PLM: The key to the digital transformation

Under the motto "Energizing the digital engineering world", Open World 2017 presented CONTACT's new products, innovations and strategies. The aim: To make it easier to develop smart products and service-oriented business models for the Internet of Things.

Challenges of the digital transformation: PLM is more important than ever
The dominant theme at Open World, the most important meeting of the CONTACT Community, was the digital transformation. As Managing Director Karl Heinz Zachries said when opening the event, the challenge is to continue developing proven business models while simultaneously remaining open for new, disruptive business ideas. "We develop solutions that help people work together more easily and develop even better products and the matching IoT services."

Meeting point for CONTACT's Global Ecosystem
CONTACT Open World was more global than ever. More than 250 visitors and many overseas guests took part in the two-day user conference in Fulda. Partners from China, India, Korea, Turkey and the USA emphasize CONTACT's international strategy. The American PLM expert Oleg Shilovitsky illustrated the current trends and showed himself impressed by CONTACT's consistent PLM and IoT vision.

Challenges of the digital transformation: PLM is more important than ever
The dominant theme at Open World, the most important meeting of the CONTACT Community, was the digital transformation. As Managing Director Karl Heinz Zachries said when opening the event, the challenge is to continue developing proven business models while simultaneously remaining open for new, disruptive business ideas. "We develop solutions that help people work together more easily and develop even better products and the matching IoT services."

Meeting point for CONTACT's Global Ecosystem
CONTACT Open World was more global than ever. More than 250 visitors and many overseas guests took part in the two-day user conference in Fulda. Partners from China, India, Korea, Turkey and the USA emphasize CONTACT's international strategy. The American PLM expert Oleg Shilovitsky illustrated the current trends and showed himself impressed by CONTACT's consistent PLM and IoT vision.

New modules for CONTACT Elements for IoT
In Fulda, CONTACT presented its new Elements for IoT modules. These include the integrated business apps from Continuum Analytics for the analysis of large data volumes. Enterprises can combine these apps with established cloud platforms to capture real-time data from the actual product lifecycle and use it for customer-centric value-added services. The operating data can be merged with the digital models in CIM Database PLM, for example in order to simulate the behavior of the product using the digital twin.

Mojo: The new Experience System from CONTACT Elements
Unlike its competitors, CONTACT believes PLM to be the key for smart products and digital business models. “PLM is more important than ever,” stressed Zachries in his keynote. CONTACT is underscoring the fact that products and processes are becoming ever more complex with Mojo, the new User Experience System. The aim: PLM should not only simplify task completion but should also be fun to use.

New modules for CONTACT Elements for IoT
In Fulda, CONTACT presented its new Elements for IoT modules. These include the integrated business apps from Continuum Analytics for the analysis of large data volumes. Enterprises can combine these apps with established cloud platforms to capture real-time data from the actual product lifecycle and use it for customer-centric value-added services. The operating data can be merged with the digital models in CIM Database PLM, for example in order to simulate the behavior of the product using the digital twin.

Mojo: The new Experience System from CONTACT Elements
Unlike its competitors, CONTACT believes PLM to be the key for smart products and digital business models. “PLM is more important than ever,” stressed Zachries in his keynote. CONTACT is underscoring the fact that products and processes are becoming ever more complex with Mojo, the new User Experience System. The aim: PLM should not only simplify task completion but should also be fun to use.

               

 

PALM: Combining PLM and ALM
Complexity is growing because networking is turning products into "systems of systems". They contain increasing numbers of software-controlled functions as CONTACT's head of development, Frank Patz-Brockmann, explained. “We need an interdisciplinary systems engineering and a development platform that accepts the fact that software follows different rules.” CONTACT integrates Git, the leading open-source software for application lifecycle management (ALM), in its Elements technology platform. To do this, CONTACT works together with GitLab so that enterprises can now combine PLM and ALM much better than before.

Systems engineering for smart products
To ensure functional reliability, smart products demand end-to-end traceability at requirements level, explained Dr. Patrick Müller, Product Manager PLM. That is why CONTACT has extended its Requirements Management to include the possibility of using :em engineering methods' ReqMan software to automate the extraction of requirements from document-based specifications and their import into CIM Database. There they can be linked with other objects, updated more easily if changes occur and be exchanged via ReqIF.

PALM: Combining PLM and ALM
Complexity is growing because networking is turning products into "systems of systems". They contain increasing numbers of software-controlled functions as CONTACT's head of development, Frank Patz-Brockmann, explained. “We need an interdisciplinary systems engineering and a development platform that accepts the fact that software follows different rules.” CONTACT integrates Git, the leading open-source software for application lifecycle management (ALM), in its Elements technology platform. To do this, CONTACT works together with GitLab so that enterprises can now combine PLM and ALM much better than before.

Systems engineering for smart products
To ensure functional reliability, smart products demand end-to-end traceability at requirements level, explained Dr. Patrick Müller, Product Manager PLM. That is why CONTACT has extended its Requirements Management to include the possibility of using :em engineering methods' ReqMan software to automate the extraction of requirements from document-based specifications and their import into CIM Database. There they can be linked with other objects, updated more easily if changes occur and be exchanged via ReqIF.

Faster is better: More speed for agile enterprises
Visitors to the user meeting were impressed by the high speed at which CONTACT launches its innovations. The engine behind it all is the open Elements platform whose "Lego" principle permits the fast exploration and agile implementation of new functions. In combination with state-of-the-art open-source components, it provides powerful modules for product-related applications in the development process and in the industrial Internet of Things.

“With CONTACT Elements, enterprises are superbly positioned,” said Patz-Brockmann in his keynote on CONTACT's technology strategy. Professor Gunter Dueck, philosopher, author and former CTO of IBM, had some encouraging words for the many businesses that are still in the early stages of the digital transformation: Digitalization is inevitable. However, with determination and competence, small and mid-sized companies will get to grips with it faster than larger enterprises.

Faster is better: More speed for agile enterprises
Visitors to the user meeting were impressed by the high speed at which CONTACT launches its innovations. The engine behind it all is the open Elements platform whose "Lego" principle permits the fast exploration and agile implementation of new functions. In combination with state-of-the-art open-source components, it provides powerful modules for product-related applications in the development process and in the industrial Internet of Things.

“With CONTACT Elements, enterprises are superbly positioned,” said Patz-Brockmann in his keynote on CONTACT's technology strategy. Professor Gunter Dueck, philosopher, author and former CTO of IBM, had some encouraging words for the many businesses that are still in the early stages of the digital transformation: Digitalization is inevitable. However, with determination and competence, small and mid-sized companies will get to grips with it faster than larger enterprises.

CONTACT's understanding of the challenges customers are facing is much, much better than that of the other PLM providers.
Raghavendra Kulkarni, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions

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