Aras® today announced the availability of the Microsoft® Office Connector for Aras VPLM™. With the Office connector for Aras VPLM, enterprises that run Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD and Vault can manage documents, spreadsheets, slides and emails in PLM without leaving Microsoft Office applications. The Office connector for Aras VPLM improves personal productivity while driving standardization and consistency for compliance throughout the enterprise.
The Office connector for Aras VPLM extends the benefits of enterprise PLM to Autodesk users in Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. Users can create, store, edit, search and manage documents while working within the familiar, easy to use Microsoft environment. At the same time, the Office Connector for Aras VPLM provides administrators with sophisticated capabilities for document control and security, including need-to-know access, configurable automatic document numbering and naming conventions, the optional use of corporate templates, and more.
“We created Aras VPLM to enable Autodesk users to expand the capabilities of Inventor, AutoCAD and Vault across the enterprise. With the Office Connector we’re taking that a step further, making it even easier for users throughout the company to work with PLM information and contribute to the product development process using tools they are already familiar with,” said Peter Schroer, President of Aras. “What’s more,” said Schroer, “the Office Connector for Aras VPLM includes the powerful administrative tools, security and controls required by highly regulated industries.”
The Office Connector for Aras VPLM Features:
Search- Search files and templates in PLM from within the Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
View & Edit - Simply select View for read-only access or Edit to lock and modify a file
Automated PDFs - Auto generate PDFs of saved files to attach and distribute to other users in the workflow
Classification - Automated file naming and document number sequencing based on classification categories
Linking - Option to create relationships between Microsoft documents and Aras items such as Parts, Drawings, Projects, Process Plans, and other PLM items from within Microsoft Office. Relationships can drive naming and numbering, and are updated along with associated product components
Revision & Version Control - Configurable revision and version control on Microsoft files provides traceability and assures that users always work with the correct version of a file
Side-by-Side Comparisons - Enables users to easily view side-by-side comparisons of different revisions of the same document or file
Enterprise Change Management - Apply lifecycle states, approval workflows and sign-offs to documents such as engineering change requests or document change orders
Templates - Create standardized Office document templates that comply with corporate conventions and are ready-to-use for end users
Property Mapping - Map properties from native Microsoft files to Aras or from Aras to the native Microsoft files
Outlook Emails - Capture and store Outlook emails with embedded images and attachments as part of the product record in Aras
Compliance - Document controls, tracking, traceability and audit trails streamline and simplify compliance
Security– Need-to-know access rights and permissions on files managed from within Aras VPLM