Autdoesk PLM 360 to PDM Integration with Jitterbit

Editor's Notes

• #3: Good Morning
• #5: In PDM, Part or BOM data is Engineering centric and obviously closely related to the CAD data. For example a single part is represented by a file that likely has some attributes / properties that are being managed by the PDM tool. In PLM, a Part and BOM are represented by an item that likely also has a series of attributes, many different file associations, and important relationships to other items. Where the PDM file and associated files are a good representation of the design, it is not near the representation that we are given in PLM. The PLM item is a representation of how a Part or BOM is managed across the entire business process. It is not uncommon that PDM tools have some basic PLM functionality built into them. It is also not uncommon that when a PDM system is stretched to meet the needs of PLM, it falls short. As we see on this slide this is often times because PDM does not have flexible workflow, true BOM management, or the ability to make the relationships to other items that are so important.
• #6: That brings us to our topic for today. PLM 360 has been created and enabled to easily integrate with other products on the market for things like ERP, MRP, CRM, and many other business system acronyms like PDM. We call this Business Process Integration. Business Process Integration allows us to take tools purpose built to solve a particular problem and connect them. Connecting these tools allows each tool to solve its specific business need, while passing along the pertinent information (Metadata, files, etc) to the next system in the process. No business tool is built to do it all, although some try awfully hard. Connecting these tools allows them to do what they are good at.
• #7: We define and integration with a few important pieces of information. One of these is the EndPoint. This slide is what most of our customers like to see in the beginning of the sales process. Today we have connected to over a dozen different endpoints, some more mainstream than others. There are things like SalesForce, NetSuite which are common. Then there are some more legacy systems like BPCS, and of course the powerhouses like SAP and Oracle. We have also connected to a series of home made SQL Server applications.
• #8: Today we will talk about and see a demonstration of the Autodesk PLM 360, and PDM Endpoints. Specifically Autodesk PLM 360 and Autodesk Vault. I have listed some of the CAD products here also. It is not uncommon for companies without PDM to still have the desire to pass along BOM information to PLM. This is something we have done in the past. I will say I think it best to access your PDM needs if your in this boat, but this is again about providing the right options to each business case and there are a number of folks out there who operate without PDM today.
• #9: The second part of defining a BPI for us is the Use Case. Different Endpoints tend to have different Use Cases so I have listed some of those here. For example If we have an integration to CRM, we are likely passing and managing Customer, Vendor Data. If we have an ERP integration, similar to PDM integration to PLM we are likely integrating around and the Items & BOMs use case. This is a fairly common integration for us. A great example is where Vault falls short on effectively managing customer Change Orders, PLM 360 can do that quite well. We use integration to pass the BOM data to PLM for just that reason. There are some other use cases I list here. They are not necessarily Business use cases, but functional use cases. Things like File Transfer………….
• #10: PLM 360 to PDM integration makes so much sense for many reasons. Lets take the most basic. Data Redundancy. Engineering has all sorts of valuable information that gets captured in their PDM system, and they are often times the only ones with access to that. Integration allows us to take that information and pass it along to the rest of the organization. Another example is File Access. Engineering puts a lot of work into their design data, and doesn’t always share effectively. Particular in organizations lacking good document control, or quality practices. Business Process Integration allows us to release the right information, to the right people at the right time. Getting this information into PLM streamlines the product lifecycle management process and allows the design data to participate in the overarching process as needed. Security is another good reason for integration. Keeping the native design data in PDM, isolated and safe from the rest of the organization, while sharing important metadata and viewables is often times a driving factor for Integration for many of our customers.
• #11: Lets tech talk some. How do we do this behind the scenes. Our BPI solutions built around PLM 360 use a middleware product called Jitterbit. Jitterbit is a Cloud or On-Premise middleware that takes advantage of a “No Coding approach to integration. It allows us to easily connect to a number of End Points using native connectors, and for those products that do not have a connectors we are able to connect easily using and y JDBC / ODBC like connections. There are also some other things to note. When connecting with Autodesk Vault for Integration we leverage the Autodesk Vault web services provided by Autodesk. We also take advantage of the Autodesk Job Processor in order to kickoff Integration actions from Vault. For PDM Professional we also use Jitterbit, but where there is a lack of Vendor supplied Web Services we here at Razorleaf have created our own. These are part of our Clover based offering. We use these PDM Professional Web Services to connect PDM Pro to many different business systems.
• #14: So on to the demo. Lets have some fun. For todays demonstration we will be showing Autodesk PLM 360 to Vault. Before we take a live look, let me review a few of the Use Cases we will see.