Published on the 16/05/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
The vendors have tapped in to the growing cloud manufacturing trend that will see almost half of all manufacturers using SaaS by 2015…
The provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, and the cloud-based design and engineering software vendor have announced a strategic alliance to offer manufacturing companies integration of their two products: Autodesk PLM 360 and NetSuite ERP.
In a joint statement the companies said: ”The integration between Autodesk’s PLM 360, a next-generation cloud-based product lifecycle management solution and NetSuite’s cloud business management solution, including NetSuite Manufacturing Edition, is a major breakthrough in delivering an end-to-end cloud-based solution for ideation, design, manufacturing, service, multi-channel sales, and beyond, to the manufacturing industry.”
Market research shows manufacturers are increasingly turning to cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to run product development, production, supply chain, order management, financials and other core business applications without the time and cost burden of on-premise software and servers. Gartner predicts that nearly half (47 percent) of manufacturers worldwide will be using or piloting SaaS applications by 2015, up from just two percent in 2010.*
“Nimble manufacturers are disrupting the industry with technologies and techniques to accelerate product development and delivery and drive customer-centric innovation while controlling costs,” said Roman Bukary, NetSuite VP of manufacturing and distribution. “NetSuite and Autodesk’s integrated PLM / ERP offers manufacturers the broadest cloud-based business management solution, enabling end-to-end visibility and tremendous gains in speed, efficiency and, most importantly, innovation.”
Brenda Discher, VP of manufacturing iIndustry strategy and marketing at Autodesk said, “More than 50 percent of product costs are locked in during the design phase. The integration of our technologies will empower manufacturers to reduce overall costs and improve quality, while better understanding and adapting to fast-changing customer demands.”
By uniting product lifecycle management (PLM) with enterprise resource planning (ERP), Autodesk and NetSuite said they are enabling manufacturers to:
- Speed the cycle from concept to design to delivery, and finally recycle: Product concept, design and engineering data in Autodesk PLM 360, once released, feeds into NetSuite manufacturing to assemble bills of materials (BOMs), source components, assess capacity and more, with role-based authorisation across both PLM and ERP systems.
- Bridge the gap between PLM and ERP: Though leading manufacturers depend on both PLM and ERP solutions, integration between the two has traditionally been one way, depriving companies of the opportunities to improve performance and profitability. Autodesk and NetSuite bridge the gap between PLM and ERP with an integrated closed-loop solution.
- Sharpen costing and pricing: On-demand visibility into component and production data, as well as forecasting and demand planning, shared across PLM and ERP systems means manufacturers can optimise their costing and pricing.
- Enable intelligent change management: Integration between Autodesk PLM 360 and NetSuite ERP gives designers, engineers, and multi-tier partners as well as other stakeholders a scalable platform where changes are properly documented, propagated and managed in both PLM and downstream manufacturing.
- Enable a virtuous circle of innovation: Feedback from customers and partners captured in NetSuite CRM, service and PSA modules helps designers and engineers to improve the product.
For more thoughts on disrutption in the ERP industry, read Brett Robert’s column Who cares about ERP?
