The new release includes the PTC FlexPLM samples console: a new, dedicated module designed to provide clarity, visibility, and comprehensive control to product developers and technical designers who struggle to manage multiple iterations of the product sampling process across many seasons, resulting in managing several hundred samples at any given point in time.
“Samples often represent critical-line review milestones during the go-to-market process. When you consider all of the cross-functional teams involved and the amount of time dedicated to spec development, there is no doubt that sample tracking is a crucial business process. It consumes a significant amount of time and money, which makes accurate tracking essential. This is why we’re delivering capabilities to make this process easy and efficient,” said Quach Hai, VP of retail product management at PTC.
Developed in close consultation with more than 20 of the world’s biggest brands and retailers, the samples console is a central hub that allows all information pertaining to a sample to be viewed, filtered, and maintained in an accessible, intuitive user interface. Attributes from season to colorway and specification to source, can be monitored, updated, and edited in a single location. This provides all of the relevant sample context that enables the interpretation of the sample’s status in its relationship to the critical path and achieving milestone deadlines.
The samples console will also provide closer collaboration with factory partners – giving everyone from product development to production offices to suppliers the ability to track any product’s ready-to-buy status, in one real-time solution without having to resort to external tools.
This heightened, global visibility will have an immediate, positive effect on retailers’ and brands’ go-to-market calendars. Sample tracking alone consumes more than 140 hours per year for development and design partners, and the Samples Console can reduce that time dramatically.
“Our latest release captures the essence of FlexPLM, and PTC’s commitment to helping our customers drive digital transformation and speed to market,” says Bill Brewster, senior vice president and general manager of PTC’s Retail Business Unit. “By getting closer to our users, we continue to improve their day-to-day lives, design new features to respond to their needs, and deliver real, measurable results.”
Customers of almost any deployment of FlexPLM are now eligible to upgrade to the latest release – a process that PTC and its technical partners optimized in 2019. Since its inception, the optimized process has delivered more than thirty enterprise-scale upgrades at a low cost that often also included a move from on-premise to cloud hosting.
