EDS Upgrades PLM Solution

Boosts integration capabilities to allow broader process support across the enterprise

Boosts integration capabilities to allow broader process support across the enterprise

Dearborn, MI — June 26, 2003 — EDS this week debuted a new modular platform for its flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) solution, expanding on the application's integration capabilities to enable broader collaboration among workgroups across an enterprise, among other new capabilities.

Plano, Texas-based EDS says that the application integration in upcoming versions of its Teamcenter portfolio solutions address the needs of users from heavy integration to lightweight data exchange. These new capabilities should allow for broader process support across an enterprise as users with varying capabilities are able to participate in product-related processes, according to the solution provider.

"Companies with diversified workgroups that require management of a broad array of product data will rely on the enhanced Teamcenter platform to seamlessly share data and effectively collaborate throughout the entire virtual enterprise." EDS said in a company statement on the forthcoming release.

Ed Miller, president of CIMdata, a PLM consulting and research firm, agreed that the solution's emphasis on openness and flexibility could prove a boon given the diversity of capabilities and data found in enterprises today.

"Only a PLM environment that offers its customers the openness, scalability and flexibility to accommodate the needs of diverse users — along with integration for a variety of authoring applications and data types — can provide the process support necessary to fully realize the benefits of improved product innovation and performance, together with business growth," Miller said, suggesting that the new Teamcenter fits this bill.

Applications supported by Teamcenter's out-of-the-box integrations fall into various categories, including requirements (DOORS), engineering (Unigraphics NX, I-deas NX Series, AutoCAD, Autodesk, Inventor, CATIA V4 & V5, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, CADENCE, Mentor Graphics, InterComm, Clearcase), sourcing (eBreviate) and manufacturing (E-factory, SAP, Oracle Manufacturing).

"With the diversity and global nature of our customer's operations, we understand the need for an application-neutral approach and extensive data management capabilities for diverse user populations," said Bill Meredith, director of Teamcenter product marketing at EDS PLM Solutions.

Elsewhere the upcoming versions of the solution will introduce improved visualization, project management and requirements management capabilities. Application integration that addresses the needs of users from heavy integration to lightweight data exchange will be introduced as a new paradigm for enterprise implementation in an upcoming release.

"We now offer a fully integrated Teamcenter portfolio with the breadth to provide process support for all phases of the product lifecycle and the depth to offer any level of information management required by our customers," said Tony Affuso, president of EDS PLM Solutions.

Teamcenter's new, more richly integrated platform is available immediately, with additional modules scheduled in the third and fourth quarters of 2003. EDS said that customers of legacy Teamcenter products under a current maintenance support agreement will receive upgrades to the new integrated portfolio as part of their current Teamcenter maintenance program.

EDS' PLM announcement comes in the same week that Oracle upgraded its own product lifecycle management offering with the addition of a product catalog that centralizes product-related information into a single database, as well as new project management and collaboration applications. (See related story.)

For more information on the PLM market, see the Global Enabled Supply Chain Series article "Product Lifecycle Management" in the October/November 2002 issue of iSource Business.
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