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Key takeaways:
- Fully successful PLM solution deployments must integrate with many other enterprise systems including CAD, ERP, Process Planning tools and even other PDM and PLM solutions
- eQ Technologic’s advanced architecture supported BAE Systems’ integration of a PLM solution to other enterprise systems
- eQ Technologic’s eQube-MI Enterprise Service Bus integration infrastructure has proven to be reliable and scalable in production implementations over the past four years
Background
In reality, an enterprise PLM solution implementation requires integration with Enterprise applications and legacy systems. No one vendor has a complete solution that meets all the product definition lifecycle requirements of a business. Many applications and systems are required to completely define and manage the product definition from concept through end of life. In a practical sense this means that product definition is spread across multiple data repositories, and a wide variety of software applications are required to modify and manage the product definition over its lifecycle. Applications range from authoring tools like CAD, document and data management tools including workflow, compliance capabilities, as well as manufacturing planning and execution systems.
For businesses to be efficient, information needs to flow across the applications that comprise the PLM solution suite in order to support business processes. To minimize errors in this flow, the best practice is to transfer data programmatically rather than manually. An additional benefit of programmatic transfer is that business logic can be incorporated to transform data into a more usable form.
Integrations are developed using two basic techniques; direct (point-to-point) integration or via an enterprise service bus. Direct integrations are typically implemented as tactical solutions to solve an immediate problem. Key issues with direct integrations include:
- Separate integrations must be developed for each pair of solutions to be connected
- Integrations must be updated when either of the solutions change
- The number of integrations grows exponentially with the number of solutions
A more elegant solution is to use an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). From a technical perspective, each solution connects to the bus once, rather than to every other solution. Since the ESB is well defined, an application change will only require a change to its ESB interface. This reduces the cost of change and is more sustainable. More importantly, it enables the business to adapt to changing business requirements due to the ESB’s flexibility in establishing and changing connections between solutions.
eQ Technologic’s eQube
eQube, a platform for Enterprise Information Infrastructure establishes a digital backbone of integrated applications and provides enterprise-wide visibility leading to actionable insight and knowledge. eQ Technologic reports that this platform is flexible, robust, scalable, and secure with overall lower total cost of ownership.
eQube’s ESB architecture allows for ‘loose coupling’ of source and destination systems. The business logic of an interface (for integration of source and destination systems) entirely resides within an eQube-MI process. Therefore, minimal or no coding is required in each application to create an interface. eQube-MI Business Process Modeler (BPM) allows interfaces to be represented by a BPM process that is able to handle complex data transformations using configurable business rules and hints. BPM’s user interface is visual and intuitive with capabilities that help capture complex business rules. eQube’s adapter framework allows application-specific connectors to connect to enterprise applications via their APIs and web-services. Any changes to the underlying application or the business logic are contained within the boundary of the eQube-MI process and do not impact the end applications. The end result of these capabilities is a robust, scalable, and secure solution with lower lifecycle costs.
Customers contacted by CIMdata report that eQ Technologic’s products perform well and support their needs. BAE MAI Division recently published a report (view report here) describing their PLM solution and how they use eQube-MI to support their integration requirements. At CIMdata we see eQube-MI as supporting industry best practices for integration and the BAE Systems report reinforces what CIMdata hears from other eQ Technologic clients.
