By every measure 2010 was another record year here at Aras. Here’s a quick summary in case you missed some of the details along the way, as well as, some highlights that you won’t find anywhere else.
This year it became undeniably clear that our advanced technology and value proposition are ideally suited for global enterprise deployments at scale. Across industries and around the world, multinational corporations chose Aras as the next generation platform to enable their PLM strategy.
As this occurred we expanded our fixed-price Aras Unlimited subscription packages for deployments with greater than 10,000 users. There was also new online training from PLM-Training.com / iGETIT.com and redesigned courseware from Aras as well (which has gotten rave reviews). In addition, more language packs became available for simultaneous multi-language collaboration.
Over the course of the year the number of global organizations using Aras expanded significantly. Here’s a sampling of companies as well as links to some of the write-ups:
Aerospace & Defense: GE Aviation, Textron, ITT Defense, Rolls-Royce, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, CAE, Esterline, PCC Structurals, Premium AEROTEC, Sandia National Laboratories,US Army
Industrial: Mitsubishi, Seiko Instruments, HYDROMETER of the DIEHL Gruppe, KLÖCKNER DESMA Schuhmaschinen GmbH, HAKAMA Engineering, Petroleum Geo-Services
Life Sciences (aka Medical Devices, Healthcare Equipment, Pharmaceuticals): Carestream Health, Teva Pharmaceuticals, MicroBase Technology, Deutsche Blisterunion, Capsule Tech, Omron Healthcare, Transonic
High Tech: XEROX, TPK Touch Solutions, Motorola, EPSON, Ceradyne, COMPAL, Edmund Optics, ANADIGICS, EverFocus, Aristocrat Technologies, HiTi Digital, MPI, Hi-P, Tobii Technologies, MiTek
Consumer Goods: American Italian Pasta Company, ECCO Shoes International, Kolcraft Children’s Products, Mega Brands Toys, Rivièra Maison Furniture, Weichuan Foods
Automotive: GETRAG Ford Transmissions, Hitachi Automotive Systems, Freudenberg, Hayes-Lemmerz International, NOK, Mühlenberg Interiors, NSK Steering, Ogihara
Many of these are replacements of legacy PLM systems such as PTC’s Windchill, Siemens Teamcenter, ENOVIA MatrixOne and Oracle-Agile, while others are first time PLM deployments.
And even though our momentum continued to increase with companies of all sizes >> make no mistake, we remain absolutely committed to continuing to deliver the most advanced enterprise PLM solution for global enterprise-wide implementations.
Certainly, the pace of innovation within the corporate community of companies using Aras continues to accelerate. While we made a number of solution-related announcements this year, it was really only a fraction of the activity worldwide.
Highlights include becoming the first enterprise PLM solution independently Certified for Windows Server 2008 R2 by Microsoft and achievingCompatible with Windows 7 status, along with the release of enhanced Vault Replication capabilities, as well as:
- Updated version of the Rules-driven Product Configurator for Complex Variants & Options contributed by Keiper-Recaro / KEIPER GmbH Co.
- new Requirements Management solution from usb GmbH
- CMII Enterprise done in conjunction with CMII Europe/GfKM
- new features for the CMII Impact Analysis Wizard contributed by Spartan Motors
- Mobile client technology for Android and iPhone smart phones from Porchys
- a new release of the SharePoint PLM open source solution jointly developed by Microsoft, Aras, Actify and Razorleaf
- Microsoft Office Project and Outlook integration from Broadway
- 3DIVA integration and a new email connector from Datasquare
- Open source AutoCAD integration by Prodeos
- 3D geometric search add-on by ShapeSpace and AESSiS
At the end of the year, there are 108 community solutions available on the Project site, and many more available as commercial solutions directly from partners.
And if you were looking for a consulting partner / systems integrator with PLM expertise on Aras to assist in your deployment, you got more options than ever in 2010 with global systems integrators Atos Origin, HCL, T-Systems, Wipro, Mahindra Satyam, Fujitsu and others putting resources behind Aras, as well as, PLM specialists around the world including:
- Razorleaf, Processia, Kalypso, DRC and ArcherGrey in North America
- Datasquare GmbH, MTSC Wiedmann, usb GmbH, ci-base Software in Germany and plm-Team, TeakSoft in Switzerland
- Minerva in the Nordics, AESSiS in the UK, Prodeos in France and Advanced Innovation Tools, CENTECNIA in Spain and Italy
- UnitForce Technologies, SteepGraph Systems, PROLIM, Infinite Computer Solutions, Defiance Technologies (a Hinduja Group Company) in India
- CycleOp in Israel and Automated Product Development in South Africa
- B4L Consulting and Technology in Brazil
- Matrix Applied in Australia & New Zealand
- Progress Partners in Japan, Solidcad Technologies in Singapore and Zionex in Korea ...along with our continued expansion in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan
We also made our PLM Cloud strategy clear in 2010, and explained why the combination of our cloud-ready PLM technology and open source business model make Aras the PLM Cloud Platform of Choice. Even more importantly, we shared our vision for the future of PLM by showing why the concept of the Connected Cloud will be the most compelling development that the industry has seen. Some worthwhile reading on this topic includes THE REAL PROMISE OF THE CLOUD and Why the Networked Business will be Cloud Connected.
All these factors together may have contributed to Gartner’s recent Predicts 2011: Manufacturers Revamp and Enhance Product Life Cycle Management Strategies (logon required) report, which specifically listed Aras and noted that “Open-source PLM will continue to grow”.
“Will continue to grow”... that’s because of your active participation and your company’s use. The level of corporate community collaboration, the contributions you make, your innovations. These are evident every day online, and it was great to see them in person at the Aras Community Events (ACE) as well. We had more ACE sessions this year than ever before; Europe, Asia, the Americas - these links go to some highlights from the ones that I was able to attend.
Overall 2010 has been a great year, and looking ahead 2011 holds even greater promise. After all, Aras provides something that no other PLM provider offers -- control of your own destiny -- which has always been a powerful proposition... and always will be.