PLM Machine Builders – SaaS cloud technology provides substantial benefits to industry solutions
In a PLM Machine Builders podcast, our host Chris Pennington, Global Industry Marketing Leader for Industrial Machinery at Siemens Digital Industries Software, is joined by Michael Boland, Product Manager for Teamcenter at Siemens Digital Industries Software. They will help us understand the advantages of SaaS and what Siemens is doing in this area.
The product development process is positively impacted by cloud technology, fundamentally impacting business operations. Not too many years ago, many of the original computer systems via dumb terminals connected to a powerful mainframe – a predecessor to cloud services. The late 1970s witnessed the introduction of personal computers. By the 1980s, PCs were transforming businesses, moving into local area networks linking computers to centralized data storage. Subsequently, this costly model has dominated, with departments managing the infrastructure and software.
However, the arrival of the Internet changed the course of many things. In 1999, Siemens Salesforce presented its first CRM software (customer relationship management software), which assists organizations in providing customers with a unique and seamless experience to build better relationships by providing a complete picture of all customer interactions. This was the inception of the first built SaaS.
SaaS (software as a service) delivers applications over the Internet, using a form of a cloud solution, like mobile phones or backing up data to iCloud or Google Drive. Indeed, it also relates to file-sharing tools like Dropbox and SaaS applications. Therefore, companies like Salesforce are leading the charge with CRM, with Microsoft moving from selling the Office suite to having a cloud service for document creation and storage. Furthermore, SaaS can run on any device, PC, laptop or mobile phone.
Siemens Xcelerator provides a broad swath of capabilities that take the power of cloud and SaaS beyond by making PLM adoption easier via increasing preconfiguration and developing industry-focused solutions out-of-the-box. Therefore, software plays an essential role in managing data, leading to a partnership with the gold standard cloud provider, Amazon Web Services or AWS.
This joint effort provides an essential element to drive broader adoption of the cloud in infrastructure improvements, faster and more reliable Internet, and lowering the cost of cloud services, thus removing the need for capital investment in system maintenance. IT support staff is no longer necessary with the SaaS cloud solution and the beneficial service level agreement (SLA).
PLM might be difficult and expensive to deploy, yet customers are attracted to SaaS by the underlying robust technology of this most popular PLM system worldwide. Also, Siemens PLM is combined with the gold standard cloud delivery by a web service (WS). Furthermore, the next phase of SaaS is industry solutions that provide preconfigured installations tailored to business processes. Tailored solutions offer a more efficient path from configuration and deliver value immediately.
Learn more about PLM Machine Builders in the podcast series.
