Omnify: Optimizing product development processes
September 16, 2011
By Omnify
The Company: Calgary, Alta.-based Tektelic Communications develops cellular radio solutions for the telecommunications market. The company’s products include wireless backhaul solutions, high power radios, remote radio heads, repeaters and micro-base stations designed to address the needs of wireless networks.
The Challenge: Tektelic knew that a PLM system was required to successfully manage the many components that are involved in making its complex products. Implementing a PLM system early on ensured that the company had the proper product development processes in place to effectively manage part information, bill of materials and engineering changes.
The Strategy: Tektelic was looking for a cost-effective product that did not introduce significant overhead for its design staff. The solution had to create a more productive environment for each designer by integrating into its existing product development processes.
“We evaluated five PLM products and also considered SaaS PLM packages,” says Trevor Zapach, director of operations for Tektelic Communications. “We rejected the larger packages due to their cost and complexity, and the SaaS packages due to concerns with data security and limited CAD tool integration. We ultimately selected the solution from Omnify Software due to its rich feature set, usability and low cost.”
Empower PLM was implemented for Tektelic’s first development project. Adopting Empower PLM pushed Tektelic to develop formal product development and revision control processes, as well as a part numbering strategy, with the goal of developing these processes around Omnify so that the two could be integrated completely into how the company develops products.
“Now, a year and a half into its use, Omnify Empower PLM is accessed daily by our engineering staff,” explains Zapach. “We continue to optimize our processes and how they are implemented in Empower PLM.”
The Results: “Since Tektelic started from day one with Omnify Empower PLM, we do not have a real view of how much it has improved our development efficiency,” says Zapach. “However, the team’s past experience with large enterprise-scale PLM products has shown that Omnify’s simplicity and user interface are well suited to a fast and nimble organization like ours that cannot afford dedicated PLM administration staff and complex processes.”
For Tektelic, success is contingent on delivering innovative, low-cost solutions on time, while controlling development costs. The PLM system from Omnify Software is an integral part of its operational strategy.
