CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
15 August 2012
Product News
Centric Software Introduces Agile Deployment(SM) Methodology
Centric Software, Inc., is introducing its branded implementation methodology for the Centric 8 product lifecycle management (PLM) system for the apparel, footwear, luxury goods and consumer goods markets.
The Agile Deployment (SM) methodology from Centric—provider of PLM software for apparel, luxury goods, footwear and consumer goods companies—maximizes derived value, minimizes risk, and speeds benefit delivery. Results include system deployments within three to four months, which is three to five times faster than the typical time for a PLM implementation, according to Chris Groves, Centric CEO.
“Centric saw an urgent need by customers in the fast moving consumer goods markets for a rapid-value delivery implementation methodology for PLM,” says Groves. The company leveraged many of the principles of agile software development to create a new iterative and interactive Agile Deployment, he explains. “The result is Agile Deployment, field-tested and proven to generate customer value and ROI very quickly.”
Iterative process
Agile Deployment employs an iterative, vs. serial, process in the implementation of Centric 8 PLM for apparel, footwear, luxury goods and consumer goods companies. Frequent and repeated interaction between business users and the implementation team—as well as extensive hands-on PLM system involvement—enhances the ability to meet all user needs at each step of the way, says Groves. Changes are included almost instantaneously, without long delays from rewriting code or reprogramming the system. Removing these delays eliminates the communication disconnects that often result in errors, cost overages, and slower implementation times.
In contrast, traditional, or waterfall, deployment, is by definition a serial process. Analysis, design, test, confirmation, retest and deployment happen sequentially with little or no reliance on the collaborative/iterative dynamic that characterizes agile methods.
“Customers understand Agile Deployment right away, because it uses the same approach they use during their product development process: rapid generation of iterative samples,” says Groves. “With Agile Deployment, customers can truly experience what is being implemented. User adoption is vastly better.”
Configurability
The easy and powerful configurability of Centric’s PLM system is critical to the success of Agile Deployment. “We architected Centric 8 to deliver value as an out-of-the-box, flexibly configurable system that avoids time-consuming customization,” says Groves.
The PLM software incorporates industry business best practices and underlying industry-standard business and data models into the core system. Neither users nor IT staff need to change this pre-developed core layer during deployment. Centric 8 PLM users use intuitive GUI features—such as drop-down lists, menus and dialog boxes—to tailor the system to meet their exact requirements.
This configurable, out-of-the-box approach stands in sharp contrast to PLM systems that require customization through software programming, explains Groves. Those systems begin implementation with a much smaller core system layer that does not include the data models and other information necessary to support industry business best practices. Rather, he says, the PLM provider creates this domain expertise for each implementation through customization—a process requiring extensive systems knowledge and software programming skills by IT professionals, along with time and expense. The result is a longer implementation cycle that, in turn, delays the benefits of PLM.
“With Agile Deployment, we are leveraging the latest Web 2.0 technologies to deliver value rapidly while making the customer central to an iterative and highly collaborative implementation approach,” states Groves. “Results—delivered significantly faster that PLM industry standards—go straight to the bottom line in terms of both risk mitigation and value delivery.”
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