The Debt Deal has been “resolved” and it’s time deal with the aftermath. With the mix of caps, cuts, borrowing, ceilings, etc., sorting it out will take months, perhaps years, but one thing is very clear: Defense spending will be hi...

Walking the floor at SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio I saw some outstanding examples of cool product design, and heard more cool stories and great discussions about 3D design and product innovation in the breakout sessions. But what really got m…

I’ve been in the PLM business for more than 20 years.  A lot has changed in that time, like the fact that we call it PLM now. But one thing that has not changed is that customers are always (always) surprised by the cost. Even now, after A...

Yes, There’s Value in the Cloud. And it’s Way More Than Just Fancy Hosting. Right now, the buzz in the business world is all about cloud enablement - hosting, storage, etc., and establishing the infrastructure of the cloud. Frankly, I don...

Yesterday Deelip and others from the 3D Insiders' Summit 2010 tweeted this quote from an automotive CIO: "CAD geometry is 1/20 of what it takes to produce and maintain a part.” My reaction?  EXACTLY!!  And we’ve been sa...

Since Aras moved to an open source distribution model in 2007, I’ve had more than one exasperated CIO ask me why I won’t “sell” him my software.  This always makes me laugh a little, after all, who likes being SOLD anythi...

In a typical 10,000 person company there are probably 50-100 full-time 3D CAD engineers. So how come these few CAD users and their CAD software vendors so often drive the selection of an enterprise PLM system that will likely touch thousands of users…

Every once in a while, I get a call from a CIO who says “my team is looking at your software.  We like it and it works well, but I’m a little concerned about going with open source.” The first thing I tell them is that open sou...

In a recent post his blog, PLM Think Tank, Oleg Shilovitsky wrote about the PLM Open Source Tradeoff.  I shared my thoughts on the piece and I am wondering what you think. Here’s what I think… “I’m old enough to remember when the safest decision in

I am frequently asked whether PLM or specifically Aras Innovator, can be or should be used for software development. Here's an answer I emailed in response to this morning's inquiry. Aras Corp uses Innovator internally for nearly everything e...

The traditional Open Source projects are collaborations on infrastructure software (e.g. Linux operating system, JBOSS middleware, MySQL database), while the software applications needed to run a business are still tightly controlled, proprietary sys…

What impresses me the most about open source is the change in relationship between the software developer and the end users.   Without a sales-person in the middle, this is a healthier relationship built on collaboration, not on cash extrac...

A significant problem facing corporate IT today is the vast numbers of power-user and end-user developed business applications written in Notes, ColdFusion, MS-Access or Excel.  Why do the end-users continue to build these micro-applications?&nb...

Welcome to the Aras Corporate Blog. We started this blog to share our thoughts, get your insights, and have some fun with the topic of enterprise software solutions. We all know a change has been needed for some time, yet no one has clearly identifie…

Greetings, and welcome to the Aras Technology blog. Here is where you’ll find tips, tricks, musings and evangelism about the Aras Innovator enterprise application framework and technology – Innovator for short. We’ll strive to make ...