On June 1, Aras hosted Peter Bilello, president and CEO of CIMdata for a highly informative and engaging webinar discussing the new generation of SaaS PLM systems. CIMdata refers to these contemporary offerings as having “on-premises capability with cloud scalability.” In the webinar “The Business Benefits of Generation 2 SaaS PLM”, Peter defined the key elements of a Generation 2 SaaS PLM solution and reviewed the reasons these capabilities are necessary for a PLM solution to continue to deliver value to organizations over time. The chart below was presented comparing the evolution of SaaS PLM solutions.
Peter and I discussed the Aras Enterprise SaaS offering and how it meets, and even surpasses the CIMdata definition of a Generation 2 SaaS PLM solution. We examined how the Aras Enterprise SaaS offering provides customers with the full functionality and configurability of the Aras Innovator solution in the cloud while simultaneously allowing customers to upgrade on their own schedules. We also explored some unique components of the offering such as the inclusion of Aras DevOps as a means to automate and optimize the system change processes and power a DevOps culture. Peter described this distinctive part of the offering as “…providing a complete and functioning pipeline to enable the developers to configure Aras and continue to provide additional value to the business.”
This webinar was developed after an earlier Aras webinar, “Is Fully Configurable SaaS for PLM Possible on the Cloud,” where Peter briefly discussed the emergence of a new generation of cloud-based SaaS PLM. Since there were multiple requests to explore this topic further, Aras asked Peter to return and discuss the subject in more detail.
You can read more about CIMdata’s thoughts in their commentary, Aras Enterprise SaaS: A Gen 2 Leader. In addition, a replay of “The Business Benefits of Generation 2 SaaS PLM” webinar can be found here.
Hot topics and takeaways:
From Peter’s concluding remarks:
From the Q&A:
- Will Aras include all of the solutions in the current version of Aras Innovator in the SaaS version?
- Yes, all of the applications, platform services, and components are available now in Aras Enterprise SaaS.
- Do you think PLM solution providers will eventually stop supporting their on-premise products?
- “Yes. The movement of enterprise software, not just PLM is to SaaS. You just see it. The writing has been on the wall for a few years now. We now have solutions that are clearly capable of doing that now in the PLM space.”
- Does Aras Enterprise SaaS have any security certifications?
- Yes, Aras Enterprise SaaS guarantees the security, availability, and confidentiality of critical data with ISO 27001, SOC2 and CSA STAR certifications. This minimizes the exposure of sensitive information and the risk of a data breach.