PTC Stakes Windchill on Microsoft SharePoint 2010

PTCextended its support for Microsoft'sSharePoint 2010 withnew additions to the Windchill PLM suite that tap the collaboration platform togive all stakeholders - design engineers, program managers and top executives -access to the product development process within a familiar environment.

The new additions, part of PTC's on-goingstrategy to extend its offerings beyond the core engineering ranks, includeWindchill PPMLink, a new program portfolio management solution; WindchillSocialLink, a social computing component; Windchill Web Parts for SharePoint,which consolidates data from Windchill and other systems for easier informationaccess; and WindchillProductPoint, anenhanced version of the CAD data management tool aimed at small to mid-sizedbusinesses. The additions are slated for release later this year.

WindChill PPMLink, which extends Microsoft'sEnterprise Project Management capabilities with configurable stage and gateprocesses, also features scorecards that aggregate traditional projectmanagement measurements with PLM-derived product attributes.

The new WindchillSocialLink follows in the footsteps of Windchill ProductPoint 1.1 andPro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0, which introduced social computing capabilities tothe PTC user base. This new dedicated solution leverages SharePoint 2010 todeliver social computing capabilities combined with rich knowledge of productdata, along with a Web 2.0 user experience that includes content tagging,filtering and activity feeds, the latter a feature that automaticallydisseminates relevant product knowledge to self-forming groups or "communitiesof practices" that have shared interests. The module will also support personalprofiles, which are continuously updated based on PLM system usage to ensureproduct data is delivered in a relevant way.

The other two additionsto the Windchill family are Windchill Web Parts for SharePoint, which providesa single, consolidated view of product information by letting SharePoint usersview, search and edit Windchill data along with content from other coreenterprise systems like ERP. The new addition of Windchill ProductPointdelivers CAD vaulting, sharing, visualization, mark-up and data reuse for SMBstypically dealing with a heterogeneous CAD environment. New data loading toolsin the latest release will facilitate the migration of content housed in olderPro/INTRALINK 3.X systems.

In related news, PTCannounced the latest version of its Mathcad engineering calculation software.Mathcad 15.0 includes more than 25 new functions to aid in conducting Design ofExperiments (DoE), more robust reference libraries and integration withthird-party tools, including the latest version of Microsoft Excel, as well asexisting engineering platforms like PTC Pro/Engineer and Windchill.

PTC Stakes Windchill on Microsoft SharePoint 2010_A