PLM News | Press Releases

Aras^®, the next leader in enterprise Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software, today announced a strategic reseller agreement with IBM’s Watson IoT business. Under the agreement, IBM will resell the Aras Innovator PLM suite on a subscription basis both as a complement to IBM's Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution and as a stand-alone PLM solution.

Enabling Digital Transformation
As businesses look to transform business models using IoT, complexity continues to increase exponentially due to the merging of software, data services and online connectivity. To deliver dependable IoT implementations companies are undertaking a digital transformation involving product development, manufacturing and supply chain process automation, which is profoundly impacting the business of engineering.

“Global companies need a new and better way to integrate the complex hardware and software processes necessary to develop the smart, connected products of the future,” said Dibbe Edwards, VP, Watson IoT Continuous Engineering Offering Management & Delivery. “We’re excited to get back into the PLM market by partnering with Aras to help customers drive IoT enablement and realize a Digital Thread across disciplines and throughout the lifecycle.”

Attaining the Digital Twin & Digital Thread
By linking the Agile software development processes in ALM with the rest of the organization's engineering processes in PLM, companies create a delivery pipeline of synchronized hardware, electronics and software configurations. The offerings from IBM and Aras can enable a system-level Digital Twin across the lifecycle with a resulting Digital Thread as the product configuration evolves.

“Today’s complicated product designs make it necessary to have a Digital Twin for configuration context that includes mechanical, electronics and software to interpret IoT data and determine compatibility for in-field updates,” said Peter Schroer, CEO of Aras. “At the same time, Digital Thread traceability is critical to understand design decisions and intent in warranty, regulatory and liability situations.”

Cross Discipline Collaboration, Coordination and Compliance
Together IBM and Aras can help companies with the collaboration, coordination and compliance necessary to develop tomorrow’s next generation products today. Their offerings provide the basis for:

• Continuous innovation through the IoT lifecycle
• Traceability across configurations of hardware & embedded software
• Ongoing product enhancement with design optimization based on IoT feedback loops

The collaboration means enterprises have an industry leading alternative that:

• Covers the entire scope for global product development, manufacturing and support
• Embraces a truly open approach
• Enables a rapid, iterative deployment approach
• Connects to a wide variety of CAD, PDM, ERP and other enterprise systems
• Can replace an existing PLM environment or overlay on top for new capabilities
• Upgrades easily even when heavily customized
• Runs on premise, in the cloud or hybrid
• Minimizes disruption, cost and risk

For additional details ask your IBM Watson IoT sales representatives or visit https://jazz.net/products/aras-plm-solution/

About IBM Watson IoT
Within two years, we believe the Internet of Things will be the single greatest source of data on the planet, generated by billions of interconnected sensors and devices embedded into the world’s physical systems. IBM’s Watson technologies use machine learning and natural language processing to reveal insights from this data, helping to transform businesses, lives and societies. IBM is an established leader in the Internet of Things with more than 6,000 client engagements in 170 countries, a growing ecosystem of over 1,400 partners and more 750 IoT patents. For more information about IBM Watson IoT, please visit: www.ibm.com/iot

About Aras
We offer the best Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for global businesses with complex products and processes. Resilient PLM platform technology makes Aras more scalable, flexible and upgradable for the world’s largest organizations, and a full set of applications provide complete functionality for the business of engineering. Customers include Airbus, GE, Hitachi, Honda, Huntington Ingalls, Kawasaki, Motorola and XEROX. Aras is privately held with global headquarters in Andover, Mass. More at www.aras.com and Twitter @aras_plm