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Juliann Grant

Why You Should Start Creating Digital Threads Right Now: Stay Sharp Episode 148

In Stay Sharp Episode 148, The Question Every Digital Thread Has to Answer, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott expand on a previous conversation (Stay Sharp Episode 141) with Chris Finlay, the former VP of Engineering Innovation at SAIC and current Digital Systems Engineer Director at Raytheon. This time, they explore the benefits and power of the digital thread through Chris’s experience and real-world use cases.
Juliann Grant
August 14, 2026

What’s Really Happening in Digital Engineering Beyond the AI Noise: Stay Sharp Episode 147

In Stay Sharp Episode 147, Data Fiefdoms and Cheese: An Analyst’s View of the Industry’s Blind Spots, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with PLM industry analyst Christine Longwell. From her start as a mechanical engineer at Ford to her most recent work owning the global PLM market model for CIMdata, Christine has spent her career analyzing the business of digital engineering (DE). In this conversation, she offers her perspective on current and future use of DE platforms.
Juliann Grant
August 7, 2026

How to Capitalize on CMMC Breathing Room: Stay Sharp Episode 146

In Stay Sharp Episode 146, CMMC Paused, Not Cancelled: Why Contractors Shouldn’t Stop Now, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome returning guest Steve Nichols, the head of Razorleaf Government Solutions. The podcast has covered the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) in past episodes, Understanding the Cybersecurity Maturity Model and How SMBs Can Break into the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), and this week’s topic is the recent CMMC pause and what organizations should do about it.
Juliann Grant
July 31, 2026

Licensing Is Already Changing, And There’s More to Come: Stay Sharp Episode 145

In Stay Sharp Episode 145, Why Nobody Can Predict Their Software Costs Anymore, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Paul Empringham, the VP of CAD Simulation and PLM at NYBS Consulting. Paul’s previous episode, What Leaders Need to Know About Software Licensing, focused on tips for license management and optimization. This time, he’s talking about what the future holds for enterprise software licensing.
Juliann Grant
July 24, 2026

The Cost of Digital Environment Sustainment: Stay Sharp Episode 144

In Stay Sharp Episode 144, The Hidden Costs of Digital Engineering Systems, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott talk with Razorleaf colleague Eric Smith, one of Razorleaf’s original employees and current VP of Services. Together, they dig into the unanticipated price you might pay for your new enterprise system, from maintenance to training and beyond. What’s Hiding in the Spaghetti Eric makes the point that most of these are costs you can’t predict or can’t know about as you’re going into an implementation. His list starts with day-to-day support aspects, whether that’s user support or how systems interact, break, get fixed, or get upgraded. “When we first started, you'd go install a system and it was a server. That was all you had to work with. And now, environments have become much more complicated. You have a ton of interrelated systems,” he explains. “It's really become an interoperability spaghetti-pile of systems that then have to be coordinated and dealt with.” A lot of that spaghetti requires different expertise, which probably means different experts, which means more cost. Eric Smith, VP of Services, Razorleaf Whether it’s part of the problem or a result of it, one of the challenges is when…
Juliann Grant
July 17, 2026

The DIY Approach to PLM Software: Stay Sharp Episode 143

In Stay Sharp Episode 143, Build vs. Buy in the Age of AI-Assisted Coding, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with returning guest Jonathan Girroir, Technical Evangelist at Tech Soft 3D, a software company that creates the building blocks for digital engineering. This episode breaks down why the idea of writing your own PLM software might not be so farfetched, how far vibe-coding can take you, and what to consider when doing anything outside of your manufacturing plant with your data.
Juliann Grant
July 10, 2026

How Knowing Who’s Using What Software, Where, and When Helps Your Bottom Line: Stay Sharp Episode 142

In Stay Sharp Episode 142, What Leaders Need to Know About Software Licensing, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome Paul Empringham, the VP of CAD, Simulation, and PLM at NYBS Consulting, an independent consulting and software asset management firm. Paul, whose career has ranged from designer to engineering systems manager and transformation manager, offers insight into why a thoughtful and analytical approach to software licensing is something you should be thinking about and acting on.
Juliann Grant
July 3, 2026

The Tours You Never Knew You Wanted to Take

As you’re planning your summer adventures this year, we encourage you to try something new. Instead of the standard diet of museums, national parks, and theme parks, you and your family can combine education and activity with tours very few people think about. We’re talking about manufacturing destinations, where you can experience everything from historic sites and (yes) museums, to active plants. Who knew?
Juliann Grant
June 26, 2026
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