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Inforbix and product data consumption

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I am often asked what makes Inforbix different from traditional PDM and PLM systems.  Its’ an important question.  And one I always enjoy responding too.  So what does makes Inforbix different?  The biggest difference between Inforbix and traditional PDM/PLM systems is that Inforbix gives you access to data and information without managing or controlling data.  Inforbix works with data “on location” meaning that it isn’t necessary to migrate, move, or touch any data from where it resides.  There are no vaults or databases to manage.

Think of Inforbix as a data aggregator that can access data from independent systems and reaches into files of many different types, no matter their location, and extracts information from them.  This information is presented for your consumption in useful and helpful ways.  Inforbix provides what we call product data apps that each help you accomplish a specific data consumption related task such as finding data for data reuse, or generating reports that aggregate BOM data from different departments and is automatically updated each time it’s run, or monitoring changes to CAD drawings, and so on.

Inforbix is available as a cloud service meaning there are no complicated installation and deployments necessary.  Also, training is not necessary.  Inforbix leverages a consumer oriented approach consistent with the “don’t make me think” school of user interface design.
Have a look at this interview Evan Yares did with me during SolidWorks World 2012.

If you want to see for yourself what makes Inforbix different, try our test drive demo.  Then try it on your own data byregistering with Inforbix.  The first 20,000 files you use with Inforbix are free so there’s no obligation on your part.  All it takes is about 20 minutes and you’ll be on your way consuming data in a different way I think you’ll like and find helpful.

Best,  Oleg
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Happy New Year!

December 31, 2011 By 1 Comment

Dear friends!

I’d like to take a moment of time and say “Happy New Year” to all of us. 2011 was a very important year. We made our first release – Inforbix 1.0. I’ve been thrilled to be part of what we did in 2011. I’d like to thank our customers and partners for helping us in this journey.  I’m sure 2012 will become the most amazing year. We are coming with new products and ideas. Stay tuned to our news – I’m sure you will like it.

Happy New Year!

Best, Oleg

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Happy Holidays!

December 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It is a Christmas time. Amazingly enough, you can see how America is slowing down during these days. I was driving yesterday in a neighborhood. Somebody told me – it is like Yom Kippur in Israel. It made me think about Holidays time and Inforbix team. We celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas on 25th Dec and Christmas on Jan 7th. It is a complicated decision when to take a day off.

Reading TNW 12 startup founders discuss working on Christmas Day. The following Confucius quote came again very timely – “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life“. Nice sentiments for sure, but it is not simple to achieve to everybody in the team. I hope we do better next year.

I wanted to use this moment of our life and say to all my colleagues, customers, friends and supporters – Happy Holiday! The red box is full of surprises that will come from Inforbix. So, stay tuned and enjoy this time of the year.

Best, Oleg

Image Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

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Inforbix, Cloud, and Trust

November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The cloud seems to me a trending topic these days.  You can find plenty of interesting discussions about cloud today on engineering-related blogs. They are taking different angles and positions in the “cloud conversations.”

With regards to what we do at Inforbix, the topic that seems most important to me is about trust. You may ask yourself “why trust?”  Here’s the thing. Inforbix is a young company.  And we provide our solution on cloud, so naturally, the question of “can we trust the cloud” will inevitably be connected to Inforbix.

One of my favorite posts I saw recently was from the blog nauseam. Steve Johnson is a very prolific writer and, lately, he wrote a compelling post about trust which very much resonated with my thinking:

Trust is vital. I’m convinced that a CAD on the Cloud takeover will live or die based on trust, more than any other factor. Potential Cloud customers must be able to trust that the vendor is going to do the right thing by them. Without trust, any vendor that expects to win its customers over to the Cloud has absolutely no hope. None. Forget it. Pack up and go home now, and save us all a lot of bother.

We’ve been thinking about the ways we can earn the trust of companies which would like to use Inforbix.  In our view it is a combination of both trust and risk. If the risk of using Inforbix is low, then we should be able to gain users’ trust. Here is simple summary of why I think Inforbix can be trusted:

- You can start using Inforbix for free (no risk involved with paying for something that will add no value).

- Your data remains in its original location.  Inforbix does NOT migrate or move original data to the cloud (no risk involved with having your IP on the cloud).

- You can start and stop using Inforbix at any time without impacting existing or ongoing processes in your organization (no risk that Inforbix will ever hold you hostage).

And one more thing…  we have a culture of openness and transparency… we like to talk and share… as regular readers of this blog will confirm.

In Conclusion, we believe the path to trust is one of both low risk and openness.   That is what will earn our users trust.  And as for the cloud… that’s merely a means to an end.  Low risk + openness + people = Trust.

Best, Oleg

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A Personal note about usable software

October 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

I wanted to write a note about Steve Jobs. However, I didn’t know how to do it. The person I admire a lot – Tim Berners-Lee helped me to do so. I was reading Tim’s post – Steve Jobs and actually usable computer earlier this week. Take a moment of time and read it.

Here is my personal story. For many years, I wasn’t an Apple and NeXT fan. My computing history goes back to the USSR and clones of PDP/DEC running a version of DEMOS (UNIX) computers and the PC/Windows ‘world’. It was the environment in which most of the software I did business with was developed and operated.

I came across the welcome message Steve Jobs included in each NeXT computer. You can download it here. Here is the message:

Hi, this is Steve Jobs. I want to welcome you to the NeXT World. We think you’re going to love this computer. It’s got the most advanced applications shipping today, and it’s the first computer designed to be an *interpersonal* computer, to extend computing into the realm of improving group productivity and collaboration, which we think is going to be the most exciting thing happening in desktop computing in the first half of the 90s. So welcome to the NeXT world, and let us know what you think of your new computer.

The thing about “interpersonal computer” resonated. I made my switch to the MacBook in early 2009. First I moved my personal computing to Mac and later that same year made the MacBook my primary computer which I’m using on a day-to-day basis. Mac is obviously not a perfect computer and I’m far from wanting to start comparing the Mac and Windows worlds. For almost 3 years, I learned many usability lessons from my MacBook and other iOS devices I use. It helped me to think more about how people are using software and rethink many usability paradigms I had taken for granted.  The results are reflected in the way we designed Inforbix application and hope you are going to want to experience it very soon.

Best, Oleg

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Welcome to Product Data Space!

October 31, 2010 By 8 Comments

Hi,

I’m Oleg. I’m very excited to write this first Product Data Space blog post. This is the beginning of our Inforbix story. We will be using this blog to share with you information about our company and solutions we are developing. We are working hard to make our website up and running, and we’ll back shortly with updates.

Best, Oleg

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