How Inforbix helps virtualize your Engineering IT

February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Virtualization is an important technology trend these days.  I come across it all the time in different settings. Virtualization helps companies improves business operations by helping them optimize processes and making them more effective. Last year, I touched on the topic of virtualization and mentioned a few ideas of how Inforbix can help with one aspect of virtualization: data.  Navigate your browser to the article we posted last year, Product Data and Sweet Smell of Data Virtualization.

 Earlier this week, I was reading an interesting white paper. Navigate to the following link (registration required): Guide to Virtualization for Midsize Businesses. Here’s an interesting excerpt:

Virtualization is a catalyst for creating an enterprise-wide dynamic infrastructure, enabling integrated management of IT resources, improved resiliency, flexibility and faster service delivery. This white paper explains how virtualization can benefit mid-sized businesses in particular by reducing costs and complexity. Read on and learn about the economics of virtualization for the midmarket.  

The description I quote above resonated. Reducing cost and complexity is important for manufacturing companies.  Earlier last year, Inforbix was at the starting stage of its first customer deployments, testing, and validations.  Since then, we have learn much from those early customer experiences and can now, with some confidence, talk more about how Inforbix helps companies virtualize their data.  Think about a library of released documents.  I’m sure you have one in your company. In most cases, you probably keep this library (there may be more than one, btw) on separate folders or maybe use a content management system.  Sometimes PDM system are used for this purpose.  I happen to believe there’s a simpler, more effective and affordable alternative to content management or PDM systems.

Inforbix applies product data crawler to scan and index these libraries of release documents; they automatically gather metadata which is indexed and processed in the cloud (no original data is touched, moved, or migrated to the cloud). Access to all this virtualized data can be granted to anyone, via secure login credentials, in the company via a standard web browser.   There’s even an option to use a company internal private cloud if the public cloud is not an option for some reason.  Inforbix adds additional value by inferring useful links, connections, and relationships between released documents and pertinent pieces of engineering data.  Because it implements cloud, mobile, and semantic technology, Inforbix is able to provide this data virtualization at a fraction of cost and resources usually required of data management systems.

Would you like to experience how Inforbix could help you and your company get more out of engineering and manufacturing data? Give Inforbix a test-drive or register and start using Inforbix for free.

Best, Oleg
Filed Under: Product Data Stories, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Inforbix, AutoCAD WS and cloud/on-premises connections

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment 


Cloud and mobile are two major trends that are now part of most IT agendas. These are disruptive trends causing IT’s Arab spring. The wide-spread use of iPhone in business signaled the beginning of IT loosing control and the beginning of user empowerment. And that was just the beginning.




In manufacturing, CAD vendors are trying to keep up with both the cloud and mobile trends… and things are moving fast there.  Take Autodesk WS.  It is one of several products Autodesk recently brought to market in response to people wanting both cloud and mobile based solutions.




I’ve been reading a recent Autodesk blog post, 5 Ways AutoCAD WS Helps Improve Your Productivity.  Turns out, I’m okay with all five arguments.  After all, they simplify work and optimize data flow.  Here are the five ways Autodesk suggests AutoCAD WS helps improve productivity:




 1. No more transporting files via disk on key;




2. No more transporting bulky printouts when you’re in the field;




3. No more version management headaches;




4. Reduce conference call nightmares; and




5. Prevent work duplication when you come back from a site visit.




But’s what is the actual source of the problem that necessitates these productivity improvement in the first place?  I’ll tell you.  Because most manufacturing companies are heterogeneous, CAD and engineering data is fragmented and located on premise and will not likely move to the cloud anytime time soon.  At least that’s what I am hearing, yet, at the same time, manufacturing companies are struggling to get more value (aka productivity) out of their product data.  It’s my belief that one needs a revolutionary new technology to connect existing on-premise data with cloud technology in such a way that access becomes transparent to on-premise and mobile users alike.  Manufacturing companies should be able take advantage of both cloud and mobile technologies to help them get more out of their CAD and engineering data.  We believe Inforbix can provide a unique (dare I say revolutionary) approach to how on-premise data can be connected to the cloud without it ever leaving it’s on-premise location.  Here’s the architecture that I think makes Inforbix unique:






Inforbix scans, indexes, and provides cloud mobile access to your on-premises CAD files, Excel spreadsheets, cloud storages and databases. Deploying and using Inforbix is easy and requires almost no effort.  Inforbix apps are available using a web browser and on the iPad; Android devices will also be supported soon. Getting started with Inforbix can take as little as 20 minutes (step 1 – 4, above).  Give it try.  Register or demo Inforbix today.






Best, Oleg





		

		
Filed Under: Technology, Trends  Tagged With: , , ,  

	

		


				
Inforbix at SolidWorks World 2012

		
		
February 18, 2012  By  2 Comments 
		

			


We just got back from San Diego where we participated in SolidWorks World 2012.   Kudos to SolidWorks for putting on an amazing show.  This year, about 6000 people attended.  On the exhibition floor, there were 110 partner companies represented, including Inforbix.  For us, it was a great and fun experience.  We had great conversations with engineers, resellers, and DS people.  We even had a chance to demo our solution to DS CEO Bernard Charles.  







We learned much and appreciated all the conversations and positive feedback we received at SWW 2012.  Best of all, as if to highlight how easy it is to get started with Inforbix, some of the visitors we received at our booth have already installed and started using Inforbix.   







Here are some pics from the show:






























We are looking forward to SolidWorks World 2013 in Orlando, FL.  We can’t wait! 







Best, Oleg



		

		
Filed Under: News, Team  Tagged With: , , , , , ,  

	

		


				
Semantic technology vertical apps in manufacturing

		
		
February 16, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			


The Semantic Technology conference gathers professionals from around to world to talk about how semantic technology tackles some of the toughest and most challenging data challenges in industry.  Go here for more info on the conference.  Linking disparate sources of data together is one way semantic technology is applied in practice.  And linked data is a topic that resonates deeply with Inforbix.  It’s how we deploy semantic technology in our apps to infer relationships amongst large amounts of data fragmented within different sources and data-silos in a company.  Here’s a post I wrote that discusses our views on linked-data, Product data, the power is in the link.


As it happens, I’m excited to have been given the opportunity to talk about vertical semantic apps in manufacturing at the upcoming SemTech 2012 in SanFrancisco in June.  Here’s more info on my talk, Semantic Vertical Applications in Manufacturing. Here is the abstract:


Semantic technologies provide the basis for a new way to deliver solutions that help drive innovation and improved decision making. Manufacturing domain oriented ontologies provide an effective way of extracting greater value from complex data by linking and connecting disparate data together in helpful and meaningful ways that improve decision making. Inforbix deploys Semantic Technology in a cloud environment via flexible and granular vertical apps that address specific data related challenges in manufacturing companies. In the session, we will present examples of manufacturing domain-oriented and upper ontologies that help improve innovation and decision making using Inforbix semantic technology apps.


I am looking forward to catching up with many of my friends and colleagues from San Francisco and Silicon Valley.  Let me know if you’re planning to make it.


Best, Oleg

		

		
Filed Under: News  Tagged With: , , , ,  

	

		


				
How Inforbix helps you remain focused on engineering work

		
		
February 15, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			
I’m at SolidWorks World 2012 this week… actually since Saturday. We hope to rock-n-roll at SWW 2012  and learn much from SolidWorks users.  I keep hearing from the engineering community: I want to remain focused on my engineering work and avoid the distractions caused by the technology bits and bytes that’s supposed to help me get my job done.


I was recently reading an interesting article, Let Your Engineers Engineer in Cadalyst posted by one of my Industry buddies, Chad Jackson. The following message caught my attention:


When companies use PDM and PLM systems to manage review processes, engineering staff is freed to focus on product design.


Take some time and read the article. Chad is talking about how PLM-driven process helps people to be focused on actually doing engineering work. Here is my favorite passage:


This is where data-management benefits of PDM (product data management) or PLM (product lifecycle management) systems come into play. Most engineers associate these kinds of capabilities with tracking the versions and iterations of the documents and 3D models. But it can also provide anyone else in the enterprise with access to that same data in a timely manner. For example, most of these types of systems can be setup to only allow non engineering stakeholders to see 3D models once they leave the conceptual stage. So, it’s not just about tracking who made which change in which iteration. PDM and PLM systems can make sure that the very latest version of a design is shown to whomever has access to the design at any given stage of the workflow. This means no more running around throwing the latest drawing into someone’s hands.


The topic of getting access to data is a key one. When everyone can have easy and quick access to the right data, distractions are minimized and effectiveness increases. However, here is the challenge, especially for non-engineering stakeholders in the process, accessing PLM systems to access data is complicated. Moreover, the time associated with figuring out how to access a PLM system is expensive. And besides, the data you need is not always in the PLM system. Your data is most likely spread out amongst file servers, data bases, PDM vaults, and many other places. I think you are familiar with this challenge.  So the question is, how to access data regardless of where it’s located or sourced without distracting away from engineering work.


Inforbix offers an interesting and revolutionary approach that can help. We scan and index product data residing in multiple applications and data stores. It all happens automatically and painlessly. And thanks to product data semantic technologies, we aggregate, combine, connect, and intertwine this data together in useful and meaningful ways. Users gain access to the data they need via Inforbix product data apps.  This way, engineering and non-engineering stakeholders are able to get their job done without distractions or having to learn complicated data systems or worrying about if the data is up to date or not.  Give Inforbix a test drive or register to use Inforbix for free.  If you’re at SWW 2012, visit our booth (#741) and meet us.


Best, Oleg


picture credit Jeroen van Oostrom / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

		

		
Filed Under: Product Data Stories  Tagged With: , , ,  

	

		


				
Inforbix and the iPad in Business

		
		
February 14, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			
Consumerization.  It is an interesting trend happening now. It use to be that most if not all new technology innovation happened in business, defense, or other related fileds.  But within the last ten years, technology innovation has been led by consumer products.  We are being empowered by the many devices and technologies in our everyday life: mobile phones, tablets, the Internet, Web, etc.  The technology is so compelling, useful, simple to use, and powerful that it’s made its way via business users into the enterprise.  After all, business users are users of consumer technology.  I am a prime example.


For me, the iPad is the best example of consumerization. Tablet computers have been with us long time; but not until the iPad, was anyone able to crack the challenge of converging an ugly stillus with a hard to use converted laptop screen.   I’ve recently came across a great story of iPad usage in business I read directly  from the apple.com website, iPad in Business.  Have a read.


The interesting piece of this story, I thought, is the usage example of Autodesk WS. You may have noticed the following pictures when watching the video in the article:






From the example I noticed, however, there is a gap between having access to the information and to the actual data.  But that very gap is what excites me the most and resonates with what we’ve developed at Inforbix.  The amount of information associated with any project is typically huge.  It is not only about how one connects or accesses CAD drawings, but having an ability aggregate, access, find, and use the right information at the right moment within a project. You are probably familiar with the challenge: “here’s a view of the drawing… but where is it and how can I access other relevant data associated with it?”


Even though AutoCAD WS gives you access to a particular CAD drawing on the web, there is no ability to search and connect to relevant but non-AutoCAD WS data and files (eg. AutoCAD, SolidWorks, SolidEdge and many others CAD files located in your company).  That’s the gap I’m talking about.  Would you agree?


At Inforbix we develop the Inforbix iPad app to give you a robust ability find and use CAD drawings on the go. Powered by Inforbix product data semantic technologies, scanning and indexing information within your company, the iPad app allows you to find information as quickly as you can find information on the Internet with Google.




If you’re an existing customer, read a previous post, How to connect to the Inforbix Mobile iPad app to use the iPad app.  If you’re new to Inforbix, download and install the Inforbix iPad app on the App store and try the built-in demo – it’s free.  Try it and enjoy.  Please don’t forget to get back to us and share what you think about the iPad app. Just click on this link to give us your feedback. We would love to know what do you think.   If you’re at SWW 2012, come by our booth #741.  We’ll give you a personal demo.


Best, Oleg

		

		
Filed Under: Applications  Tagged With: , ,  

	

		


				
Inforbix and the power of engineering lists

		
		
February 13, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			
Lists… do you like them?  I like (actually, I need) them very much.  Our lives seem to be organized by lists: email lists, to-do lists, parts lists, drawing lists, etc. Actually, I recently discovered, lists are an important part of our culture.  Navigate to the following link, 127 reasons why we are fascinated by lists on the awl blog. Gorgeous story, in my view.  Reading the article, I had difficulties deciding what my favorite example of “list usage” is. So I decided to be a little conservative: I took two examples.  One is related to Google and sharing photos on social networks.


Here’s an excerpt from the post:


Even the way we navigate the Internet and get information—by typing a query into a search engine—results in a stack of links. If you use Google, you’ll get anywhere from one to three more lists on the left side of the page, representing ways to edit and refine your search. At the bottom, a two-column list of related searches will appear, and below that a horizontal list of more pages. You are boxed in. The list is inescapable. It is helpful, but it is also confining, organized yet overwhelming. On the Internet, the consummate mechanism for controlling chaos struggles not to become a form of chaos itself.


A lot of this became a question of, would people want to share their lists publicly, and would that be the majority? We had to figure out what the overall picture would be.” In the end, as with so much of the Internet, the overall picture was public sharing.


Now let me talk about my second example, engineering lists. Excel is the mainstream and well known app that gives engineers a tool to create lists. You can create  whatever list you want.  And no doubt, you do.  Actually, everyone uses Excel or similar, to create lists. But what is the challenge with Excel or spreadsheet lists in general?  That’s right, you need an Chief Excel Officer to ensure all these Excel lists are kept updated and available.


This is where Inforbix sees the intersection of lists and engineering work.  Inforbix gives you the ability to create lists in a most painless and cost effective way. After Inforbix Product Data Crawlers index and scan product data from your CAD drawings, PDM and PLM systems, you can use the Inforbix Tables app to create your own lists. And here’s the best part: Inforbix automatically keeps your lists updated, you or anyone need not do a thing. Here’s a screen shot of a list of approved CAD drawings, updated automatically anytime something changes.


 




Inforbix Tables can also extract lists from your CAD drawing BOMs. Take a look at the following screen-shot.  Inforbix extracted this BOM table from a CAD drawing without any user intervention. You just tell Inforbix to generate a table report from one or more CAD drawings and it just happens:




 




Inforbix can do more magic with lists, but let’s keep that for another blog post.




Conclusion.  Lists that are automatically kept updated.  Feels like a dream?  It’s reality, not a dream. Try creating some lists with Inforbix today, give it a test drive and see for yourself. If you are at SolidWorks World this week, visit us in the Partners Pavilion booth 741.  We look forward to seeing you.




Best, Oleg

		

		
Filed Under: Applications  Tagged With: , ,  

	

		


				
Look ma, no hands! Inforbix, SolidWorks and invisible data management…

		
		
February 10, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			
Inforbix is beating a path to SolidWorks World 2012 in San Diego this weekend. The SolidWorks community is a special one; I always enjoy attending SolidWorks World. No other event collects so many talented manufacturing professionals together.  I’ve recently read an interview with the new SolidWorks VP R&D, Gian Paolo Bassi by Randal Newton of GFXSpeak. Navigate to the following link and have a read.


My super favorite passage from the interview relates to PDM. Here is the passage from the interview:


GfxS: SolidWorks has been creating product data management (PDM) tools for years, but it seems as if only recently that average users are taking an interest. How will PDM evolve at SolidWorks under your leadership?


GPB: PDM should be as transparent as possible. When you design things, you create relationships. You should not have to re-define all those relationships in a PDM program. PDM should not be seen as a storage tool, it should be a source to manage intellectual property. Look at what Dassault has done with the V6 platform. There is no file system anymore. That is a huge change. Instead of worrying about where things go, you have a system that automatically manages intellectual property (IP) and lets you leverage it and use it to collaborate. PDM as a tool has to go away; it has to become very efficient at the management of IP in design. It has to be integrated into design tools. Check-in and check-out should be automatic. The systems already in place for consumer products, like photo sharing and gaming, should be our inspiration. Look at banking; who goes to the bank these days? Your money is ‘up there’ and you access it when you need it. The same thing must happen in the design world.


Well, I am really looking forward to hear how Gian Paolo will introduce the SolidWorks-V6-ENOVIA product.  It’s going to be interesting.  However, as it is, I think Inforbix is doing some very cool things that are available today. Inforbix’s product data semantic cloud technology keeps track of all the work engineers do in SolidWorks in an invisible and transparent fashion that doesn’t distract designers and engineers from the creative process.


Okay, let me describe what I mean.  Imagine you are designing an assembly using SolidWorks.  Here it is:


 




Inforbix quickly scans and indexes your assembly design the moment you save it.  The operation is automatic and transparent.  It doesn’t require any hand-holding of a data management system.  That’s because you “told” Inforbix to monitor all on-premise CAD drawings using our Product Data Crawler:




 




…And within literally seconds of saving your assembly design, the updated design and corresponding data is available for you to slice and dice using any of our Inforbix product data apps, in this case, using Inforbix Tables:




 




Conclusion. Inforbix’s semantic and cloud technology makes data management for SolidWorks users invisible and transparent.  It’s a “no-hands” form of data management, or said another way, data management without the management.  We would like to invite you to our booth at Solidworks World 2012 (741) and try Inforbix with your own hands (or actually, with no hands :) ). We are looking forward to seeing you at SolidWorks World 2012 in San Diego next week. In the meantime, give Inforbix a test drive.




Best, Oleg

		

		
Filed Under: Applications  Tagged With: , ,  

	

		


				
How Inforbix helps expand product data search in SolidWorks EPDM

		
		
February 9, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			
Inforbix is looking forward to attending SolidWorks World 2012 in few days. We are preparing some very cool announcements (shhhhh… stay tuned).  We’re big Solidworks fans and are exploring useful ways Inforbix can provide even more value to SolidWorks users.  I’ve been reading the SolidWorks blog post, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012: Integrated Search in Windows Explorer. In the article, SolidWorks presents some very cool features how EPDM can help users search for a relevant part of a SolidWorks design (e.g. part, assembly, drawing, etc) and how EPDM can be natively embedded into Windows explorer.  Have a look at the following video to get an idea of what I mean:




Inforbix has also some ideas of how to help SolidWorks users find and re-use data.  We are taking a combined web & cloud & mobile approach.  Inforbix can help you keep track of all product data (including SolidWorks Drawings, Parts, Assemblies, etc.) located everywhere in your company, including within EPDM; and help you find and re-use data the moment you need it. Take a look at the following short videos:






What is our take on both SolidWorks’ and our approach for accessing product data? Windows Explorer is cool and the ability to integrate EPDM search into Windows Explorer sounds to us as a useful feature. Moreover, we would like to suggest an additional way to expand the possibilities of data access using web and mobile technologies as well as increasing the ability and flexibility for Solidworks users to get more value from their product data. This is Inforbix’s value prop. Inforbix can both serve as a complimentary addition to EPDM search and also be a completely independent system for product data access.  Learn more about Inforbix when attending SWW 2012. Make sure to visit us at booth number 741 and talk to us.  And before you take off for San Diego, you might want to consider giving Inforbix a test-drive.


Best, Oleg

		

		
Filed Under: Applications  Tagged With: , , ,  

	

		


				
New Inforbix Product Data App – Dashboards

		
		
February 9, 2012  By  Leave a Comment 
		

			
Aggregating, accessing, and monitoring information from disparate sources plays an important role in decision making within manufacturing companies.  Having the ability to simultaneously access or monitor different pieces of important information aggregated from multiple places could be very valuable in decision making.  For example, a Project Manager might be interested in monitoring and as necessary, accessing, a list of updated CAD drawings, approvals, and ECOs.  However, the challenge a Project Manager usually encounters is figuring out how to quickly aggregate all this information together and effectively access or monitor current information such that it provides value.




For such a challenge, we developed Inforbix Dashboard. It’s our new app that allows you to aggregate Tables and Charts into a single screen in such a way that accessing and monitoring up to date information is easy and effective.  Here’s a short video to introduce you to Dashboards:








One of the important characteristic of Inforbix Dashboards is its ease of use. It takes just few clicks to aggregate information from Tables and Charts and expose them as individual dashboards on a single screen.  Here’s a screenshot of the Inforbix Dashboards app.  Note that there are six individual dashboards on a single screen (that’s why we call the app Inforbix Dashboards):




 




Conclusion. Inforbix continues to think of easy and powerful ways to help you get the most from your product data.  Do you think Inforbix Dashboards would be helpful to you and your company?  Give Inforbix Dashboards a test-drive today.  And let us know what you think.




Best, Oleg

		

		
Filed Under: Applications  Tagged With: , ,  

	

	    

« Older Posts