Northeast Manufacturing News • July 21 • Mastercam Makes Channel Changes to Better Serve Educational Customers

CNC Software, Inc., developer of Mastercam, has announced that its U.S. industrial channel will now also serve its educational customers throughout the country. This move brings the company’s global distribution channel into alignment and supports efforts to bring educational customers and industrial manufacturers closer together.

Mastercam Resellers outside of the U.S. have always serviced both industrial and educational customers within their regions, so fully committing to that model in the U.S. brings the channel into alignment worldwide. CNC Software has successfully tested this approach in the U.S. for years in states such as Ohio, Michigan and Iowa. Now, the company has moved all states under the same model.

With this change, educational institutions gain the benefit of greater connection with the industrial network of manufacturers using Mastercam. “They gain direct access to the industrial channel’s deep knowledge of the Mastercam product, advanced technical support, post integration, training and onsite assistance,” said a company spokesperson. “Additionally, the Resellers form a much-needed conduit between educational and industrial customers. This connection will enable better partnerships between schools and their local industry, which can lead to more effective and successful job placement for students.”

“Our industrial Mastercam Resellers provide a valuable connection between manufacturing firms and educational institutions tasked with preparing students to join the workforce, and they have the talent and expertise to support both. We identified this channel realignment as a way for us to help U.S. schools better prepare students with strong technical skills in CAD/CAM and CNC machining to meet the immediate needs of industry,” shared Doug Nemeth, Director of Sales for the Americas, Mastercam.

The company maintains an education department dedicated to supporting the educational market through sponsorships and involvement with organizations such as WorldSkills, SkillsUSA, Project MFG, National Robotics League, First Robotics, NASA HUNCH and SAE International, as well as a partnership with TITANS of CNC Academy. The department also manages the Mastercam Educators Alliance, connecting instructors with each other, training opportunities and subject matter experts in support of teaching excellence.

“This is the next step in Mastercam’s commitment to engaging with the next generation of CAM users,” said Peter Mancini, Education Product Manager, Mastercam. “We consider the needs of schools and educators teaching Mastercam in all of our business and software development decisions, so that students receive the skills they need to fill rewarding jobs in industry—and industrial users gain a supply of skilled workers for a growing number of vacancies.”