The Situation
A global commerce and technology company needed a better way to keep track of standard parts and supplier information for their electrical components and boards. Their solution was to develop a homegrown database application that grew over time into a more complex app. It worked. Though the app addressed their needs, over the years it became more difficult and expensive to maintain. Eventually, this homegrown solution could only run on outdated, unsupported infrastructure… and the only person who still understood the deep underpinnings retired from the company.
This billion-dollar company found itself in an extremely precarious situation. Their business continuity was at high risk and they didn’t have any favorable disaster recovery response if the homegrown solution were to crash.
The company had looked at Windchill PartsLink and Windchill Supplier Management (SUMA) as a possible replacement, but they had never ‘made a decision’ to change. With the high-risk looming over them, they made the decision to implement PartsLink and SUMA and they partnered with Fishbowl to migrate their application over into Windchill.
The Solution Approach
Discovery, Analysis & Design
Fishbowl spent time with key individuals at the company to understand their use cases and dig into their homegrown database. Fishbowl presented an analysis that included a Windchill solution design roadmap. This roadmap detailed how Fishbowl would migrate and implement as well as how all the use cases would be addressed (and more robust features provided).
Testing & Validation
Fishbowl developed and executed test migrations of all Parts with assigned Category and Attributes, all Supplier Parts with Manufacturer Attributes, all Compliance Information (RoHS) and Usage Status, all Related Reference Documents to Parts, and all Assembly and Cable BOMS with Reference Designators. Several test migrations were executed until the customer validations were clean and the migration “recipe” was flawless.
Production Migration & Go Live
The production migration was a replication of the final test migration. Fishbowl supported the solution during the first couple weeks until the company was satisfied with all use cases.
Results
Migrating to Windchill PartsLink with SUMA has allowed the company to gain efficiencies and cut costs. Operating in one system instead of two helps save time, and the Windchill system has a more robust feature set than their old homegrown application. Also, by retiring their homegrown system they’ve eliminated overhead of the additional server hardware and support (and anxiety).
Contact Rick Passolt, PLM Sales Manager, for more information on PTC Windchill Data Migrations with or without PartsLink & SUMA.
About Fishbowl Solutions
Fishbowl Solutions has been a PTC Software Partner since our inception in 1999. Our partnership provides access to PTC product APIs, training, and support. Our team has decades of experience working with PTC technology. We provide a full suite of professional services centered on the PTC product set. We offer both add-on products and customizations for PTC Windchill, Creo, and ThingWorx Navigate. We are also a PTC Vuforia reseller. We have the experience and expertise to recommend the right mix of solutions and services for your next project.
