Benefits: Strategic, Management, and Transactional

At the strategic level, executives expect the Agile implementation to improve project visibility and related resource, time and cost decisions.  They can view project performance across business units and product lines.  They expect to be better equipped to achieve the overall goals of doing the right projects and executing with minimal product cycle time under “first to market” pressure.

Product management expects improved visibility for managing product complexity, simplified globalized collaboration (both internally with the project team and externally with suppliers), guided NPI processes, management of regulatory issues, quality processes, and the ability to connect product stakeholders over the entire product lifecycle.  They want much greater visibility and control over product operations.

From a transactional perspective, the Agile implementation should improve change management on the parts and BOM, eliminate access to incorrect or outdated product information. It should also reduce the design to release cycle time, change internal approval and implementation cycles, scrap and rework, and data access cycle time.

To realize these expectations in the implementation, the business processes must be captured and assessed over the course of the Agile implementation timeline and be incorporated in a feedback loop.

Agile Implementation in Five Steps

We see a successful implementation timeline represented as five discrete steps, each with its own objectives:

• Value and needs identification
• Implementation requirements
• Solution design
• Solution build
• User validation
• Support

It should be noted that although these are listed here as discrete steps, some consultants may recommend collapsing steps together and taking module specific approaches.

Value Needs and Identification

The aim is to understand the key business processes that have the highest value impact and are the furthest from ideal maturity. These should be addressed first. Next, ensure executive ownership of the effort and set implementation expectations, with a quantification of the benefits of potential investment. The lack of strategic focus and inability to get business alignment will otherwise doom the success of the project.

Solution Design

Failure to precisely define and validate business processes, either because of the lack of management support or inaccessibility to the business users, or similar reasons, will torpedo the implementation effort. Be aware of failure to incorporate best business practices either through lack of awareness, knowledge of how and where to apply them, or simply lack of time spent understanding the value. Infrastructure incompatibilities with hardware requirements can mar a good business implementation at this level.

Deployment

During the deployment phase, mistakes that should be avoided include having no program accountability, and failing to identify risks in a timely fashion. These mistakes can lead to missed schedules, higher solution costs and business interruptions.

Support

The most common mistakes during the Support phase include the failure to correctly utilize application functionality, not training the users adequately and failing to meet user adoption targets. These mistakes impact the business by limiting ROI and result in lowered expectations.

Choosing the Right Implementation Partner

In order to avoid these implementation pitfalls, it is extremely important to choose a reliable Agile implementation partner for your project. In addition to possessing sufficient expertise in Agile PLM, an ideal implementation partner will have a solid consulting track record and industry-specific knowledge. Without these attributes, even the most Agile-savvy partner will require extra time to understand details specific to your industry and to customize the implementation so that it satisfies your business needs.

Additionally, while some service providers specialize in either business transformation or software deployment, but the best implementation partners excel at both types of consulting activities. Unless your project’s objectives are limited in scope and very specific, you should opt for an implementation partner that offers end-to-end implementation services.

In the next post in this series, we’ll present some commonly followed Agile implementation approaches, including their recommended roll-out timelines. Tell us, have you personally experienced any of the mistakes cited here? Do you have another point you think should have been included?

Hosted By: PLM XL by Xavor

WHEN: Wednesday, March 6th 2013
             6PM – 8PM
Note: Food and beverage will be provided

WHERE: 20 Pacifica, Suite 155
               Irvine, CA 92618
(The building with KPMG at the top)

Register TODAY: events@plmxl.com SPACE IS LIMITED!

Agenda:

“Upgrading to Agile 9.3.2″

featuring Oracle Principal Sales Consultant

Larry Recht

And

“How to Plan For A Successful Upgrade”

Guidelines for success from Gold Partner

PLM XL by Xavor

Followed by

Open Discussion
Network with us and your peers to discuss trending news, choose topics for future meetings and get your questions answered.

We’d Like to Hear From You!

If you are interested in joining an advisory committee to drive future content for
these meetings, email events@plmxl.com.

Secure Your Spot NOW: events@plmxl.com

We look forward to seeing you there! 

On Tuesday evening after the Networking Reception, we will be hosting an industry dinner for those in the semiconductor and high-tech space. This will be an opportunity to meet with your peers, discuss the morning keynote and share your thoughts about the sessions that day. If you would like more information, email us at events@plmxl.com as this is an invitation-only event.

Visit PLM XL by Xavor at demo pod #128 from February 4 -6, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. Click here to find out more information.

PLM software vendors have begun to offer dedicated mobile applications that grant their users access to data that had previously required a standard computer, or was at the very least optimized for standard web browsers. The article indicates that some vendors (PTC and Siemens are mentioned) have attempted to preserve their PLM software’s standard interface, and simply move it to mobile devices with minimal alterations. While there are advantages to maintaining a consistent user experience, this strategy fails to capitalize on the strengths of tablets and smartphones, leading the article’s author to suggest that these vendors might have “missed the point” of mobile apps.

It is important to note that mobile platforms are not usually considered to be replacements for traditional computers, and are better suited as complementary, specialized devices. As Jim Brown mentions in Mobile PLM – What the CIO Should Know, “Purpose-built mobile apps are fundamentally different than web applications intended for desktop use.”

The good news is that some mobile apps have been developed with specific duties in mind, instead of trying to produce a mobile replacement for an entire traditional PLM suite. PLMXL’s OVI-approved PLMXL Approve app has been built for approval management, and does this specific task extremely well. Users browse through pending approvals, view relevant information (redline BoMs, ECR attachments, etc.), and then submit their comments, rejections, or approvals. Similarly, Centric Software’s Collection Book has been designed to present products in the clothing and fashion industry, confirm availability, and facilitate ordering. These kinds of well-defined, custom solutions are where mobile apps truly shine, and are poised to become textbook examples of optimally-integrated PLM solutions for mobile platforms.

What do you think? Will mobility make its way to your company? We’d love to hear what you have to say.

The new release offers advanced search capabilities with support for field-level conditional logic, as well as the ability to perform quick searches. Users can now find and view virtually any Agile object on the go, including Parts, Documents, Changes, and Projects. This new search functionality allows adjustments to how results are shown, such as which columns and attributes are displayed to users.

The PLMXL line of applications extend the standard capabilities of Agile PLM, and provide Agile technical services to their customers, maximizing the return on their Agile PLM investment.

About Xavor – Xavor Corporation is an Oracle Gold Partner that has provided cost effective, customized, and efficient solutions to Global 1000 companies since 1995. Leveraging internal innovations with technologies and products from a wide variety of business partners, the company has produced dramatic returns for customers around the world. The company’s mission is to innovatively deliver business value from technology integration. Xavor offers services and solutions that complement existing efforts, from assessment and planning to implementation, as well as customization tailored to specific needs, and its seasoned maintenance and support team delivers the expertise required to maintain and support long-term technology infrastructures

The introduction of product lifecycle management tools and methods has brought with it drastic improvements in product cycle time through a unified product record and controlled change management. However, an increasingly mobile workforce presents fresh challenges to PLM systems like Agile, and the industry’s innovators have capitalized on these new opportunities to tighten up change cycle time. Mobile applications like PLMXL Approve can bridge these gaps in productivity, and form the primary focus of this article.

Innovation, by its very nature, is driven by change. Companies that thrive on continual innovation in their product development require the ability to structure products, capture knowledge, perform managed change control, and ultimately be able to react optimally to changes in products or needs. Managed change control encourages creative collaboration throughout the product lifecycle, while avoiding unbridled chaos.

It is difficult to overstress the centrality of managing change in the enterprise. Change orders processed through the change control board are of critical importance in an innovation-driven organization, and must therefore produce quick, high-quality decisions to yield maximum effectiveness. In practice, however, waiting for approval cycles from engineering, quality control and management often result in significant lag.

Before PLM solutions became a mainstay in the enterprise, paper-based engineering change implementation or fragmented automated systems suffered from conflicting sources of information. The nature of the change, responses of the change control board, and current status of the proposed changes were related to an inconsistent product record, leaving them susceptible to miscommunication, inefficiency, and error.

PLM solutions such as Agile have made tremendous improvements in the way change management is processed in the enterprise. Confusion caused by multiple versions of change specifications have been replaced with a single source of truth for the product, mapped to the proposed changes that reflect the various revisions of the product record. All involved personnel are automatically notified of any alterations or modifications in the proposed change or its status. Approval processes and workflows are clearly communicated, and everyone is kept in the loop using a RACI-type model.

While Agile PLM and similar product lifecycle solutions have launched the modern enterprise into an entirely new echelon of efficiency, additional opportunities for reducing time-to-market must be availed to maintain a competitive advantage. The change approval process in particular is an area that can yield further improvement.

Members of change control boards are highly mobile individuals. Executives, engineers, quality personnel, change analysts, and other members of an organization spend a considerable amount of time away from their offices — at manufacturing sites, suppliers, partners, or simply in transit. Their level of mobility or preferred work strategies might not permit much time at a workstation.

The increasing ubiquity of mobile technologies and the proliferation of mobile Internet access can allow knowledge workers to remain productive anywhere, unfettered from traditional computers. Now people respond to critical emails, collaborate, and take action from their mobile devices, and the growing popularity of always-online tablets has accelerated this trend even further. The ability to respond to engineering changes using a handheld device would multiply the value and expand the advantages that PLM systems offer.

PLMXL Approve allows you to do just that. With the PLMXL Approve app installed on your Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, or Android handheld, you can securely respond to Agile PLM change orders of any type on the go. It allows users to view change details, including affected items, redline BOMs, manufacturer BOMs, and document attachments. You can search for items, inspect details, and view attachments from your pocket device or tablet. It’s not just a convenience; a cumulative reduction in response time to changes shortens the change cycle, significantly reduces delays and costs, and improves time-to-market.

PLM solutions are now critical drivers of productivity for organizations that thrive on product innovation. It has become increasingly valuable to seek out additional ways of improving PLM process efficiency in an effort to gain a competitive edge. By giving mobile access to change requests and associated data while away from the office, it has become possible to shorten the cumulative cycle times further, leading to cost benefits, reduction in approval errors and shorter product cycle time.

February 7, 2012 – Xavor Corporation, a Gold-level member of Oracle® PartnerNetwork (OPN), today announced it has achieved Oracle Validated Integration of PLMXL Approve version 1.3 with Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) version 9.3, enabling engineers to review changes, make comments, and view redlines on change orders and requests directly from either the iPhone, Android or Blackberry™ platform, as well as the iPad.

To achieve Oracle Validated Integration, Oracle partners are required to meet a stringent set of requirements that are based on the needs and priorities of the customers. PLMXL Approve is the first of multiple applications developed as part of the PLMXL Series of apps that support Oracle’s Agile PLM and the growing proliferation of mobile devices in enterprise environments.

“With the need to optimize product development and speed time to market, we listened when we heard our customers say they needed to be able to respond to change requests as quickly as possible. The PLMXL Approve mobility solution pushes key information to those who need to take action, anytime, anywhere,” said VP of Technology for Xavor, Hassan Ramay.

“What the PLMXL team at Xavor has done in leveraging the standard interfaces is what we envisioned for our partners, to augment the product with value-added solutions that serve the Agile community in a highly targeted way,” said John Kelley, vice president, PLM Product Strategy, Oracle.  “Achieving Oracle Validated Integration through Oracle PartnerNetwork gives our customers confidence that the integration between PLMXL Approve v1.3 and Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management version 9.3 has been validated, which helps reduce risk and improves the implementation cycles for our joint customers”

PLMXL Approve is quick to install, and the tiered architecture fits securely into your enterprise architecture, according to Xavor’s Director of PLMXL Applications, Arif Ansari, and the features are non-disruptive thanks to the Agile Software Development Kit, so delays in cycle times can be reduced dramatically.. The application is bundled with a support agreement from Xavor, ensuring long term value with future releases of new features and compatibility with Agile.

About Xavor:

Xavor Technology Consulting Solutions have led to dramatic returns for clients around the world. Leveraging internal innovations with technologies and products from a wide variety of business partners the company has provided cost-effective, customized and efficient solutions to Global 1000 companies since 1995. The company’s mission is to innovate how business value from technology integration is delivered. To meet the needs of our clients, Xavor offers services and solutions that complement existing PLM efforts, from assessment to migration planning and implementation, and offering customization tailored to specific needs. A mature maintenance and support team delivers the expertise required to maintain and support a PLM infrastructure for the long term. For more information, please visit http://plmxl.com or contact Lesley de Lugo at 949.529.7372.

About Oracle Validated Integration
Oracle Validated Integration through the Oracle PartnerNetwork gives customers confidence that the integration of complementary partner software products with Oracle Applications and Oracle Technology (including Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Content Management, and Oracle Identity Management) have been validated and the products work together as designed. This can help reduce risk, improve system implementation cycles, and provide for smoother upgrades and simpler maintenance. Oracle Validated Integration applies a rigorous technical process to review the integrations of third-party software to Oracle Applications and Technology products, including productized repeatable integrations from system integrators. Oracle provides access to Oracle Applications and Technology software, tools, technical resources and training to assist partners in developing integrations based on Oracle standards and best practices. Partners who have successfully validated their integrations are authorized to use the “Oracle Validated Integration” logo. For more information, please visit Oracle.com athttp://www.oracle.com/us/partnerships/solutions/index.html.

About Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized is the latest version of Oracle’s partner program that provides partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle’s growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to differentiate through Specializations. Specializations are achieved through competency development, business results, expertise and proven success. To find out more visit http://www.oracle.com/partners.

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Groovy is quick to implement as a scripting language that allows access the same object model of Agile that the Java API does. Since you write the script within the admin client, it’s saved in the database within the Agile environment. This makes it portable, making it a less of a concern during upgrades, since there are no Java .jar files to move. It can be effectively used for building quick test cases during implementation.

Groovy does its job quite well but comes with a few differences. It suffers from the breadth of libraries available in the Java which can be used to solve more complex problems. The code is readily available as text in the Agile system without any source control or limits on the admin limited from seeing it or changing it, therefore Groovy is not suited for third party developers. If you need quick process extensions that are easy to manage of moderate complexity within the Agile environment, Groovy is for you.