The innovation advantage that the Microsoft open approach provides is clear and Windows Server 2008 certification further validates the Aras technology leadership…
[Aras] adopted a Red Hat-like open source business model, in which the software is free but the customers pay a maintenance fee for updates, fixes, security patches and other value added software…
ACCO Brands is one of the world's largest suppliers of branded office products… "we implemented the Aras solution for enterprise PLM and, in addition to other factors, we focused on flexibility and ease of deployment… we were able to reduce product change cycle times by over 50 percent."
Aras Innovator software may be the answer to that age-old question, “How many licenses can we afford?”… a major benefit of Aras Innovator is that there is no limit to the number of licenses a company can use…
As manufacturers move ahead with strategic innovation initiatives, many are beginning to see PLM applications as part of the must-have technology… when [Aras] made the change to open source in January, it expected 300 or 400 downloads in the first half of the year, but already has logged 5,000…
As manufacturers produce goods, they learn about design flaws through processes like first-article inspection documented in a quality system… integrating quality, production, and product-design data can result in a closed-loop product improvement process…
"We consider our quality compliance processes strategic and an essential part of our ability to deliver superior value to customers," said Dennis Henning, IT manager for Ogihara. "The Aras Microsoft enterprise open source solutions give us the control and flexibility we demand and the confidence we require for our enterprise-wide deployment."…
Manufacturers that are open to the open source software movement have another new option… In January, Aras Corp. announced a freely downloadable, open source version of its Aras Innovator product lifecycle management product…
More than 3,000 copies of the Innovator suite have been downloaded since it became freely available in January… One copy went to Dennis Henning, IT manager at Ogihara America Corp., "The open source distribution model made this a highly palatable deployment"…
Compare the cost of moving to enterprise PLM against adding Aras open source PLM to an existing PDM deployment. The user gets [to deploy the software to] an unlimited number of users. It is already proven in major companies, and it gives the user a way to get from point A to point B quickly and simply…
Commercial open source companies today are just another part of the generic application ecosystem. The only difference is how they license their software… As part of this initiative, Aras also made the code for the applications available…
The idea of Microsoft .NET applications that are open source may sound strange, but it is indicative of continued enterprise acceptance of mixing proprietary and open source software. Aras may be on the right track in this regard, and we think there is validity to the company's claims of demand for open source from Microsoft users…
Microsoft and open source have not been thought of together, but we saw a pervasiveness of Microsoft infrastructure and even more importantly, the skill sets companies have in working with Microsoft products…
The play with Microsoft takes open source as an idea to a different, and far bigger, audience, to IT professionals such as business analysts and programmers who know the Microsoft environment…
The most important benefit of the transition to open source, he says, is in the way it changes Aras' relationship to its customers. There is no "premium version" of the software and no features are crippled in the freely-downloadable product. "If we're going to go open source, we'd rather do it properly, and basically let [customers] have full access…
This play with Microsoft takes open source as an idea to a different, and far bigger, audience: IT professionals such as business analysts and programmers who know the Microsoft environment…
[Aras] solutions can be tailored to support a range of other enterprise lifecycle processes such as project lifecycle management, asset lifecycle management, and service lifecycle management…
Companies can now take advantage of existing Microsoft skill sets and infrastructure while realizing the licensing flexibility and IT control of open source… all of our customers have an MRP or ERP, but they’re finding it hard to add functionality or business processes. So we fit in as a complement to their SAP or Axapta…
[Ogihara's] Henning said Aras' move to open source also limited the per-user license fee typically associated with such software. He could deploy the software to 100 users or 1,000 users without paying a higher license fee… "This is an avenue where we can apply the software as the business needs us to apply it," Henning said…
The shift is recognition of the growing importance of the open source model… “Open source redefines the relationship — we’re now in collaborative mode with the customer."…
"By delivering the Aras Innovator solutions as enterprise open source on Microsoft, we provide software licensing simplicity and align with the technologies that companies already have and understand."…
Three things will lead to relatively painless outsourcing. The first is program management… The second ingredient is a good tool for product development process management…
Every company listed today in the Fortune 500 began, one way or another, as a start-up. That is to say, it emerged via a transformative process that some might call "the hero's journey."…
Summary text: Product lifecycle management isn't just for the Fortune 1000 any more. Today, the high cost of entry is largely moot, with much smaller firms implementing PLM for a variety of purposes…
Companies achieve alignment with customer requirements, reduce new product risks, ensure quality compliance, and shorten development cycles with Aras solutions…
As opposed to the rigid nature of ERP and PDM systems, a solution that supports Lean in product development must be easily adapted to continuously improve…
After looking at a number of PLM tools, Sonnax chose Aras, because the system could be extended beyond project management, and has already added engineering change orders and QA…
Deploying a PLM solution from Aras Corp ... creates a more robust end-product due to reduced variation. Finally, you get closer to your cost targets for profitability…
PLM solution must be flexible in order to enable the business to adapt quickly to changes in the market, and to turn threatening circumstances into strategic opportunities…
Structural Concepts' answer came in the form of Aras Innovator's Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, which had the right mix of activity management and workflow capabilities, including an easy-to-use dashboard…
Sonnax implemented PLM software from Aras Corp. The software has improved project management, especially accountability. Aras has a [quality control] module that's drastically improved the way we track quality from our overseas vendors...
Microsoft built the communications and interoperability infrastructure that’s key to PLM. The best part is that you probably have most of it running already: Sharepoint, .Net, Windows Server…
PLM is a category of solutions that deals with program management and product engineering … The Aras focus has three elements: Program Management, Product Engineering, Quality Planning…
PLM focuses on business processes and is much broader in scope. It includes manufacturing, quality, and supply chain processes and connects suppliers and customers as well…
To a large extent, risk management is about laying the groundwork … The key to quality planning says Aras is failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)...
Forward thinking companies, such as Freudenberg-NOK, are addressing the issues with a combination of processes and methods supported by information technology delivered by Aras...
A big part of the elimination of errors comes from the fact that PLM keeps BOMs up to date, says Daniel Bourgeois, vice president of product development for Mega Bloks. He uses PLM from Aras and finds that it has sped up the quote process...
Other factors such as shortening development cycles, warranty issues, and continuing price pressures made more effective management of product development programs a competitive necessity...
Aras flexibility means we can tailor the solution to fit our needs and still implement much more quickly and cost effectively than the other [product lifecycle management (PLM)] systems we evaluated during our extensive review…
Aras embeds ways to bolster quality in its product lifecycle management (PLM) product; addressing quality issues in and before design, not after production…
Ultimately, the company opted to implement a packaged solution from enterprise software vendor Aras Corp. The solution provided a single Web-based application for managing the entire portfolio of projects, the ongoing product development process and the launch to production...
After an extensive review of systems, Freudenberg-NOK selected Aras Corporation … The inclusion of the launch coordination metrics as part of the APQP solution rollout has become a driver…
Fruedenberg-NOK for example, has deployed PLM software from Aras Corp to track and report on quality and development processes, and feed required information to large OEM customers…
Existing users like the Aras products. "We looked at many different systems, but because Innovator is XML-based and Web-centric, we don't have to convert our systems and tools." …
Aras PLM gives us the ability to assure our stringent quality levels in a cost effective manner by coordinating our new product introductions and international operations as we scale up production volumes…
The flexibility of Aras PLM means we automate our own proprietary competitive practices and can easily change the solution to take advantage of new opportunities in the market...
Some vendors are using XML as the default format for representing data … The next steps may include identifying processes that are exposed as services … that can automatically expose their functionality as services…
As competition intensifies, companies that concentrate on process efficiency understand that coordinating a product's design for lean manufacturing and sourcing from strategic suppliers is critical…
A recent survey by the Product Development Management Association (PDMA) reports that 67% of industrial firms are not satisfied with the success of new product launches…
When an engineering change takes place on a certain project, the update tracks it to determine whether the change was initiated at a customer request, to improve a design, or to fix a problem…
Aras PLM's actionable metrics give companies the ability to improve product development performance by increasing innovation and productivity, two of the central drivers of profitable growth...
Displayed in graphical score cards and dashboard scenarios, the actionable metrics provide users with the ability to set goals and run performance measurements over time…
Our view is that the need for product information and related processes doesn't stop at the design phase, or even at the release-to-manufacturing step, but rather flow right into production…
[Aras] includes actionable metrics … which are displayed in realtime graphical dashboards and scorecards, manufacturers are able to evaluate the performance of product development departments against predefined goals…
"Aras PLM is a strong offering for companies that have intense tooling and complex engineered products because it can support a variety of engineering workflows," says AMR Research analyst Kevin O'Marah…
Manufactruring Business Technology - September 2004
The traditional vendors are hooked on a business model that requires users to spend a lot of money on services after they purchase the software, our model is centered around a flexible, inexpensive software platform…
Our strategy is an outsource manufacturing strategy … you need to manage the bill of materials, the part specifications and sourcing, and you have to do that across the supply chain...
Aras Corporation was the ideal fit, due to its comprehensive functionality, ease of use, and flexibility without programming. Together these factors made the rollout successful, fast, and affordable…
A breed of company Deloitte refers to as "complexity masters," that are making strides in addressing the key issues of collaboration and getting visibility across a dispersed, global supply chain…
Aras provided a business ready system that was easy to modify without programming to fit competitive practices and at the same time remain compliant with customer quality system and reporting requirements…
"We're seeing software vendors with new value propositions in which users can bring the software onboard and quickly gain value from implementations," says Marc Halpern, PLM research director with analyst firm Gartner…
The investment was led by Oak Investment Partners, an early investor in Parametric Technology Corporation, with participation by top tier existing investors Greylock Partners and Matrix Partners...
Today, PLM can help companies work through engineering change orders and manufacturing quality … Now manufacturing data is in the PLM system, right next to design data…
A critical factor for the success of its innovation strategy, the company opted to implement a product lifecycle management solution, Aras PLM, in order to get its various development projects under better control…
The Aras PLM package serves as the central repository
for product definitions … bidirectional synchronization provides
consistent product definition data between the PLM system from Aras
Corp., and the ERP system from MAPICS…
Aras’s Innovator is a real PLM suite, targeted at a hungry market and — at least for the time being — has no real competition in its chosen playing field...
What sets Aras' software apart from other PLM products is the ease with which it can be integrated… Nemak evaluated products from other vendors, including UGS PLM Solutions Inc., SAP AG and MatrixOne Inc., before choosing Aras…
PLM (product lifecycle management) software developer Aras will make available its APQP Plus software, which automates the collection and distribution of data around the design, quality and delivery of new product components…
Product launch isn’t just about improving Time to Market (TTM) during the design phase. It requires Time to Volume (TTV) as well … One automotive supplier recently implemented Aras…
If you use just cost as an arbitrary determining factor, then you're limiting yourself. Instead, Watson recommends focusing on the process and the customer value that the PLM technology can deliver…
CIMdata, a leading source of PLM research, has identified Aras Innovator as ideal for manufacturers that require a PLM solution that is easy to implement and modify…
Aras $4.2 million funding round was led by Greylock and Matrix Partners which were recently identified as two of the leading investment firms for emerging companies by AlwaysOnTM and KPMG…
Overview
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