corruption tool for systemc such as Purify. They say they
support the GNU tool Valgrind, but they won't help you around the slew of
issues using it and VCS.
- Joseph Panec of Teradyne
So-so. Astro/Milkyway quality is at an all-time low putting a lot of
pressure on the support teams. We generally use a more centralized
(remote) support person.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Very Good. We have on-site support 1-2 days every week, otherwise
direct phone support with experienced AE's.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
so-so
- Larry Ping of BroadLogic Network Technologies
Local support is so-so to mixed. It varies on each tool's support.
Some is OK some are not helpful at all. We have good support from
some personal of support center, but not all are good.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
ACs are so-so to mixed. Support Center is usually better, though limited
in what they can address in customer's environment. We don't have the
problem/experience that support disappears after the sale.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
We've been happy with local support. Email support is so-so, so we like
to work closely with our local AE team. Guess it's kinda like going to
your Family Practitioner: over time, he/she 'learns' about your specific
needs over time, and it works better than finding a new Doc everytime
you need one.
- Neel Das of Tallika Corp.
Support is pretty good, yes they are around after a sale and they are
very helpful.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
So - so. The standard response of "send us a test case" regardless of
how generic the question is particuraly annoying. I have gotten good
support after elevating an issue to Synopsys management. They have good
people, they just keep them hidden away most of the time.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Pretty good, and yes they were there after the tools were aquired
- Yossi Levhari of Verisure
so-so to mixed. I don't work in an ASIC rich geography, thus the
local support team has limited experience.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Excellent. Continuously helpful and concerned about our issues.
- Russell Petersen of Scientific Atlanta
It takes a while to run the gauntlet through phone support or ACs to get
to someone who really knows what's going on.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
Local Support is OK. The issue tracking system don't work, but we
have pretty good direct access to FAEs. No problems with support
after purchases.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
A note on support: I consider myself an advanced user, who even built
tools myself. When I have a question, 90% it's for the R&D group. It's
really annoying to waste 3 weeks every-single-time going back and forth
with Support until they run out of stupid questions, and go ask R&D.
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
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