CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
2 July 2008
Implementation Investments
Free Source Energies Selects Arena PLM to Streamline Processes and Make Geothermal Energy More Broadly Available
Arena Solutions announced that Free Source Energies, LLC has selected Arena PLM to streamline business processes and make geothermal-based renewable energy more broadly available. The company will use Arena PLM to facilitate collaboration, streamline the product change process, and ensure compliance with industry and safety standards and environmental regulations—ultimately helping the company to grow rapidly and compete head-on with the existing furnace market.
Free Source Energies is working to make a big impact in the world by changing the way people heat and cool their structures. They deliver direct exchange geothermal units for homes, businesses, schools and other buildings. These units offer an attractive alternative to increasingly scarce fossil fuels and reduce energy costs for those who use them.
“In Arena PLM, we’ve found an application that will fully support us as we grow and that will easily scale as the company requires,” said Laura Matykiewicz who wears many hats at Free Source Energies, LLC.
Free Source needed a PLM solution that would replace its disparate applications, including Microsoft Excel and QuickBooks, with a single version of the product record that’s centralized across the extended enterprise—connecting everyone at Free Source Energies with all vendors working with the company. Free Source picked Arena PLM for its ease of use, the low cost of ownership and the advantages of its on-demand delivery model.
“Let’s face it, price matters, and even more so when you’re a start-up. To begin using the robust functionality of Arena PLM, we didn’t have to make any big investments in IT support or servers. We pay as we go and get automatic software upgrades included in the price. It doesn’t get more affordable—or valuable—than that,” said Matykiewicz. “The fact that Arena PLM is Internet-based is very significant: We can access it from anywhere, include partners and vendors in the process and enjoy all the benefits of PLM while keeping our IT and hardware costs low.”
By implementing Arena PLM from the beginning, Free Source Energies is able to avoid manual, time-consuming and error-prone processes. The company is standardizing activities, aligning its efforts with its partners’ and other select vendors’ efforts and adopting a framework that reflects the best practices of the manufacturing industry. With this framework for communicating and coordinating efforts, the rewards of working in a distributed way far outweigh the potential risks.
“Being able to use Arena PLM to share information in a format that is accessible by all is a great advantage. Without Arena PLM, we have discussed engineering changes over the phone or by email, but it was never clear that we were all on the same page. Having all of our product information in Arena PLM will help streamline the process and give us a much better historical record,” said Matykiewicz.
Free Source Energies is also using Arena PLM to manage its compliance efforts as it begins to market its heat pumps in Canada and Europe, where the company must comply with various industry and safety standards and environmental regulations. Arena PLM gives Free Source greater ability to maintain proper documentation, track compliance status, deliver evidence and pull together compliance reports with a single click.
“We pride ourselves on the ability to develop and deliver the robust, yet easy-to-use, on-demand PLM software that has helped so many companies boost their positions in the market. Like other companies replacing manual processes and disparate software systems with Arena PLM, Free Source Energies is set to experience a ‘night and day’ difference in its productivity,” said Craig Livingston, chief executive officer at Arena Solutions. “And as the company scales to meet its goal of helping the world move to clean geothermal energy and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, the product will scale right along with them. We’re thrilled to have our product supporting Free Source in those efforts.”
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