Crowd-sourcing in CAD / PLM software development

December 11, 2011

The topic of crowd-sourcing is fascinating these days. Community based development is interesting topic, and I’m continuing to follow different aspects of crowd-sourcing and finding new examples. I had a chance to write about Local Motors few weeks ago – it was a perfect example of crowd-sourcing and community-based development. Earlier today, I had a chance to read about interesting examples of how Autodesk is using crowd-sourcing to improve localization of their products. Localization is a complicated topic. Even if you’re hiring the best bi-lingual people, your software won’t be perfect.

Autodesk is proposing for users of Inventor 2012 to participate in the project to improve Autodesk Inventor translation. Navigate to the following link (in Russian) and you can see how you can propose a new translation for a specific term and / or command.

I found another interesting example in crowd-sourcing in PLM software – Aras Community roadmap. Navigate to following link and see how you can actually "vote" for specific features and functionality.

This story is specifically ineresting in my view. The ability of software vendor to manage in a very precisely way what features and functionality need to be implemented is a complicated product management objective. To use crowd-sourcing principles in this project is a very interesting and innovative approach, in my view.

What is my conclusion? Crowd-sourcing is fascinating and inspiring. I think it opens additional opportunities in the way nobody thoughts before. It is promising, and I’m expecting more in the future.

Best, Oleg

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PLM Think Tank October Top 5

November 2, 2011

The last week snow in Boston was kind of an event. I think, many of New England residents are still sitting without power and the internet. Which made me think about how dependent we are on the internet supply and how few choices we actually have when it comes to the service interruption. Talking about it, I really want to come to the topic which caused lots of discussion among readers of my blog and also CAD/PLM blogosphere – cloud. Navigate to the following link and read about my discussion with Ralf Grabowski about the future of Cloud. Now, let’s move to my traditional top 5 for October.

1 – PLM Definition and ERP Implementation Patterns

Manufacturing clearly wants to optimize product development processes across the enterprise. The single point of truth is leveraging the simplicity of SQL-database experience for the last 20 years. At the same time, centralization and replication of data are complicated and expensive processes. Managing phased implementation creates a set of new problems related to the ability to maintain the data transformation and synchronization within the time.

2 – Aras, SolidWorks and Disruptive PLM Strategies

Aras is clearly playing a role of a disrupter on PLM market. Back in 2007, Aras disrupted PLM first time by introducing Open Source PLM. It looks like Aras is on the way to make a second disruption among large companies using SolidWorks and taking a role of Enovia V6 in a bundle EPDM / EPLM. Enovia clearly has a technological advantage of having unified development forces in their new Dassault facilities in Waltham, MA to develop “best in class” Enovia V6 / SolidWorks EPDM integration. The speed of customer adoption will be a key factor for Aras.

3 – Cloud and Next Generation of BOM

I think, cloud and other web-based solution can introduce many advantages. One of them is to streamline BOM access by members of the team. Think about BOM as a Google spreadsheet and you probably can get excited by how it may change the way you work. However, cloud technologies introduce new challenges (especially in the field of integration) that need to be solved.

4 – CAD, PLM and Visual Reporting

I think, slowly, but surely, CAD and PLM vendors are starting to understand the value of the ability to present data reports and visualize them nicely. It recognized by many vendors (and just brought examples of Siemens PLM, Dassault Systems and Autodesk). In my view, we are going to see more examples of how reporting capabilities can increase the value of products and make it more usable.

5- PDM Cartoons, Marketing and Unsolved Problems

Few weeks ago, I’ve been interviewed during Autodesk Forum in Moscow. The conversation was about social networks and the question I’ve been asked was – What is next after “Like”? For the sake of the story, my answer was “+”. However, let me shift gears a bit. Thinking about PDM Cartoons I came to the question – “What is next after PLM?”. I found many things marketed as “PLM” functionality presented in these PDM cartoons. Does it mean “PDM” will be the next step after “PLM”. Who knows… The only thing is clear to me – lots of problems in manufacturing organizations cannot be solved by application of yet another “power point deck”. It is time to think what software can do so. The complexity is not in favor these days. Companies are trying to find a different way to solve existing problems.

Best, Oleg

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Aras, SolidWorks and Disruptive PLM Strategies

October 27, 2011

BAM! Aras just announced Enterprise PLM for SolidWorks. Here is the new article -Enterprise PLM for Enterprise PDM. Navigate to the following article to read more – Open Source Aras Releases Commercial PLM Solution for SolidWorks. Here is the short conclusion made by Randall Newton: Our assessment: Aras just plugged a huge hole in the SolidWorks marketplace, one as big as the product name is long.

Fast rewind back in 2010. SolidWorks World 2010. Anaheim, CA. SolidWorks is announcing about their future products on top of Enovia V6 platform. During that event SolidWorks made multiple mentioning of Enovia V6 to be used as a platform for future enhancements of SolidWorks. Here is the passage from razorleaf’s blog summarizing SolidWorks World 2010:

SolidWorks has a new product line, SolidWorks PLM. This line will include a number of offerings, thefirst of which is cloud-based data management named SolidWorks Product Data Sharing (PDS). This software was demonstrated on the last day of the show, operating right inside of SolidWorks. For those paying close attention, the PDS plug-in showed a label, “powered by ENOVIA V6.”

Now rewind seven month ago. SolidWorks 2011. I posted – Integrated PDM and PLM: Wrong Question? This blog was a follow up on the conversation and presentation made by Jonathan Scott of Razorleaf about SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and ENOVIA V6 integration. Slides are still here.

The interesting comment to this post was made by Marc Lind of Aras:

My sense is that the future will be about leveraging existing systems / data, like legacy PDMs, with more modern technologies to enable global processes, cross-functional collaboration and new ways of doing business. Our “view” at Aras is: Use the latest PLM technology to automate what makes economic sense, gets results quickly and gives you control over your own destiny.

I had a chance to meet Aras booth during SWW 2011. Aras presented a co-existance between Open Source Enterprise PLM and EPDM (see photo in the beginning of the post)

Another rewind. April 2011. ACE 2011 (Aras Community Event). After digesting all ACE 2011 materials and presentations, my clear conclusion was – Aras PLM lines up against Windchill, Enovia and TeamCenter. Navigate to my earlier blog to see slides presented Aras. The integration capabilities of Aras were clearly outlined and existing PLMs were presented as “PLM Legacy”.

Here is the quote from my blog post:

Integration is an important element of every PLM strategy and implementation. There are multiple aspects of integrations – desktops, CADs, PLM systems and ERP systems. Aras presented a very broad scope of integrations and integration technologies. (note: I was a bit surprised to see existing PLM systems defined as “legacy”)..

Aras Enterprise PLM vs. Enovia V6

The Enterprise PLM offering by Aras is pretty straightforward. Aras is going after 3 key areas – Engineering Bill of Material management, Change Management and Project/Portfolio Management.

All these modules are available in Enovia V6 portfolio – Enovia Engineering Central and Enovia Program Central. Now, customer can make a decision.

What is my conclusion? Aras is clearly playing a role of a disrupter on PLM market. Back in 2007, Aras disrupted PLM first time by introducing Open Source PLM. It looks like Aras is on the way to make a second disruption among large companies using SolidWorks and taking a role of Enovia V6 in a bundle EPDM / EPLM. Enovia clearly has a technological advantage of having unified development forces in their new Dassault facilities in Waltham, MA to develop “best in class” Enovia V6 / SolidWorks EPDM integration. The speed of customer adoption will be a key factor for Aras. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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Will Google Develop A Better PLM for Motorolla?

August 17, 2011

Note. To be honest, I don’t have much to say with regards to the last Google purchase – Motorola. I’ve been listening, reading and thinking about various aspects of this purchase together with thousands other bloggers and hundreds of analysts and news websites.

Obviously, I’m using mobile and Google. However, my interest is primarily in software for engineering and manufacturing. Between all these articles, analyzes and publication one post by Business Insider caught my attention – THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOOGLE – MOTOROLA DEAL: It could end up being a disaster. Read the article and make your opinion. Here is the quote I found the most interesting in the context of PLM:

"…Hardware manufacturing and sales are about supply chains, parts, factories, physical distribution, and consumer marketing–all things that Google has little or no experience with…"

This is something that smells interesting to me. There is no better way to try your software "in-house". Google just added a unique place to experiment with all Google technologies inside of 19’000 people enterprise with design, production, manufacturing plants, supply chain, etc. This is can be a good trigger to develop a future PLM system for Motorola using Google’s platform. Is there PLM player who can do it? Navigate to the following link. Motorola is actually using an open-source PLM – Aras Innovator. Earlier, this year, Aras made a bold statement about their move to multi-platform deployment away from existing .NET code base. Aras on Linux platform with some cloud-based features can be a good opportunity for Motorola. I believe other PLM vendors will not stand still as well. Recent Dassault announcement about Cloud V6 is just one of them.

What is my conclusion? It is hard to predict what route Google-Motorola will take. However, earlier or later Motorola is going to embrace the technologies developed by Google to optimize their business. Product Lifeycle Management question will come. It is just a matter of time. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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PLM and New Openness

July 21, 2011

The topic of openness in PLM software isn’t new. In the past decade, I’ve been hearing lots of good and bad things about PLM and openness. Last year, I shared my thoughts with regards to PLM and openness in my post – Closed Thoughts About PLM Openness. Few days ago, I had a chance to read Ralf Grabowski was interviewing Fabien Fedida of Dassault Systems. Among all topics they discussed, one was about "new openness". Navigate your browser to the following link to read the interview. I put below some of my thoughts and references on PLM openness for the last year.

New Openness in Dassault V6 R2012

According to Mr. Fedida, Dassault is thinking how to improve the openness of their PLM software. Few examples: releasing of new APIs, adding V6 to external PDM integrations using Web Services and XML schemas. Here is my favorite passage:

Dassault is aggressively releasing API [application programming interface] calls "to the entire eco system." For example, ENOVIA V6 is now up to 3,000 API calls, 3DVIA Composer has 500, and CATIA has new ones in the area of composite manufacturing. There will be more APIs to come…

I can see the release of new APIs as something very positive. However, I’m afraid a bit about measurement of openness in the number of API calls, which reminded me how software was measured by LOC (lines of code) twenty years ago.

Aras, PLM Data "Obfuscation" and Other PLM vendors

A different perspective on openness is coming from Aras blog, which talked to us about PLM vendor’s practice of Lock-in, interoperability and need to make database and data models transparent and interoperable. Navigate your browser to read What is PLMData "Obfuscatopn" and Why Should I care?!? The following quote explains the "data obfuscation problem" and core idea behind Aras’ openness in database and data modeling technologies:

This is the way the other major PLM / PDM systems were / are designed. The database table for the Part Master is notcalled / labelled “Part” – it’s labelled “0034543908543TG324” or something else confusing like that… the data aresometime split into different tables so that access is non-intuitive. This is “obfuscation” and it’s done by design. PLMsystems have traditionally (and still are) very hard to get at the data and figure out, sometimes impossible…. Aras is an open and transparent data model that is designed in a very simple and straightforward manner. Parts are in a table calledPart”, Suppliers in a table called “Supplier”, etc. and you have complete access along with a published data dictionary. That’s very different from the other major PLM providers and one more way that we are helping companies take control of their own destiny. “

Talking about other PLM, I’d be mentioning TeamCenter PLM XML schema, which is a good example of openness, in my view. You can get more details here. It is interesting to see that the same Aras was delivered Aras’ connector to TeamCenter using TeamCenter PLM XML openness. Navigate to the following press release made by Aras back in 2009 – Aras announced connector technology for Siemens PLM Software TeamCenter.

What is my conclusion? Openness is a tricky thing, in my view. It depends on environment and in many times it is a part of the company fundamental strategies. I have to say that DS API numbers and connectors to everything are really reminded me the shelf in Apple store with connectors with all possible sources of data. At the same time, I cannot completely agree that usage of right naming in a database can solve the issue of data transparency and interoperability. The fact vendors are thinking about openness is a good sign. We will watch results… What is your take on PLM openness?

Best, Oleg

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PLM Think Tank July – Top 5

July 6, 2011

The big weekend finally over and this is a time to get back on track with a long list of blogging topics. The weekend was well spent reading my feeds andmaking photo activities. Obviously, if you take a photo camera in your hands on 4th of July it is about picturing fireworks. So did I and I would love to share fewshots from this weekend with you.

Now, let’s move to my regular Top 5 posts for the last month.

My Experience with Dassault V6 PLM Cloud on Amazon

This post in a short period of time became a leader. I think, people’s interest to the Cloud and Dassault is significant. Dassault Systems is definitely pioneering in the development of PLM applications on the cloud. They are probably the first mindshare PLM vendors potentially making cloud available for a mainstream. The idea is cool – you subscribe, pay money or make a trial subscription and… magic happens. The overall impression I’ve got – it is something new. There are lots of small missing pieces, which are probably normal in the first release. In my view, time is now the most critical aspect for Dassault engineers – the idea is cool, but the details are what important in Web 2.0 environment.

Aras PLM lines up against Windchill, Enovia, and TeamCenter

This is long time leader. Aras is definitely moving towards crossing paths with PLM like Windchill, Enovia, TeamCenter. Is it possible to displace large PLM system with Aras today? My answer – it depends. The PLM implementation scope is varied, and every implementation can be different. Therefore, I specially liked the community oriented approach of development. This is something that can make a difference. On the side of platforms and integrations – time will show if Aras will find a balance between throwing resources and effective delivery. This is a big challenge.

Thinking About PLM on the Planet PTC Live

My posts from PlanetPTC raised a lot of interesting. PTC made rock solid show in Las Vegas. The team shows integrity and was well orchestrated. I was impressed by a keynote and demo provided by Brian Shepherd. It was clean and except of some problems with PTC Social Links was running smoothly. Some of live demo were very impressive. PTC execs were achievable and schedule was flexible. High speed internet can be a big plus and can improve the quality and streamlining of the information. I’m going to blog later today and tomorrow and share my thoughts about PTC strategy. Especially interesting for me was everything related to the Windchill 10 and associated presentation of “single point of truth”.

Future Promises and Concerns about PTC after Planet PTC Live

Another post (conclusion) from PlanetPTC. I found Planet PTC very energetic and enjoyed communicating with the executive and marketing team. Two days wasn’t enough to get connected to many people, but I found online community (and especially the community on tweeter) very active, and I’m looking forward to staying connected on the blog, tweeter and other social net. I think some of the things PTC is thinking and working about are very promising and following industry demands. At the same time, the strategy is still lacking some fundamental decisions related to how PLM improves the work with the rest of enterprise software. Another element of the concern is related to the scalability of solutions for different companies. My take – one size doesn’t fit all in manufacturing industry. It shows some promise in Creo Apps, but not reflected in anything else.

Design To Manufacturing Process: Bumpy Road?

This topic is ***just*** important. The space of design to the manufacturing solution is complex and not covered well, in my view. The demand from customers is significant and the same time the requirements are complicated and solution in a most situation needs to be tailored for every customer. Most of the software vendors are talking about design to manufacturing processes and, at the same time, moving integration to partners, service providers and 3rd parties.

Best, Oleg

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PLM, Cloud and Open Source Separation?

June 2, 2011

Cloud and Open source are two topics I’m often touching on my blog. In my view, these two trends are notable if you think about where PLM innovation is going these days. Two years ago, I wrote – SaaS and Open Source: PLM Future Rides. We can see what happened since then.

Cloud services getting some traction. PLM vendors are trying to tap into cloud delivery by introducing focused applications or product. Recent SolidWorks announcement about n!Fuze is one of them. I covered it in my post SolidWorks n!Fuze – Cloud Remake of PLM Collaboration? Autodesk made few bold statements about the cloud with the announcement of Infinite Computing ideas. If you have some more time, you can read my post PLM vendors and cloud strategy where I’m shared my view on major PLM vendors cloud strategy. In parallel, for the last couple of years, I can see valuable development around PLM and Open Source. Some of my post on this includes PLM Open Source: Strategic or Off Road and PLM Wood and Open Source Termites.

Open Source and Vendors lock-in

The issue of vendor lock-in is well known in CAD/PLM world. For many years, the relationships between CAD/PLM vendors and customers was almost similar to "catholic marriage". I learn something new recently. It was about tight dependencies between cloud and open source. Navigate your browser to the to the InfoWorld.com article“Why the Cloud Can’t Be Separated From Open Source”. I found the following passage interesting:

“According to Michael Skok of North Bridge venture Partners, a firm specializing in open source funding, one of the chief customer objections to the cloud is the high potential for vendor lock-in.” Open source technology provides an obvious solution to the vendor lock-in dilemma.

I want to bring some examples of notable open source programs. Navigate to OpenStack – you will discover the program that employs open source and cloud. I can see a quite impressive list of companies, including Dell, Cisco, NASA, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It is hard to dismiss the significance of cloud and open source when you see these names.

PLM Cloud and Open Source Options

It made me think about future potential of PLM, Cloud and Open source to play together. Aras PLM is one of the cloud innovators in this space. I’ve been visiting their ACE 2011 earlier last month. One of the hints Aras made was about their switch towards Linux and other Open Source platforms such as MySQL, On the showcase of ACE 2011 partners presented solutions leveraging some other open source technologies – Lucene and Solr. At the same time, Aras made an announcement about the availability of Aras platform on the cloud.

What is my conclusion? Most of the people are thinking about PLM and Open Source from the narrow "price" standpoint. In my view, the perspective is much wider and covers un-locking from vendors as well as future cloud expansion. Just my thoughts… What is your take?

Best, Oleg

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Aras PLM lines up against Windchill, Enovia, and TeamCenter

May 7, 2011

A week ago, I came back from ACE 2011 (Aras Community Event 2011), which took place in Detroit, MI. Let me propose a very provoking statement: Aras Innovator is on move to replace full fledged PLM products such as TeamCenter, Enovia / MatrixOne and Windchill. Over the 3 days, Aras presented technology, vision and community of people working with Aras Innovator. You can get the highlights and download presentations by navigating to the following link.

Aras: Business Changes and Customization

In the keynote session, Aras’ President and CEO, Peter Schroer, presented the vision of open PLM platform with the ability to maintain a consistent pace of changes during the implementation cycle. Changes are inevitable. For the last years PLM vendors developed strategies to provide out-of-the-box PLM implementations. Aras put focus on “supporting organizational change”.

In addition to that, Aras put a significant focus on their support of Software Customization. Customization of PLM software (and not only PLM), is an important factor impacting PLM implementation TCO. Aras is focusing on how to support customization, and it relates to the Aras Innovator platform capabilities.

Aras and Integration Stories

Integration is an important element of every PLM strategy and implementation. There are multiple aspects of integrations – desktops, CADs, PLM systems and ERP systems. Aras presented a very broad scope of integrations and integration technologies. (note: I was a bit surprised to see existing PLM systems defined as “legacy”).

Aras Innovator introduces multiple APIs and technologies to support integration with different products.

Aras Platform Vision

Started as Windows and Microsoft only, Aras is introducing a broader support of the databases, browsers and other platform-related elements. It was presented as a mix of reality and vision, which not allows you to see what is really happening today. It is clear, Aras is moving towards Linux and broader support of browsers and mobile devices.

Aras Platform and Community

Community and collaborative development are a very interesting aspect of Aras growth strategy. Few slides below shows Aras platform strategy, vision and way to grow solutions by involvement of “community” of partners. As you remember Aras Enterprise Open Source allows to everybody to develop and deploy solutions on top of Aras Innovator. License hassle is minimal.

What is my take on ACE 2011 and Aras Innovator?

Aras is definitely moving towards crossing paths with PLM like Windchill, Enovia, TeamCenter. Is it possible to displace large PLM system with Aras today? My answer – it depends. The PLM implementation scope is varied, and every implementation can be different. Therefore, I specially liked the community oriented approach of development. This is something that can make a difference. On the side of platforms and integrations – time will show if Aras will find a balance between throwing resources and effective delivery. This is a big challenge. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclosure: Aras paid for my trip to ACE 2011.

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Beyond PLM Panel on ACE 2011

April 25, 2011

I’m on my way to Detroit today to take part in Aras Community Event – ACE 2011. On Wednesday, I will be running a discussion panel "Beyond PLM". In the ecosystem of Product Lifecycle Management vendors, Aras is an interesting company, which stands aside of main roads. The name behind that is – Open Source. This is also the main confusion point when people starting to talk about what Aras PLM is about. Few weeks ago, I wrote the following post – PLM Open Source: Strategic or Off-Road. There are way too many flavors of Open Sources these days. What flavor is Aras PLM? I’m going to learn it in details later this week.

I’m delighted to have 3 outstanding panelists in my session: Peter Schroer, Aras CEO; David Sherburne of Carestream Health and Vasco Drecun of Siemens IT Solutions. Having triumvirate of a vendor, customer and IT/service people is a good opportunity to have a comprehensive discussion. The context of my panel conversation will be focused on what will impact the next 10 years of PLM. To predict a future is not a very fruitful goal. Therefore, I’m planning to focus more on what PLM future we want to create.

I’m planning to ask 5 questions on my panel. One question is still open. As readers of my blog, you have an opportunity to influence this question. Please comment on what do you want me to ask my panelists and the best question will go live. I will be also publishing my presentation and conclusions of the panel.

Best, Oleg

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CAD and PLM Vendor Website Traffic

April 6, 2011

Picture-14.pngI was playing around the data I can take from the website Compete.com. You plug the URL of major CAD or PLM vendor and get the information back for free. I found it interesting to compare. In today’s world online traffic can be one of the important elements of a company marketing strategy. Unfortunately, a free version doesn’t work with sub-domains, so some of the companies were not included into my experiments.

My first test was to put Dassault and PTC. These companies are on the top list also as CAD and mindshare PLM vendors. You can see that their traffic is pretty much compatible. You can see the result online navigating on the following link.

Picture-11.png

Following my discussion about Autodesk and their potential move into PLM (or MLP) space, my next experiment was to compare mindshare PLM vendors and Autodesk. You can see the result navigating the following link. Now, picture is more interesting. Autodesk and Dassault are companies compatible in terms of revenues. At the same time, Autodesk outperforms Dassault 10 times from the standpoint of traffic.

Picture-12.png

My last test was to poke one of the PLM challengers. I picked up Aras and tried to compare their traffic with Dassault. Unfortunately, Compete alerted me that aras.com has a low traffic rate. Nevertheless, I found that results interesting. Dassault and Aras are not compatible in terms of size, but their web traffic is pretty much compatible.

Picture-13.png

What is my conclusion? Few years ago, I was reading the book Numerati, by Stephen Baker. The subtitle of the book states – “the must read for anyone who wants to understand life and business in the Google Age“. If you have some free time during the week, read this book. I think, we are coming to the point of time, when the online influence will be become a critical for company business success. Newcomers can use it as power to enter to the business. Large companies can watch it, in order not to lose their significance tomorrow. Important. Just my opinion, of course. YMMV.

Best, Oleg

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