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Jan 2017
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Jan 2017
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DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

Hi Hub owners,

I am excited to announce that I am working on a web based analytics tool which will allow you to manage your hub better and make more profits by providing intuitive graphical insights into:

1. Who are your top costumers.

2. How are they distributed geographically

3. Pie-chart explaining material distribution based on your orders

4. Average and median order amount

5. Repeat customers

6. Chart explaining layer-height distribution based on your orders and much more…

Analytics report will be based on the CSV file of the orders you received on 3D Hubs. It can be obtained by going to your ‘Orders’ page and clicking ‘Export orders as CSV’ button. You can download the generate Analytics report in a PDF format for a fixed price (to be determined).

I would love to learn more about what would you like to see in this report so that we can offer you the maximum value in order to run your Hub in the most efficient way and generate more profits.

Please sign up here: http://eepurl.com/cxa-iL. Thank you!

Happy 3D Printing! :slight_smile:

Kind Regards,

-Prasad Dixit, CEO

Dixit Systems LLC

DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

Please note: I am not affiliated with 3D Hubs. Above analytics tool is developed as an independent effort.

Lembach3D
Jan '17

Cool Stuff.

I still think this should not cost extra. Please try to make your deal with 3dhubs.

best regards

Andreas

wirlybird
Jan '17

What’s the point. You can do this in Excel in 30 seconds and for free.

DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

Hi Andreas,

Thank you for your recommendation. I haven’t discussed it with 3DHubs but I am willing to collaborate with 3D Hubs if they are interested in offering such solution.

Best,

-Prasad Dixit

DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

Hi Wirlybird,

That is a very legitimate point and I am very glad that you asked this question.

The reason I am doing this is because I recently quit my full-time job with just little over $1000 in my savings account in order to start a company which is focusing on developing some really interesting solutions in 3D printing space. However, its a complex long term project and I don’t expect any revenue anytime soon. (If you are interested about that solution we are developing, named Innovana3D, I have provided more details at the bottom)

Meanwhile, I still need to put food on table for my family and figure out a way to pay for my two and half year old daughter’s daycare.

I felt 3D Hubs Analytics is something that can be useful to 3D Hub owners and can be developed in a relatively shorter time in order to survive. So I decided to pursue this project and hope that with people’s goodwill and by creating value for users, I can manage to sustain for some time.

You are right that great amount of functionality that I plan to offer can be developed using Excel with some effort. However, I am hoping that certain Hub owners will be willing to share their Hub data anonymously which will allow me provide insights into data which won’t be possible to get just my analyzing your own order’s CSV file.

Another point I want to make is that on a very basic level, dropbox just replaces functionality offered by portable USB drive. Yet, dropbox creates a lot of value to its users by offering great amount of simplicity and offering solution that just works. My hope is to develop a solution elegant enough and the one which offers enough value that users won’t feel the need to use Excel and can justify paying for the report.

PS:

Little more info about Innovana3D: Innovana3D is a cloud based application to help Engineers, Product Designers, Makers, and Innovators lower the time and cost required to develop new products using 3D printing by providing a unified set of tools like 3D printing price comparison, CAD file conversion and analysis, photo realistic rendering of 3d models for selling models on e-commerce websites and more.

You can try the Beta version for free here: http://innovana3d.com/

If you have any suggestions about it, I will be very glad to learn more.

Thank you,

-Prasad Dixit

cobnut
Jan '17

Hi @DigiPhy3D while I can sympathise with the need to earn, I do feel there’s a limited market. Almost everything you’ve suggested would be available if 3DHubs allowed users to add Google Analytics tags to their Hub/order pages, which is something that has been suggested and which (I believe) they intend to develop at some point. More importantly, for much of this data there simply won’t be enough orders, made consistently, for the data to be statistically significant and even if it were, I’m not sure how it would help my Hub. For example, how does knowing that someone is a repeat customer change how I deal with them or their order? If they’re a really frequent customer I’d have to have a pretty poor memory not to recognise them, if they’re not that frequent they’re really no different from any other order. How does knowing that my most common printing height is 200 microns change how my Hub works? OK, I could increase my prices for that layer height, but it’d still need to be cheaper than, say, 100 microns, so all I’m really doing is raising my prices, and possibly making my Hub less attractive. How does knowing what my most commonly printed material is help me? Again, if I don’t know that already, I’m doing something wrong.

Sorry, but I really can’t see anything here that a) isn’t already doable for free, b) won’t be easily and simply done with Analytics once the option is available, and c) something I’d feel the need to pay for.

wirlybird
Jan '17

I certainly respect anyone getting out and trying. I am probably a bit slanted on this since one of the things I do in my business (petroleum engineering) is analytics using a very powerful system called Spotfire.

Best of luck on your endeavors.

DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

Hi @cobnut,

Thank you for your input! You have made some really good points.

I agree that the market is very limited. Only those hubs who have let’s say at least 25 orders or have done business > $500 might find it useful. In addition, most hub owners might need it only once in a year to get a bird’s eye view of their Hub’s performance.

One area where Hub owners can benefit is to see what are the most popular materials for their orders over a given year and make a more educated decision about what materials to order.

The idea is still in a very nascent stage and I hope to offer insights in the report where some, if not all, hub owners will find value in it. I don’t expect the report to be too expensive. It will certainly be within two digits.

cobnut
Jan '17

Hi @DigiPhy3D thanks for being understanding and not taking my comments in offence!

In terms of ordering materials, I don’t know how other Hubs work, but I’ve always got enough of the most common materials in stock to handle pretty much any order that comes my way. If (I wish!!) I had an absolutely huge order that would wipe out my stock, my preferred supplier delivers reliably next day and I’d expect to negotiate an extended completion time with the customer for that size of order anyway. I feel like I’m dismissing all your ideas, but again, I don’t see a detailed analysis of material popularity being something that most Hubs won’t already know.

To try and be positive, what would be most useful for me would be to know which industry sectors are most active, matched to my printing abilities. For example, do I get a lot of hobbyists, or a lot of prototyping, or a lot of toys, etc. Knowing this would allow me to target these sectors in advertising. Although 3DHubs does provide some insight into this data ( 3D printing trend report | Hubs ), this is too high level to be useful. Most of my orders are reasonable local to me, certainly only within the UK, so I’d really need to know which sector is most active locally to me and which ones are most active for FDM printing (which is currently all I can do).

However, trying to provide this analysis at an individual Hub level is once again likely to run into issues with data significance and volume. What you’d really need to do is provide me with an analysis based upon all Hubs within a (say) 100 mile radius of mine and really that’s a job for 3DHubs themselves, since they’re the only ones with access to the data at the appropriate level.

DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

@However, trying to provide this analysis at an individual Hub level is once again likely to run into issues with data significance and volume. What you’d really need to do is provide me with an analysis based upon all Hubs within a (say) 100 mile radius of mine and really that’s a job for 3DHubs themselves, since they’re the only ones with access to the data at the appropriate level.

This is a very good suggestion. I will look into its feasibility as I develop. After all, what data is most useful to you needs to come from Hub owners, so I really appreciate you taking time to explain what you would like to see in the report.

I am always open to suggestions and critical feedback!

Lucika29
Jan '17

I find it useful for customers actually; someone who is really lost and is new to 3D printing would appreciate some info on the most popular materials, average price or layer height for example. That said, I wouldn’t pay for it outside 3DHubs, so I support the idea of integrating the project into 3DHubs platform, maybe find a place for it at each Hub’s page, or even at the order placing page. Give it a thought!

DigiPhy3D
Jan '17

A kind reminder: If you are interested in this analytics tool, please subscribe to our ‘Hub Insights’ newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cxa-iL.

Development work is going on rapidly. Early adopters might get lucky with special discounts.

Thank you!

-Prasad Dixit

Founder & CEO

Dixit Systems, LLC