EXTRANET NEWS * Week of
Editors: Joel Orr and N'omi Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com
1. ITI PROJECTVIEW: COLLABORATION, ONE STEP AT A TIME
2. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MAY BE MISSING?
3. THE LIST
4. TIDBITS
5. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1. ITI PROJECTVIEW: COLLABORATION, ONE STEP AT A TIME
ITI was founded by six of the seven founders of SDRC,
when that company was acquired by GE in 1983. Headed since that time by Dr.
Jack Lemon, ITI now has over 300 employees. Its Transcendata
division is a leading force in CAD/CAE data translation and exchange.
Mike Lemon, Jack’s son, heads the Virtual Product
Development division. “We solve engineering problems. I’ve resisted turning
this into a packaged-software business, because it’s clear that the unique
value we add to our customers is in the application of technologies to improve
engineering processes. We deliver engineering results, not engineering
solutions.”
“We found that development data is not managed by anyone--and
it very much needs to be. Especially with the internationalization of business,
with time-zone differentials, there is a need for orderly management of
development data. ITI ProjectView provides a
Web-based collaboration tool that helps keep track of product-development information,”
said Mike.
“There is no point in automating bad workflow,” he
continued. “People claim that PLM solves the problem, but it doesn’t--not for
development. Developers keep all their data in a confusion of email, Word,
Excel, and PowerPoint documents, which are not usually managed by PDM systems.
When we bring our expertise to our customers, we bring along this technology to
help them implement our recommendations. ITI ProjectView
has let us manage the conceptual bill of materials, for example--which is quite
different from the manufacturing BOM.”
“But most importantly, we are able to introduce ITI ProjectView into projects that are already in process; we
don’t have to wait for a new one. And we can organize just the information that
people are ready to put into the system, adding more as the culture can handle
it. Since this problem was common to many projects, we wound up producing
software to deal with it,” said Mike.
ITI ProjectView modules
include:
* PlanView: Allows users to
share project plan data among team members providing access to status, start
and finish dates, notes, resources, and data for each task. Users can edit
task-percent-complete and start/finish dates, while managers can edit all data
within the project plan.
* TableView: Lets users view a
hierarchy of cross-referencing rows and columns. Rows or columns can be
expanded either individually or collectively.
* DashboardView: Provides a
quick status view of all the projects it monitors. Project-related tasks, along
with their status saved in PlanView, are displayed in
DashboardView.
* ManagerView: Provides a quick
view of all DashboardView projects being monitored. ManagerView shows the percentage of tasks that are late,
delayed, on time, or completed.
* DataView: Allows users to
upload and download files, URL Links, and ProjectView
links. When files are uploaded or links added, users
have the option of sending email notification. Email notification may be
edited, and provides the recipient a direct link to the object's location.
Security is a major concern for ITI, and this product
reflects it. Moreover, the product interfaces or integrates with ERP systems,
PDM applications, supply-chain management software, Web/database/back-office
applications, product-development processes, and more.
Our take: There are few collaborative tools that address
the early part of product development while also smoothly integrating with
other manufacturing software smoothly. ITI ProjectView
does so, and does it realistically--taking into account real-world conditions
in development environments, and not imposing a methodology of its own. Highly recommended.
2. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MAY BE MISSING?
I know you appreciate the views we give you here in
EXTRANET NEWS. We have a sister publication that you will probably find quite
valuable. CADwire Insights delivers my opinion--and
the opinions of my Cyon Research colleagues, W.
Bradley Holtz, Evan Yares, Rick Stavanja,
and David Cohn--to you every day. There’s no charge; our commentary serves the
dual purpose of helping the industry, and of providing you with “free samples,”
to encourage you to hire us.
You can even set it so that you only receive the parts
you want: If you're just interested in the mechanical market (or AEC, or PLANT,
or GIS, or EDA...) and you want to see our commentary on that market segment
(and not the news, articles, events, and other resources that CADwire Insights can provide), you can set your personal
copy to provide you with that --and nothing more. Daily or
weekly.
Go to http://www.cadwire.net/register and sign up. And
don't forget to customize your profile so you get all of what you want, and nothing of what you don't.
Highly recommended--if I do say so myself! :)
3. THE LIST
Total companies: 259 (see who's on The List at
http://www.extranetnews.com)
4. TIDBITS
* I’m collecting anecdotes regarding data security. Got an interesting story of success, failure, humor, nearly-averted disaster? I’ll respect requests for anonymity or citation. Email editor@extranetnews.com.
* COLLABORATE WEST Conference -
*
* EXTRANETS III -
5. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy
doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the
wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to
loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote
yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
-- Morrie Schwartz, in “Tuesdays
with Morrie,” by Mitch Albom
Entire newsletter copyright (c) Cyon Research Corporation 2002