Arena Unveils Unique PLM Collaboration Platform And New Data Extraction Tool

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Sept. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Arena Solutions, the pioneer of cloud-based product lifecycle management (PLM) applications, today announced its Fall 2014 release, which includes two new modules – Arena Scribe and Arena DataExtract – and significant enhancements to Arena Quality. The newly available products are focused specifically on speeding time to market. They enable real-time communication and the aggregation of a complete history of tribal knowledge throughout the supply chain tied to the product record. They also provide a fast, efficient tool for extracting process data from Arena PLM to analytic tools.

In today's fast paced, hyper-competitive marketplace, product companies and their ever growing network of suppliers depend on effortless, transparent communication to resolve issues and ensure they are completely in sync with one another. Confusion creates unacceptable delays, scrap and rework which can result in surrendering "first mover" advantage for innovative OEMs.

Arena Scribe gives customers an easy-to-use collaboration platform that provides a real-time commenting page available on any Arena Item, Change, Request, Supplier, Supplier Item, File, Project or Quality process. Unlike many standalone solutions, Arena Scribe enables comment and collaboration in the context of each individual process or record in Arena PLM. The design and manufacturing team can collaborate with any number of suppliers to solve problems quickly and directly within the product record, where all conversations are captured, eliminating the need to search through an endless string of disparate email threads to unearth information from a previous exchange.

Users can choose to follow comment streams that interest them and receive dashboard and email alerts to stay up-to-date on incoming information. Suppliers with access to the underlying object can participate and add comments, but may view only the comments made public by employees. Every individual in the enterprise and their design/supply chain can use Arena Scribe to improve the product, with a single, interactive forum within the product record to offer innovative ideas and solutions. Users can make conversations 'public' or 'private' and, not unlike social media, provide the ability to 'follow' or 'unfollow' all the while maintaining entire control of the process.

Arena DataExtract enables customers to extract all process data to a standard, flat file format, which can be analyzed using a variety of analytic tools, from relatively simple spreadsheet applications to highly sophisticated business intelligence and analytics platforms. With this data, customers can identify trends, solve problems and find efficiencies that had previously remained hidden. The possibilities include:

• Product health
• Product development
• Root cause analyses
• Trends in cycle time
• Project task status
• Trends in engineering change orders

Finally, the Arena Fall 2014 release includes significant enhancements to Arena Quality, a module released earlier this year that brings visibility, cross-functional team collaboration, and long-term tracking of quality resolutions to the enterprise's core. Arena Quality is now even easier to use. Quality processes can be chained together as issues are discovered which lead to escalation to give all stakeholders the complete picture. New capabilities include the automated setting of status based on step completion, the ability to connect items to quality processes straight from the item header, and process status which is kept up to date automatically as steps are completed.

With these additional capabilities, Arena's customers can continue to improve their time-to-market by proactively including quality processes in the development cycle, build a higher quality product through the creation of a culture of continuous improvement, and reduce costs while boosting margins.

"In today's highly interconnected world, product and manufacturing companies heavily depend on their supply chain, which makes easy, transparent communication with suppliers an absolute must-have to compete in a fast-paced, hyper-competitive marketplace," said Steve Chalgren, vice president of product management and strategy at Arena. "The cloud provides the potential for this kind of global collaboration. At Arena, we've brought this potential to life with Arena Scribe, Arena DataExtract and the robust enhancements to Arena Quality."

The Arena Fall 2014 release will become available in October. For more information, please contact Sales at Arena.

About Arena Solutions

Arena pioneered cloud-based PLM. Arena's suite of PLM and supply chain solutions enables engineering, manufacturing and their extended supply chains to speed prototyping, reduce scrap, streamline their supply chain, improve margins, and collapse time to market. Arena PLM applications simplify bill of materials (BOM) and change management for companies of all sizes, while offering the right balance of flexibility and control throughout the product lifecycle — from prototype to production. Based in Foster City, Calif., Arena has been ranked as a Top 10 PLM provider and Top 5 Supplier Collaboration solution. Arena also holds a spot on the San Francisco Business Times' Best Places to Work List for 2013.

To learn more about Arena Solutions:

Visit the Arena Solutions website.
Read the Arena blog on product design, development and manufacturing.
Follow @arenasolutions on Twitter.
Follow Arena on LinkedIn.

Arena and Arena Solutions are trademarks of Arena Solutions, Inc., Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. All rights reserved. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders.

For more information, contact:

Jeff Miller
Davies Murphy Group
+1.541.207.3461
[email protected]

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SOURCE Arena Solutions