This feedback was important for us to receive because it highlighted a key difference between how DMC is viewed from within and from outside the organization. When someone hears that DMC has offices across the country, it is reasonable to assume these are sales offices. Many companies start up this way: a central office where the technical work takes place, with satellite sales offices for relationship building and sales generation.

More Than Pins on a Map

As DMC expands to open and grow offices in new geographic regions, it isn’t because they want another dot on the map or a statement of presence in those locales. Rather, the intention is to establish engineering presence in the area – offices that provide a location to do actual engineering work to solve problems, develop systems, serve customers, and help deliver projects.

This distinction makes all the difference. Offices of DMC aren’t just a place where you meet someone and talk about business or make introductions. They are places of active technical development. In DMC regional offices, engineers are actively designing automation systems, writing software, setting up test equipment, creating manufacturing processes, integrating hardware, addressing customer needs, and more.

Chicago

Austin

Boston

Cincinnati

Dallas

Denver

Detroit

Houston

New York

Raleigh

San Diego

Seattle

St. Louis

Tampa

Washington, D.C.

Local Presence Still Matters

Even in an age where virtual collaboration is commonplace, there are times when physical presence cannot be overlooked. Seeing a piece of equipment, touring the manufacturing floor, observing the testing apparatus, reviewing the assembly of a control panel, or sitting down with a customer’s team to troubleshoot an issue may present challenges that cannot be fully understood from a diagram, specification, or teleconference call.

That is where the regional presence provided by DMC becomes useful. For many of our clients, our engineers are just a few hours away from their facilities. We can respond to their needs more quickly, build stronger personal connections, and provide the human touch that is so essential to creating a successful technical solution.

It is particularly important for projects involving actual machinery, equipment, limitations, and operating environments. Often, the most effective solution may not be reached from afar but will require the presence of someone with a direct and personal understanding of what the challenge entails.

That said, the regional nature of DMC’s operations does not preclude clients from choosing engineers from any office outside the nearest one. That is where DMC’s approach truly shines.

OneDMC: Local Connection, National Depth

DMC’s office locations are our engineering teams, but they are not necessarily isolated from one another. We have very much embraced the OneDMC approach, meaning that our regional presence is backed by the complete technical expertise of DMC on a national level.

While a customer might work directly with the engineering teams in a local office, there will always be many more layers of technical knowledge backing that local team. Whether a customer’s project requires test automation knowledge, control systems expertise, LabVIEW programming, embedded development, manufacturing automation, cloud, data systems, or even just complicated multi-disciplinary engineering, DMC can bring in the appropriate experts.

And that is what makes our office model quite different from a standard sales office location approach. It combines the benefits of proximity with access to all the knowledge necessary. Customers don’t need to settle for proximity or specialization; with us, they can have both.

That is one of the reasons why we chose to establish offices rather than just sales offices in certain locations. While other companies may only put sales representatives in convenient locations, our office approach allows us to build engineering teams to serve our clients locally while remaining part of a national organization capable of tackling any problems.

Telling the Story More Clearly

The feedback from our partner was a helpful reminder that how we tell our story matters. We know what DMC’s offices are because we live it every day, but we cannot assume others see it the same way. If someone hears “national footprint” and thinks “sales coverage,” then we have an opportunity to better explain what makes our footprint different.

DMC’s growth has been intentional. We have invested in engineering offices because we believe technical work benefits from both local relationships and national collaboration. We want to be close enough to our customers to show up when it matters, while still being connected enough internally to bring the right expertise to every challenge.

So when we say DMC has offices across the country, we are not just saying we have places to meet. We are saying we have engineers across the country. Engineers who are working on real projects, solving real problems, and building real relationships with customers every day.

That is the reality behind DMC’s national footprint—and it is a story worth telling more clearly.

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LabVIEW Discussion

The program kicked off with the community reviewing the latest LabVIEW trends, updates to certifications, and products reaching their end of life. Then, the group moved on to an ice breaker. During the activity, attendees shared how LabVIEW empowers them, discussed their favorite features, and expressed what they hope to learn in the future.

DMC CORTEX Application Framework

Next, Kevin Shirey, LabVIEW Champion and DMC Senior Project Engineer, led the main technical talk for the day presenting DMC CORTEX.

NI TestStand has a feature-rich set, but mastering it—especially for custom step types, process models, and integration—can be time-consuming. It can also be challenging to create custom operator interfaces and build in data visualization.

DMC’s solution is DMC CORTEX, a powerful, flexible test application framework designed to leverage TestStand for its sequencing capabilities by integrating into LabVIEW. DMC CORTEX is engineered to get developers from setup to actionable test data faster. By building on top of NI’s commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software platforms, including LabVIEW and TestStand, CORTEX minimizes the need for custom development and maximizes the value of proven tools.

At the user group meeting, Kevin highlighted the CORTEX user interface and data visualization. He hinted at future LabVIEW User Group topics such as test modes, safety monitoring, error and alarm handling, station configuration, and parameterized sequence— all of which are already handled by CORTEX.

CORTEX also uses two publicly available DMC UI toolkits, which improve the UI/UX of the application. These toolkits are available for anyone to install and use on VIPM.io, and are widely used in the LabVIEW community:

• DMC GUI Suite
• DMC Styles Toolkit

If you are interested in attending the next Research Triangle LabVIEW user group, reach out to Kevin Shirey (kevin.shirey@localhost) or check out the NI Research Triangle LabVIEW User Group Forums.

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