Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0

An Interview with Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President of Technical Marketing, PTC 

Kicking off the PTC/USER World Event, PTC’s Jim Heppelmann announced the launch of its next-generation data management solution, Pro/INTRALINK 8.0. Later in the week, PTC/USER Executive Director Rick Snider sat down with Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President of Technical Marketing, to talk over some of the strategic implications of this breakthrough release.

RICK: Brian, thanks for taking the time to talk us. What are your thoughts on how Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 fits into PTC’s vision for workgroup and enterprise data management?

BRIAN:  Our vision for engineering workgroup and enterprise data management is to enable customers to utilize their digital product content easily, securely, and with high performance in a way that’s most suitable to them. Historically for PTC, as with other vendors in the market, this meant employing two different solutions—a workgroup solution that was robust in its ability to manage the complexity and associativity of the CAD models, and an enterprise solution that elevated engineering content, enabling broader access across multiple departments. 

We have found that our customers have begun to outgrow this type of deployment, which is frankly less than optimal since it entails two disparate databases, and an integration between them that must be constantly maintained. Our vision is to enable one solution to deliver superior workgroup and enterprise capabilities to meet the growing needs of our customers. Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 is at the very heart of this vision. 

RICK: How do Pro/INTRALINK, the Workgroup Manager for Pro/ENGINEER, and Windchill PDMLink fit together within this vision?

BRIAN: We released Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 and a new Windchill version (Windchill 8.0) at the same time. Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 is now a subset of the capabilities (i.e., those focused on Pro/ENGINEER data management) of Windchill PDMLink. Basically, we merged the strengths of Windchill and the strengths Pro/INTRALINK 3.x. Now, since Windchill PDMLink 8.0 (via Pro/INTRALINK 8.0) inherits the rich Pro/ENGINEER data management capabilities of Pro/INTRALINK 3.x, there is no need for the Pro/ENGINEER Workgroup Manager. The Pro/ENGINEER Workgroup Manager, however, is still a perfectly viable and supported solution for customers currently using Windchill 7.0 or earlier versions.

RICK: What are the functional improvements and performance advantages of Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 over previous releases?

BRIAN: Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 provides many improvements over previous releases, including greatly streamlined interaction with Pro/ENGINEER, improved WAN performance (2.3 times faster than Pro/INTRALINK 3.x), advanced security, improved access to non-engineering users via a standard web browser, better document/lifecycle management capabilities, and improved scalability.

RICK: Can you further discuss the interaction with Pro/ENGINEER?

BRIAN: The level of Pro/ENGINEER integration is much stronger in Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 than in Pro/INTRALINK 3.x. For example, users can now access all of their Pro/ENGINEER data management tasks from within the embedded Pro/ENGINEER browser, even to the extent of “dragging and dropping” files from the browser into the Pro/ENGINEER graphics window. There is no longer a separate thick client, which requires going back and forth between the two applications. In fact, due to this highly immersive environment, common tasks now require 40% fewer mouse clicks on average than in past versions. 

RICK: Do software licenses for Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 float the same way as in Pro/INTRALINK 3.x?

BRIAN: Yes. Pro/INTRALINK 8.0, just like Pro/INTRALINK 3.x, is based on concurrent user licensing.

RICK: What tools will PTC make available to support data migration? What additional license, training, support, and consulting costs will be required to make the transition?

BRIAN: PTC has developed a comprehensive set of tools, services, and training packages to help customers in the migration process. For customers who choose to perform the migration themselves, we have pre-configured offerings consisting of a production-proven data migration tool, training, and other valuable intellectual property developed by our experts in global services. Other customers may decide to utilize the experience of PTC’s global services or our certified migration partners to perform the migration. 

RICK: Is there any method to assess the return on investment for this migration?

BRIAN: As with any technology implementation, predetermined assessments of ROI are highly dependant on numerous factors. With respect to this release, here are some thought-provoking questions that customers may want to consider: 

• How important is distributed product development to our company?
• How much do we care about WAN performance and security? 
• How much benefit would we gain by consolidating multiple Pro/INTRALINK 3.x instances? 
• How much more will our engineers be able to focus on design or engineering if the PDM system is a more natural part of Pro/ENGINEER and the design process? 
• How important is it to provide product information access to non-engineering groups like marketing and purchasing? 

It is in these areas where the new, Windchill-based Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 offers outstanding potential returns.

RICK: Can users decide to switch from Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 to Windchill PDMLink in the future if the business need warrants it? Will this require another data migration?

BRIAN: That’s part of the beauty of this approach. Just like Pro/ENGINEER is seamlessly scalable from a 2-seat to a 1,000-seat implementation, so too is PTC’s data management capability. This means that once a customer has migrated to Pro/INTRALINK 8.0, there is no additional data migration necessary to take advantage of Windchill capabilities found in Windchill PDMLink. Naturally, though, the amount of effort to then deploy Windchill PDMLink depends on the degree to which customers seek to optimize their product development processes (for example, change management, which is available in Windchill PDMLink, but not in Pro/INTRALINK), and/or to describe product structures more fully.

RICK: Why might a customer choose to move directly to Windchill PDMLink?

BRIAN: Customers with requirements beyond Pro/ENGINEER data management may decide that the right course of action is to migrate from Pro/INTRALINK 3.x directly to Windchill PDMLink. Windchill PDMLink extends the data management capabilities beyond those available in Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 by including powerful enterprise data management, including the ability to manage heterogeneous MCAD, ECAD, and software data, as well and engineering process management capabilities (e.g., change and configuration management).

RICK: Brian, can you say what the future holds for Pro/INTRALINK?

BRIAN: Because Pro/INTRALINK and Windchill now share a common code base, Pro/INTRALINK is now on the PTC mainstream development path benefiting from a much more efficient, quality-driven process. Without providing specific guarantees, we’re making headway along the lines of better support for distributed product development, and further enhancing specific Pro/ENGINEER data management capabilities. Stay tuned!

RICK: Will customers be required to move from Pro/INTRALINK 3.x? What is the timeframe before PTC stops supporting 3.x?

BRIAN: We have received excellent feedback from our customers regarding Pro/INTRALINK 8.0. They see it as an opportunity to improve the performance of the technology they already own, and provide a clear path for their use of the Product Development System throughout the enterprise. We are giving customers plenty of time to make the move, because we recognize that with the benefits of this release comes the need for a data migration. PTC is therefore doubling the amount of time for support of a maintenance development stream to enable customers to make a carefully considered, measured transition. PTC will continue to support the Pro/INTRALINK 3.x stream (with technical support and maintenance builds) until June 2008. 

RICK: How might Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 impact customers using third-party data management tools?

BRIAN: Because Pro/INTRALINK now shares the same underlying technology as Windchill PDMLink, customers should take the opportunity to consider their mid- to long-term needs. In this scenario, for example, the best option might be to bypass Pro/INTRALINK 8.0, choosing instead to move to Windchill PDMLink. In this way, customers may be able to completely eliminate their reliance on a third-party PDM/PLM tool, preferring the single database approach that only PTC makes possible.

[Editor's Note: As of press time, PTC has updated the migration options for those customers interested in leading the migration themselves.  This is based on the feedback that you, the users, gave PTC through the Pro/INTRALINK Advisor site and the PTC/USER exploder.  For all the details, check out Jim Heppelmann’s blog on http://www.ptc.com/community/prointralink8/index.htm]

RICK: Clearly, this release will have a major impact on customers. Brian, thanks again for sharing your insights on Pro/INTRALINK with us.