PLM in the Chinese Apparel Industry
April 3, 2012
Les Enphants, a manufacturer and distributor of children’s apparel, sportswear, and accessories that has approximately 4,000 employees and 1,888 retail outlets in China, has adopted a product lifecyle management (PLM) solution to reinforce its design imperatives and streamline its development chain in the wake of its recent market growth.
By selecting a PLM-based solution to maximize the increased demand for its products Les Enphants intends to bolster its competitive advantage and cost savings, ensure continuous improvement in its product quality, avoid developmental redundancy, streamline communication, accelerate production, and consequently offer broad-based support for its continued expansion within China. The company’s technology decision is further explained in “Lectra: Les Enphants Adopts Lectra Fashion PLM,” an announcement that recently appeared in Marketwire:
“Rising development costs meant refining product development and supply chain operations were as crucial for Les Enphants as reinforcing design. Given the company’s potential for expansion in the Chinese market, they decided to equip themselves with a product life cycle management solution that would support their growth for the next three to five years. The goal is to reengineer the Les Enphants process with Les Enphants’ long term development in mind.”
With the growing adoption of PLM internationally as a cost savings maneuver in a variety of industries, small providers such as Inforbix that offer cloud-based PLM products are poised to partner with diverse clients to develop customized and cost-effective data management solutions.
Tonya Weikel, April 3, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, March 26 to March 30
April 2, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, the ways in which unstructured data is impacting the big data industry.
Our feature story this week, “Digital Reasoning Makes Major Move in Military,” shows how the leader in unstructured data wrangling is helping the military increase its reach.
“Unstructured Data Demands Right Tools” proves that not all unstructured data softwares are created equal. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a shell game for users to find the right one for their needs.
“Governments Get Self Conscious with Analytics” showed how clever government agencies are clearing up inaccuracies and becoming more efficient by utilizing the massive collections of unstructured data lingering in their systems.
If you aren’t familiar with the term “unstructured data” you will be. It’s the big horizon in the analytics world. We, fortunately, are well versed in the ephemeral stuff. It’s going to change the way the entire industry works and we’ll be following it every day.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 2, 2012
SharePoint Best Practices Resource Center
April 2, 2012
The official SharePoint blog, To The SharePoint, announces the release of the 2010 version of the Best Practices Resource Center. The 2007 version was quite a hit, and Samantha Robertson unveils the newest version in, “Just Released – Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2010.”
“We’re pleased to announce that we now have a 2010 version of the Best Practices Resource Center. Like in 2007, this was a joint effort between the SharePoint Customer Engineering team and Microsoft Consulting Services team for SharePoint. They drew on real customer experiences to help us bring you a set of guidelines that lay out the best practices for success with SharePoint Server 2010. Following these practices will help you avoid some of the common deployment pitfalls and keep your SharePoint environments available and performing well.”
The SharePoint resource center is no doubt a useful tool for organizations managing their SharePoint deployment. However, if an organization cannot financially or organizationally devote a dedicated team to managing and configuring SharePoint, how effective can the infrastructure possibly be? If your organization needs personalized attention for its enterprise capabilities, consider a third party solution with out-of-the-box capability, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or to be more precise, understands what the most important information is for you at any precise moment in time. It is the center of excellence for your knowledge and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud data together.”
Security and compliance are held to the highest standards with Mindbreeze, but the interface is intuitive and the search effective. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is extensible through connectors and scalable. Available for the Cloud or for on-site installation, check into the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if your organization could benefit from its implementation.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Emerging as Backbone of Industry
April 2, 2012
As every company with a product to manufacture knows it is getting harder to remain competitive with advancing technology yet still keep costs down to a minimum. The only solution is to streamline processes as much as possible, also known as product lifecycle management (PLM). A recent article, “PLM and MES: From Development to Production and Back Again“, on Hannover Messe’s website explains the predicament in which many companies are finding themselves and the reason PLM is the only logical solution.
“Global competition and shorter innovation cycles require many manufacturing companies to square the circle: time-to-market and costs are supposed to decline, and the quality of products and planning is to improve. This can no longer happen without the digitalization of operational processes and a comprehensive integration of all processes and data: basic information such as manufacturing and assembly data must be available from product development to avoid errors in manufacturing…Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is increasingly becoming the data backbone of industry…”
There are many options in PLM software and platform providers but the leaders are those providers with cloud based solutions who also have proven data management solutions. Inforbix, a smaller provider specializing in customized platforms for their clients, work on the belief that all users of a PLM system should be able to find, share, and reuse product data without a background in IT. By choosing a provider as knowledgeable as Inforbix small to mid-sized companies can rest assured that all waste will be eliminated keeping them competitive in the global marketplace.
Catherine Lamsfuss, April 2, 2012
Protected: SharePoint A Key Tool in the Collaboration Network
March 30, 2012
Improving Governance Compliance in SharePoint
March 30, 2012
Jeremy Thake addresses the important issue of governance compliance in, “SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Compliance.” Many organizations employ multiple repositories for sensitive content, and an out-of-the-box SharePoint system makes it hard to enforce the guidelines of where content should go. Thake explains,
“The out-of-the-box auditing features in SharePoint 2010 have some key limitations in this space, specifically regarding the storage of this data over a prolonged period of time (most acts seem to be approximately seven years) as well as the ease of producing a report of an individual user’s activity and attached content. The most common format followed by customers with whom I work is Concordance, which is supported by LexisNexis. But more importantly, from a content perspective, the attached content should be exactly what the user viewed, modified, or created at that point in time so versioning here is the key.”
SharePoint 2010 has many added improvements to address some of the out-of-the-box compliance gaps. But compliance is an area that needs a comprehensive solution. To really extend your SharePoint capabilities and get the most out of your enterprise search investments, look to Mindbreeze.
No matter where your sensitive information is stored, on-premise or in the Cloud, Mindbreeze connects users to the right information while maintaining strict security standards. Here you can read about the cost-efficient solution:
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise finds every scrap of information within a very short time, whether document, contract, note, e-mail or calendar entry, in intranet or internet, person- or text-related. The software solution finds all required information, regardless of source, for its users. Get a comprehensive overview of corporate knowledge in seconds without redundancy or loss of data.”
Check out their full suite of solutions to see what will work for you.
Philip West, March 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Solutions Are Not Created Equal
March 30, 2012
CAD-based product lifecycle management (PLM) software solutions offer their users valuable tools to remain relevant in an increasingly globalized business environment featuring diminished product introduction cycles and overall product lifecycles. A recent article, “CAD-Centric PLM, ERP-Centric PLM, and Organic PLM: What’s Right for You?—Part 1,” from The TEC Blog discusses the advantages of implementing CAD-based PLM solutions.
The article explains those advantages as,
“Indisputably, CAD-based PLM vendors have thorough knowledge of product design and product development processes. This is especially true with regards to inter-disciplinary system engineering (i.e., managing mechanical, electronic, and software components and requirements). Engineering departments and/or manufacturing operations typically drive the evaluation and selection of the CAD-based PLM solution when these vendors win over other PLM alternatives.”
Given that PLM is a growing industry, particularly in regards to integrating CAD with other data, it is reassuring that companies such as Inforbix continue to assist companies with all their PLM data management solutions, even those that are highly complex or that require significant customization.
Tonya Weikel, March 30, 2012
Protected: To Moderate SharePoint Comments Or Not To Moderate
March 29, 2012
Security and Compliance Guidance with SharePoint
March 29, 2012
Maintaining security standards and governance compliance in the enterprise is not always easy when trying to minimize risks and maximize access. Mike Fleck addresses the issue in, “SharePoint, Security, and Compliance.” Fleck explains:
“One thing I think that the SharePoint community can easily agree on is that adequately securing SharePoint implementations and meeting compliance obligations are good things. The many capabilities and advantages that SharePoint brings to the enterprise are well documented…Security and compliance are closely related topics. Compliance regulations dictate numerous security controls. Having a strong security posture makes meeting compliance requirements (and proving compliance to auditors) far easier.”
Fleck’s article is the first in a series on security and compliance as related to the collaboration platform. SharePoint architects and administrators may benefit from the read. Some guidance might help as you look to prioritize high level concerns and pertinent questions for increased SharePoint security and compliance.
While information creation and SharePoint adoption continue to grow, you may find the platform is not the complete out-of-the-box solution for enterprise security and compliance needs. If you need a bit of help with it you might check into Mindbreeze and their dynamic search technologies that bring together security, mobility, and information pairing.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze exceeds relevant international standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 9001, and SAS 70 Typ II. Here you can read more about Mindbreeze certifications:
“Fabasoft has received ISO 20000 certification for the IT services Folio Cloud and Folio SaaS. This furthers the Austrian company’s strategy of implementing international standards, with it already being ISO 9001 and 27001 certified. Fabasoft is one of just twelve companies in Austria with ISO 20000 certification.”
With strict compliance standards, certified security, and regular external audits, Mindbreeze can maximize your information assets with security reliability.
Philip West, March 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM for Medical Device Compliance
March 29, 2012
A recent article, “Design Control for Medical Devices“, as seen on Today’s Medical Developments (TMD) recently announced a webinar scheduled for March 28, 2012, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Product lifecycle management (PLM) experts Roger Martin and Chuck McGinley, Sr., will discuss how medical device manufacturers can minimize the likelihood of product recalls and enhance their regulatory compliance through more effective design control and data management solutions.
The article describes the goals attendees of the webinar will be to:
“(l)earn how to implement effective and efficient product development procedures with PLM technology in order to ensure compliant design controls, address design control challenges, simplify the audit process, and reduce the cost of compliance through automated enterprise resource systems and best practices.”
With its recent emergence in such as industries as medical device manufacturing, PLM is demonstrating its widespread utility and appeal. Consequently, small and midsized businesses requiring data management guidance should embrace the solutions offered by such data-focused PLM providers as Inforbix. Although industries such as medical may have been just recently introduced to PLM solutions companies such as Inforbix have been supplying data management solutions to all industries for quite a while with an impressive and extensive wealth of knowledge to offer clients.
Tonya Weikel, March 29, 2012