Fall Release Introduces Four Unique Solutions that Translate to a Powerful Competitive Advantage for Companies of All Sizes

FOSTER CITY, Calif., November 7, 2013 — Arena, the pioneer of cloud product lifecycle management (PLM) applications, introduces four unique new solutions — Arena Demand, Arena Projects, Arena Exchange, and Arena API —as part of the Fall 2013 Release; individually, these applications allow manufacturers to aggregate material demand, project manage with greater visibility, securely share comprehensive manufacturing build packages across the supply chain team, and integrate their business systems with BOMControl; collectively, these products represent a paradigm shift in how manufacturers embrace PLM solutions to transform their manufacturing operations and maximize business results.

“This Fall 2013 release delivers fundamentally new and unique PLM and Supply Chain solutions to all our highly innovative customers,” says Craig Livingston, Arena CEO. “The four solutions that are incorporated in this release address some of the most important manufacturing challenges of our time, giving our customers more tools to succeed in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.”

The Fall 2013 release has already received accolades from PLM industry experts.

“The Fall 2013 release is a giant leap in Arena’s product roadmap that both delivers a distinct competitive advantage to manufacturers as well as differentiates Arena from other PLM providers,” says Shaun Snapp, consultant and researcher at SCM Focus. And according to Chad Jackson, Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights, “Arena (Exchange) is an evolutionary step from traditional sharing spaces for PLM systems.”

The Fall 2013 release follows on the recent news that Arena was ranked as both a “ Top Ten PLM Solution Provider” and a “ Top Five Supply Chain Collaboration Software.” Arena was also recognized as the most affordable solution in both reports. Here is an overview of the four new and unique products introduced within the Fall 2013 release:

• Arena Demand — provides manufacturers with part visibility to calculate aggregated component needs for their entire product portfolio so they can better negotiate with their suppliers and contract manufacturers
• Arena Projects — connects the project schedule directly to the product record to increase visibility and accountability for new product introductions, quality improvement processes, and cost reduction projects
• Arena Exchange — offers OEMs a secure, flexible and traceable environment for collaboration with multiple users at different supplier levels throughout their global supply chain
• Arena API — expands the information value chain captured in Arena PLM by allowing customers to develop lightweight and flexible integrations from their enterprise application infrastructure to Arena PLM

Steve Chalgren, Arena’s Vice President of Product Management and Strategy, lists “improved visibility” as one of the themes and key benefits of the Fall 2013 release.

“When OEMs outsource their manufacturing, they outsource their material planning, leaving them blind to the total quantity of parts they'll buy over the next year,” says Chalgren. “Arena Demand provides OEMs with parts visibility across product lines to calculate aggregate material demand to better negotiate with their suppliers. Similarly, Arena Projects empowers OEM’s with greater visibility so they can simply see what is going on in all their development teams.”

Another theme of the Fall 2013 release is the importance of securely sharing product data that, according to Chalgren, applies to both the exchange of information across supply chain teams as well as transfer of data from Arena PLM to other business systems. “While OEMs want efficient supply chain approval processes, they may not want to give more than just their primary supply chain contacts access to their PLM system,” says Chalgren, “Arena Exchange allows OEMs using any PLM system to forward and share build packages across the supply chain without burdensome user provisioning, enabling more secure and robust team collaboration, resulting better new product introductions; similarly, with Arena API, customers can open a portal from their ERP or other business system directly to access BOMControl data.”

Arena’s PLM solutions helps manufacturers of all sizes realize the benefit of manufacturing in the cloud by providing customers up to 70% reduction in ECO cycle times and a 20% reduction in time to market. Arena helped Sierra Wireless streamline its supply chain processes so dramatically; they were able to release 173 new products in the first year.

While these metrics are compelling, the measurable impact of Arena’s cloud-based PLM solution is, according to Kent Killmer, Arena Vice President of Marketing, poised to become even more eye opening; he believes the introduction of these four new products will generate increasingly compelling ROI metrics for manufacturers considering an investment in PLM rather than their traditional use of excel worksheets, emails and faxes.

“With the expansion of the Arena PLM product base, we continue to attract larger global enterprise customers.  As testament to that claim, Q3 2013 average sales price was a full 43% higher than Q3 2012,” says Killmer. “Savvy executives wanting to experience savings of consequence for even the most robust enterprise challenges will be bringing the microscope down on Arena – in some cases discovering not only significant savings – but more features as well.”

To see more information about all the enhancements and new features in the Fall 2013 release please visit www.arenasolutions.com  

About Arena Solutions

Arena pioneered cloud PLM applications. The company’s broad product offerings enable engineering and manufacturing teams and their extended supply chains to speed prototyping, reduce scrap, and streamline supply chain management. Arena cloud PLM applications simplify bill of materials and change management for companies of all sizes, and offer the right balance of flexibility and control at every point in the product lifecycle—from prototype to full-scale production. Based in Foster City, Calif., Arena has been ranked as a Top 10 PLM solution, Top 5 Supply Chain Collaboration solution and also holds a spot on the San Francisco Business Times’ Best Places to Work List for 2013.

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