Global Views deploys PLM: automates design process, product data storage
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Plymouth, Massachusetts and Dallas, Texas– Global Views, Inc., an industry leader in the decorative accessory industry and PLMresearch, a leading Small to Midsize Enterprise (SME) eBusiness consulting firm, announce the successful deployment of their Internet based product development portal system. The Portal facilitates the efforts of Global Views’ designers, suppliers and manufacturers in their challenge to bring new product to market faster by syndicating information out to Global Views’ value chain partners anytime, anywhere via a standard browser (e.g. Internet Explorer™ or Netscape™).
“We travel around the world identifying the most beautiful, diverse and high quality home accessories available in the market today”, explained David Gebhart, President of Global Views, Inc, “and our designers rely upon a vast network of suppliers and agents to bring these unique accessories into the home. As our business has expanded, the administrative burden involved in coordinating information from so many disparate sources has become intense. That intensity typically surfaces during the run up to Market or a catalog shoot”, Gebhart added, “when all product information – dimensions, photos, samples, delivery status – needed to be compiled and coordinated. Now, the Portal will become the repository of all that product information, allowing us to focus upon the product and not product administration”.
Button, button, who’s got the button…
“It’s not uncommon for companies to segregate product information across departmental line”, stated Mark Withington, Principal of PLMresearch. “Traditionally, different groups record product information incumbent to their function roles - Marketing manages price, promotion, and distribution information; Design manages color, size, shape attributes; Finance manages standard costs, and so on…” Unfortunately, these ad hoc systems [typically recorded in MS Excel™ spreadsheets] lack inter-departmental visibility and coordination”.
“We needed a centralized location where all [authorized] product design stakeholders could view and edit product design information. Unfortunately, emailing spreadsheets lacked that capability”, stated Gebhart. “We anticipate that the design Portal will coordinate all our design efforts and product information needs. Simply stated, everyone will be singing from the same sheet music in real-time”.
“This kind of functionality falls under the heading of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) ”, added Withington. “PLM facilitates interaction and collaboration between value chain partners – vendors, R&D, logistics, etc – and is becoming particularly important for companies that are utilizing an outsourced business model. Furthermore, the byproduct of PLM [a codified database of product information] can then become the basis of online catalogs, Customer Relationship Management portals, Point of Sale systems and the input to existing in-house systems like Enterprise Resource Planning.
“We will base Global Views product development portal on an open source platform, allowing us to deploy PLM capabilities at a fraction of the cost typically associated with such an effort”, explained Withington.
Unlike traditional shrink-wrap software licensed products, open source provides
coding stability along with the flexibility for customization that, until
now, has been available only to large enterprises with equally large budgets. Used
in conjunction with PLMresearch’s Rapid Development Methodology (RDM), open
source development is an excellent alternative for the SME to base their
mission critical applications.
About Global Views
Global Views, Inc. (founded in 1996), designs, sources and distributes accent
pieces to beautify living environments. Its culture is dedicated to building
a profitable company that values and rewards individuals who help provide
outstanding services to its customers, in an environment that emphasizes
creativity, social responsibility and serenity.
Global Views’ designers unleash their creative spirit and talent in virtually
any medium they can imagine. From iron and stone to wood and wax, Global
Views sets few limits on its design team, yielding a creative freedom of
experimentation that is almost unheard of in the accessories industry.
An important factor that makes Global Views a market leader is its ongoing
commitment to innovation. This commitment is clear in every facet of the
company, including design, sales and marketing, and industry promotion. It
is this constant search for innovative solutions that has catapulted Global
Views to its position as a leading design resource for the home.
About PLMresearch
PLMresearch assists midsize enterprises evaluate, design and deploy cost
effective eBusiness initiatives - Internet technology that automates their
current inter-business processes. It works with its clients to help them
understand how the Internet can leverage their current internal IT systems
such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Materials Resource Planning
(MRP), to accelerate sales and marketing channels, promote product design
collaboration, foster materials sourcing and facilitate supply chain management.
PLMresearch is a privately held company founded by Mark Withington in 2000. It
is a virtual organization of principles whose background covers application,
database and web design, security, systems administration, and business process
consulting. The company is a strong advocate of the open source movement
and is a frequent contributor to the foundries and forums of the packages
that it uses. It feels that the flexibility and low cost that open source
provides promotes vendor independence and therefore reinforces PLMresearch’s
position as a trusted technical advisor to its clients.
