This powerful new solution for collaborative product commerce enables companies, their suppliers, partners, and customers, to collaborate over the Internet to develop, manage, and evolve products. A federated, Web-based architecture links multiple systems and applications together so that critical product information is made available to every member of the extended enterprise, elevating the overall product to an enterprise-level asset.

The Windchill« Collaboration Factor! offers an interenterprise collaborative environment for the sharing and visualization of valuable product and process knowledge, regardless of where it resides or what native format it is in. This powerful solution supports the Windchill Factor! e-SeriesÖ, which delivers a complete set of enterprise solutions to address collaborative product commerce (CPC).

Providing a Web-based, federated architecture, the Windchill Collaboration Factor! connects systems and processes throughout the supply chain, creating a virtual enterprise. Members of the extended enterprise are able to find, manage, and use the product information they need to make informed business decisions even if that information is located in legacy or incumbent systems. For the manufacturer, this means that engineers, marketing representatives, and even external suppliers have a portal through which they can obtain and interact with a complete master representation of their product information assets.

To help users find the product information they need when they need it, the Windchill Collaboration Factor! employs sophisticated Web technology to make information available, accessible, and easy to locate.

Critical product information is distributed in disparate systems across the departments and business units of a company as well as throughout the supply chain. The Windchill Collaboration Factor! seamlessly and logically connects these multiple databases, IT systems, and applications in a Web-based environment. Applications don't have to be replaced and information does not have to be rehosted. Instead, the Windchill Collaboration Factor! adds a layer of connectivity on top of preexisting systems. Multiple databases can continue to operate independently but are linked together in a federated fashion so that information is presented in a sensible way. This powerful capability enables companies to make strategic decisions regarding the retirement, consolidation, and maintenance of their historical IT investments, while providing access to valuable product information stored in a variety of repositories.

By incorporating standard Web technology, such as Java«, search engines, HTML, XML*, HTTP, e-mail, hyperlinks, and RMI, the Windchill Collaboration Factor! puts companies in a better position to take advantage of emerging Web technology. To help users find the product information they need when they need it, Windchill search engines perform cross-system inquiries to locate and retrieve information. Members of the extended enterprise can access the product information they need by simply clicking on a link, and just like the Web, the source of the information remains transparent.

Manage the Information

Supplier approval processes, bid proposals, and change processes often require the involvement of people outside of the initiator's department, business unit, and in many cases, company. The Windchill Collaboration Factor! allows companies to automate and link business processes in a federated manner. These capabilities enable the expedient progression of interenterprise workflow processes so that members of the extended enterprise can be called on to participate regardless of who they are or where they are. Federated, Web-based processes allow companies to proactively guide and monitor their unique business processes╛helping them deliver superior products, while reducing time to market and development costs and improving quality.

Additionally, the Windchill Collaboration Factor! offers interenterprise document management, structure management, lifecycle management, and system administration. All of this is done around an Oracle« 8 database, which provides access to the most current information. Flexible access-control policies ensure that only the appropriate users and groups have access to information in a particular lifecycle stage of a project. With this agile framework, companies are in a better position to collaborate business to business. This accelerates the flow of critical product and process information throughout the extended enterprise and furthers a company's competitive advantage.

Use the Information

In order to maximize their contributions, participants in the collaborative product development process need to be able to access and use product information easily, regardless of the application that created it. They need to view graphical information, mark up documents or CAD models, take measurements, and use product information in assembly documentation or user manuals. Windchill's federated application model links applications across multiple systems and environments so that all participants have the information they need to quickly make critical business decisions.

The Windchill Collaboration Factor! accommodates a variety of information formats from a variety of sources, enabling companies to visualize and interrogate documents and 2D and 3D models and assemblies. Nonengineers and engineers alike can not only see what a product or component looks like in its early stages of development but also annotate, mark up, measure, explode, rotate, section, and calculate mass properties of geometric models. Enterprise visualization enables collaboration at all stages of the product lifecycle and allows all individuals to be more productive in their roles.

Summary

The Windchill Collaboration Factor! gives companies the agility they need to stay competitive and respond to change quickly. Through a federated system of information, processes, and applications, the solution gives companies the capabilities they need to embrace diversity throughout the supply chain. This ensures that critical product information can be found, managed, and used regardless of what it is or where it is. The Windchill Collaboration Factor! brings people and information together over the Internet to open up new business opportunities.

The Windchill Collaboration Factor! is part of the Windchill Factor! e-Series, a comprehensive suite of e-business solutions for CPC. From product planning through production and everything in between, the Windchill Factor! e-Series exploits the Internet for product collaboration, and in so doing, raises the value of product information to an enterprise asset.

*The Windchill Product Planning Factor! takes advantage of functionality in Windchill Foundation. Windchill Foundation contains the IBM XML Parser for Java« Edition and the IBM LotusXSL Edition.