Eaton-Holec Powers Product Development

Energy distribution company adopts collaboration tool from CoCreate

Energy distribution company adopts collaboration tool from CoCreate

Fort Collins, CO, and Sindelfingen, GERMANY — March 16, 2005 — CoCreate Software Inc., a provider of flexible computer-aided design (CAD) and collaborative product lifecycle management (PLM) software, today announced that energy distributor Eaton-Holec N.V., the Netherlands, has adopted OneSpace.net.

Eaton-Holec provides electrical control, power distribution and industrial automation products and services. Eaton has more than 55,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 125 countries. Holec was absorbed by Eaton in 2003.

"Since the takeover, our projects have become more and more global," said Wim Hoekstra, manager R&D Low Voltage Devices, Eaton-Holec N.V.

For example, Eaton-Holec works on a joint development project that includes their Dutch, English and Chinese subsidiaries. "OneSpace.net improves communication among project team members anywhere and professionally tracks the status of our projects," commented Hoekstra.

Prior to enlisting OneSpace.net, the company used conventional methods such as fax, postal service, e-mail and business travel to review drawings and models within their project teams. "These methods were error prone and expensive," said Hoekstra. In addition, they did not allow for professional control of the project status.

Eaton-Holec chose the CoCreate product after evaluating other collaborative products such as eRoom and others. "These products met some of our requirements," according to Hoekstra, "but only OneSpace.net addresses the specific needs of designers and developers like us."

The company can set up projects in OneSpace.net's project workspace and keep documents, drawings, models and other information online. That way, team members can store and retrieve project files and from any location, guaranteeing that the team works on the same version of a file — a key tactic for reducing misunderstandings.


The company holds meetings online with OneSpace.net's meeting center. "The meeting center is perfect for discussing, inspecting and changing our drawings and models," said Hoekstra. "Team members see the same view of the models on their screens; consequences of changes are quickly visible. We bring all relevant team members to a meeting, so we can use their combined expertise to make fast, informed decisions. In addition, we record meeting minutes and distribute tasks so every team member sees them online."

Finally, teams view, inspect, measure, change and mark up 3D models from any origin. Team members see every new change so that misunderstandings are averted.
"OneSpace.net will speed our product development cycles while simultaneously lowering costs," said Hoekstra.

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