The PLM consulting and software company based in Darmstadt, Germany, not only presented existing and potential customers a wide range of interesting product innovations, but also showed them how renowned companies such as Schaeffler, Brose, and Siemens Large Drives utilize PROSTEP solutions. With over 50 participants, the rooms at DARZ data center in Darmstadt, where the event took place this year, were practically fully booked. PROSTEP hosts its data exchange solution, OpenDXM GlobalX, as a cloud-based SaaS application in the environmentally friendly high-security data center housed in the former vaults of Landesbank Hessen. The integration platform OpenPDM is also set to be completely cloud-enabled by the end of next year.
One of the highlights of this year’s customer meeting was the presentation of the new version of OpenDXM GlobalX, which stands out due to its completely redesigned user interface that can be run in any conventional browser. The concept for the ergonomic design was developed by PROSTEP together with User Interface Design GmbH. In his keynote speech, Franz Koller, a Managing Director of UID, stressed the importance of usability and the user experience in industrial software applications, which he said must be measured against applications for private users.
The automotive supplier Brose, which has been relying on PROSTEP solutions for internal and external data exchange for over 15 years, recently implemented OpenDXM GlobalX as a portal in order to optimize technical data exchange with suppliers in the change process. In the meantime, the number of users has risen to over 11,000.
PROSTEP is a strategic partner for integration in the smart engineering project by Schaeffler that aims to supply all product data digitally in a centralized engineering cockpit, including data from software and electronics development. The OpenPDM solution suite constitutes an important component of the IT architecture, with Aras Innovator as the cross-system PLM backbone. At TECHDAY, PROSTEP presented the software with new connectors that now also support the connection of PLM and ERP systems to the digital manufacturing solution DELMIA by Dassault Systèmes or the IoT platform ThingWorx by PTC. Participants also became familiar with PROSTEP’s latest arrival: OpenPDM Center, an independent collaboration platform with high-performance PLM functions, which allows development partners in joint projects to share their data, while also keeping it consistent with their backend systems. The solution also supports joint project management.
PROSTEP has put a lot of energy into further developing the 3D PDF generator, developing solutions for service content management, and digitalizing service processes over the last few months. The highlight of the new version is the option to output 3D models with parts lists and derived 2D views in HTML5 format and publish these on websites. Siemens Large Drives uses the 3D PDF generator to automatically derive simplified 3D models and other documents that are needed for configuring large electric motors and inverters in the offer phase. This has reduced the time needed to provide the documents in the product configurator from three months to a few minutes.
This year’s PROSTEP TECHDAY offered existing and potential customers a balanced mix of product innovations and practical application examples, as Peter Pfalzgraf, Head of the Products BU at PROSTEP, concluded at the end of the event: “The user presentations made it clear that customers truly benefit from the continuous development of our solutions.”
