Category: PLM

Anyone out there not yet in the cloud?

Yes, this is a serious question: Is there anyone who does not yet use cloud services, whether from their computer at home, at work or directly from their cell phone? We have all become so accustomed to using cloud servers like WhatsApp, Facebook or Dropbox. And these services work, are secure and are always available. Who would want to set up their own server at home for data communication or file exchange? Even at work, more and more companies are renting data exchange (Dropbox Enterprise) and communication services (Slack, MS Teams). In short: The use of cloud services at home and at work is becoming more and more standard.

So why not use the same kind of data management, file sharing and collaboration services for product-related data such as 3D CAD models, bills of materials and design specifications in the cloud?

Why not PLM from the cloud?

In the past, there was some skepticism about this in terms of network bandwidth, performance and security. But cloud solution providers, especially the big cloud hyperscalers, have done their homework, providing sufficient network capacity and even running their own physical cables across oceans. Take a minute and do the speed test at Amazon’s AWS Global Accelerators (https://speedtest.globalaccelerator.aws/#/).

Security concerns can also no longer be a valid argument for not running business-critical applications like a PLM system in the cloud. Companies like AWS, Azure and Google offer everything you need for highly secure, encrypted communications. Add your own virtual private network, single sign-on directory access, and multifactor authentication with timeout, and you’re as secure or more secure than you could ever be with your own infrastructure.

Cloud PLM from CONTACT Software

So it is a logical step that CONTACT Software also offers its solutions in the cloud. The idea: to reach a larger customer base faster (time to value). Since then, numerous potential and existing customers have actively approached us to run our products CIM Database PLM, the project management solution Project Office or the IoT platform CONTACT Elements for IoT in the cloud.

The CONTACT Cloud Solutions offer customers, on the one hand, a standard SaaS solution (Software as a Service – see NIST) with all PLM, project management and IoT functions that you can also install on-premise. In addition, there are predefined ERP interfaces in our technology platform as well as CAD integrations based on the new Workspaces Desktop for Web. For customers who want to customize the application or even implement their own solutions on top of the CONTACT Elements framework, CONTACT offers an enterprise edition of its platform in the cloud. This contains the entire CI/CD DevOps infrastructure to program locally, merge customizations, verify and deploy to test and production instances in the cloud.

So what is there to wait for? Get to know the possibilities of the CONTACT Cloud now.

Context is King – virtual collaboration in product development

The past two months have given the topic of virtual collaboration an enormous boost. The Corona crisis has forced everyone to deal with this topic. And the conclusion is consistently positive!

In the first few weeks, the main task was to create the possibilities for virtual collaboration. Now it is a matter of continuing to use the potential of these possibilities after the return to “normality”. What’s even more: many companies are taking the experience they have gained as an opportunity to rethink their structural and process organization and to further digitalize business processes.

Special case product development

While common office solutions in combination with video conferencing are easy to use in areas such as administration, marketing or sales, they often reach their limits in product development. One reason for this is, among others, the high level of interdisciplinarity in this area. Many different specialist teams have to work together at the same time and on several projects. Added to this is the high complexity of the work objects, which are often developed as structures and have many different relationships with each other. In order to work together productively under these conditions, the possibilities of the usual IT tools are not sufficient.

New requirements for IT tools

Intelligent platform solutions for collaborative product lifecycle management (PLM), which enable context-related interdisciplinary work, provide a remedy here. Context-related means that all work objects are linked to each other and can be called up at any time in the work process and from any context. Analysts like Gartner speak of content collaboration tools. This means that you can navigate from one work item to all neighboring work items without having to search and ask questions. This guarantees efficient and valid collaboration, especially in distributed teams.

Intelligent platform solutions offer yet another advantage in collaboration: a common environment in which all project participants can inform themselves and view changes directly. Cross-team chat functions, so-called activity streams, support the consistent exchange of information on the current status of the project. Especially in virtual collaboration, this guarantees a continuous flow of information, which in most cases more than compensates for the lack of “office grapevine” or the meeting at the coffee machine. Gartner has a term ready for this, too, which is Workstream Collaboration.

Another key component of intelligent platform solutions is the use of integrated task boards, which allow development teams to organize their tasks independently. In the past, task lists with several hundred entries were often used. Today, task boards allow only important milestones or quality gates to be set, but leave the individual tasks within the milestones to the teams themselves. This allows an interdisciplinary, distributed team to carry out a joint weekly planning on screen in virtual sessions, e.g. via Zoom.

The main advantage of integrated task boards is the direct linking of to-do cards on the boards with the work objects. This avoids not only the time-consuming search for the appropriate work objects, but also error and version risks. These additional expenses and risks usually occur with purchased individual solutions.

Conclusion:

The Corona crisis has prepared the ground for the continuous expansion of virtual collaboration – also in product development – from now on. Product development places special demands on IT tools for efficient virtual collaboration. Especially working in context is a decisive productivity factor here. Selected intelligent platform solutions for collaborative PLM already meet these requirements today.

PLM-Fauxpenness hat keine Zukunft

PLM-Blogger Oleg Shilovitsky, der sich wiederum auf einen Beitrag von Monica Schnitger bezieht, verdanke ich die Entdeckung eines wundervollen Begriffs, der ursprünglich in der Open Source Community geprägt wurde: Fauxpenness. Er bezeichnet eine Software, die vorgibt Open (Source) zu sein, aber es nicht wirklich ist. Der Begriff lässt sich prächtig auf die PLM-Hersteller und ihre Produkte übertragen, die aller Lippenbekenntnisse und der Unterzeichnung des Code of PLM Opennness (CPO) zum Trotz noch längst nicht so offen sind, wie sie sein müssten, um den wachsenden Kundenanforderungen in punkto Interoperabilität zu genügen. Continue reading “PLM-Fauxpenness hat keine Zukunft”