CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
8 December 2004
Implementation Investments
Leading Manufacturers Continue to Switch to On-Demand PLM with Arena Solutions: Four More Companies Choose Arena to Replace Agile Software
Arena Solutions, Inc. announced four preeminent companies that have selected Arena to replace existing PLM solutions from Agile Software. The customers chose Arena because of its ability to enable secure and easy collaboration anywhere and anytime and because it eliminates unnecessary costs, disruptions and difficulties associated with client/server-based PLM implementations.
Manufacturers making the change to on-demand PLM from Arena Solutions experienced rapid and effortless transitions, which enabled their companies to realize the power of PLM more widely across their organizations and supply chains. By delivering PLM as a web-based service, Arena has eliminated the need for any hardware or software installation or maintenance by customers, while ensuring that the Arena PLM application and its customers' data reside on a world-class IT infrastructure providing optimal levels of reliability, availability and security.
Companies switching to Arena include Asante Technologies, a provider of Ethernet networking solutions for Apple Computer; ESS Technology, a supplier of high-performance feature-rich chips; Novera Optics, maker of access solutions for fiber to the curb and premise; and Zassi Medical Evolutions, a gastrointestinal medical device company.
Asante sees its decision to use Arena PLM as no less than a strategic imperative. "Asante moved from Agile to Arena to support our model of leveraging our partners through the Internet," said David Kichar, vice president of operations for Asante Technologies. "Virtualization is a powerful force in today's competitive market, and we need partners that can help us take advantage of it. That's a key reason for our internal requirement to find partners like Arena. Arena lets us focus on meeting our customers' needs and requirements instead of on managing software applications."
Novera Optics chose Arena PLM when it was considering how to best involve its team in Korea. "The on-demand Arena PLM service was an obvious choice for Novera," said Isaac Ohel, vice president of operations. "With a client/server solution we would have had to worry about IT costs and headaches at every offsite location, not to mention here at home. Instead with Arena, we get hassle-free global access, ease of use and full-featured PLM functionality at a truly affordable price."
For medical device manufacturer Zassi Medical Evolutions, the cost of maintaining an in-house client/server solution was a crucial factor. "Growing competitiveness in the medical device industry forces the IT budget to remain constrained so that the growing costs and challenges of upgrading, maintaining and supporting a client/server solution can become too expensive," said David Sapuppo, vice president of manufacturing for Zassi Medical Evolutions. "Zassi switched from Agile to Arena primarily because Agile became more expensive while performance depended more and more on in-house IT expertise. We experienced difficulties sharing real-time product data with our extended team, regardless of where they were. To beat the competition we must remain a lean organization focused on our core business. By using the Arena solution we were able to move critical resources from the IT budget to product development and sales without sacrificing compliance to regulatory agency requirements."
"Smart manufacturers are proving that PLM does not have to be complicated and expensive to be powerful and effective in shortening cycle times and reducing development costs," said Michael Topolovac, chief executive officer of Arena Solutions. "We are absolutely committed to helping our customers make an easy and highly successful move to on-demand PLM, whether they are implementing PLM for the first time or transitioning from a legacy PLM application."
Asante Technologies, Inc. is leading provider of networking solutions for the small-medium business (SMB) market. Asante designs, markets and sells a full line of networking solutions that provides its customers with high-performance, reliable and value-priced solutions. The company's FriendlyNET® and IntraCore® product families offer companies a full breadth of products-from the edge to the core of their networks. For additional information, visit http://www.asante.com or call 800-662-9686.
ESS Technology, Inc., designs and markets high-performance digital video processor and imaging sensor semiconductors for the consumer digital entertainment, camera phone and digital home markets. ESS products include highly integrated chips for DVD players, DVD recorders, VCD players, digital media players, digital audio systems and camera phones. ESS, headquartered in Fremont, California, has over 400 employees in North America and over 100 employees in Asia providing R&D, sales and technical support worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.esstech.com .
Novera Optics, Inc. was founded in 1999. The company has an office in Palo Alto, California and a wholly-owned subsidiary in Daejeon, South Korea. During 2000 and 2001 Novera raised $67 million from investors which include Agilent Technologies, Amerindo Investment Advisors, Enterprise Partners, Essex Investment Management, KLM Capital Group, KTB Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Octane Capital Management, Redpoint Ventures and Storm Ventures.
Novera Optics has developed Dynamic Gain Equalization (DGE) products based on its proprietary and extensively patented all-fiber Acousto-Optic Tunable filter (AOTF) technology. Currently Novera is focused on developing low-cost, high-performance, optical access solutions to overcome the bandwidth bottlenecks in copper-based last mile networks. By incorporating its unique and proprietary technology into a Wavelength Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Network (WDM-PON), Novera Optics provides enhanced performance solutions to Fiber-to-the-Curb (FTTC) and Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) applications.
Founded in 1998, Zassi Medical Evolutions is an emerging and privately held company with offices in Fernandina Beach, Florida, and St. Louis, Missouri. The company is comprised of a multi-disciplinary group of healthcare and technology specialists with significant industry experience in innovating, developing and commercializing new medical devices. Zassi Medical's mission is to invent and commercialize new technologies for the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that will enhance the lives of millions of men, women and children around the world who are being cared for in all settings within the healthcare continuum, including those at home and in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes.
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