CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

15 November 2005

Product News

PTC Integrates Windchill® with IBM Rational ClearCase; Synchronizes Software Development with Electrical and Mechanical Product Development for Faster Time-to-Market and Higher Quality Products

PTC announced an integration of IBM Rational ClearCase with PTC Windchill. This will enable electronics companies to synchronize software development with the overall product development process, increasing efficiency and shortening product development cycles. IBM Rational ClearCase is IBM's Software Configuration Management (SCM) solution.

Today, electronics products are developed through a multi-disciplinary environment of electrical, mechanical and software developers with increased use of embedded software. As a result of this complexity, companies struggle to manage these diverse disciplines against an overall product development project timeline. One of the most significant challenges for electronics product development is identifying product development issues before release to manufacturing. This is imperative to avoid expensive rework and delayed product launches. Other factors complicating this process include the greater use of software outsourcing and geographically distributed product development and their associated risks.

The automotive industry is using increased electronic and software content, referred to as "mechatronics" in automobiles as a primary means of providing competitive differentiation. Unfortunately, both OEMs and suppliers are struggling with issue and change management for mechatronics and as a result have recently been cited for an increased number of automotive recalls.

"Integrating IBM Rational ClearCase with PTC Windchill solutions provides great value to our joint customers by allowing software development to be synchronized with the overall product development process," said Claudia Dent, vice president, business development, IBM Rational Software. "This enables electronics companies to govern the software component of a project as effectively as the hardware component, improving efficiency and helping to reduce costs."

The integration of IBM Rational ClearCase with Windchill enables:

•  Improved efficiency and higher quality through integration of the software configuration managed in IBM Rational ClearCase with the overall product configuration managed in Windchill PDMLink, allowing a single solution to manage the data developed by MCAD, ECAD and now software developers

•  Greater collaboration and innovation among globally distributed product development teams

•  Integrated software development teams, whether embedded or application-level software, with overall enterprise change management in Windchill PDMLinkT

•  Improved software outsourcing leveraging Windchill ProjectLinkT project management and secure collaboration tools integrated with the IBM Rational ClearCase environment

•  Release software executables through Windchill PDMLink and Windchill ProjectLink

"PTC is very excited to be partnering with the software configuration management industry leader, IBM Rational," said Chad Hawkinson, director of product & market strategy for electronics and high tech, PTC. "We hear from companies struggling with problems such as shipping the wrong version of software executables to manufacturing, or not having visibility to problems early enough, causing delays of days to weeks in releasing products. This integration will enable Windchill PDMLink to manage the overall product configuration of a product across electrical, mechanical and software development, allowing companies to release higher quality products to market on time."

PTC solutions for electronics & high tech are designed to meet the product lifecycle management requirements of electronics manufacturers. These solutions include product development process and data management, electronic verification and collaboration, environmental regulatory compliance (RoHS, WEEE, etc.) and 3D mechanical design. PTC has over 3,000 high tech customers, including the top 30 electronics manufacturers across the globe.

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