New data management solutions help keep companies in sync

Over the past few years, many companies have experienced an increasing need to create better workflow across multiple locations. In manufacturing, we have seen this trend driven by a number of factors, including the need to reduce costs by taking advantage of lower cost offshore engineering and manufacturing resources, and the desire to take advantage of growing global markets for many products. As a result, many companies now have multiple engineering and manufacturing locations that need to be kept in sync.

In AEC, we are seeing more and more large multi-office firms that want to take better advantage of personnel assets they may have in remote offices and put them to use on projects elsewhere in the U.S. or globally, rather than limiting the use of an AEC professional to projects in the vicinity of his or her local office.

Both of our data management software providers, Autodesk and BlueCielo ECM Solutions (formerly Cyco Software) have developed products targeted specifically for the manufacturing and AEC markets.

With the release of their 2008 products this spring, Autodesk came out with Productstream Replicator as a multi-site add-on for both Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Productstream. It enables automatic replication of files stored in Autodesk Vault between multiple company sites. Document metadata (including file properties and file status information) is stored centrally to help ensure that all designers are working from the most up-to-date design. This system architecture is designed to provide the benefits of local storage and performance, but ensure that all sites are in sync with one another. Productstream Replicator includes:

Full per-site scheduling of updates based on time of day or every (x) hours or minutes
On-demand pulling of updated files as needed
Client-side enhancements to notify users when local files are not up to date
Management of inconsistent settings across sites.
Support for the existence of orphaned metadata by server and clients.

A product similar in function and system architecture to the Productstream Replicator is BlueCielo�s Global Collaboration Framework (GCF) module which is available as an add-on to the InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise product. Some of the main reasons that customers may wish to consider the BlueCielo products include:

Support for additional CAD products such as SolidWorks and Microstation
Need for a multi-departmental or enterprise-wide solution including sales, marketing, accounting, quality, customer services, HR, etc.
Support for fully customizable document, ECO and project workflows for all departments

BlueCielo also places a great deal of focus on utilities and process-oriented manufacturing (along with discrete manufacturing) so customers in those markets may wish to take a closer look at BlueCielo as well.

Another BlueCielo product with multi-site application is the InnoCielo Publisher. This product is a good fit for companies where collaborative engineering is not done across multiple sites, but at one location, with one or more other manufacturing locations. Upon release of a new CAD (or other) file, the Publisher can perform any of the following tasks automatically:

Convert the file to PDF or other industry standard format
Copy the native and/or converted file to another Meridian vault or the local file system at the remote facilities
Post the file to an FTP or other site
Send out e-mail notifications to appropriate personnel

With the Publisher, all users at all sites are immediately and automatically brought up to date with the latest design, specification or procedure changes.

Other �possible� solutions for solving multi-site challenges that may be available depending on the customer�s needs and available infrastructure include:

Use of the Vault Explorer or Productstream client across the company WAN (if bandwidth is good and file sizes are small)
Use of the Productstream Explorer (read-only) or Meridian web clients. The Meridian web client has capabilities for check in, check out, workflow, etc.
VPN, Citrix and Terminal Services
Custom multi-site document publishing solutions
Autodesk Buzzsaw and Streamline

Our goal is to work with each client to help them find the best solution for their needs and budget. If your company has a need for better communication across multiple company locations (or with remote personnel, customers or suppliers), we would love to talk with you in order to learn more about those needs.