Avid Pro/INTRALINK Advisor Site Reader: “Hey, PTC, tell me about a customer that is using Windchill 8.0.”

Shoemaker (who now must retroactively update his bio to root for that other Pennsylvania football team): “Sure. Let’s talk about Trane.”

APIASR: “OK, go for it.”

Shoemaker: “Well, Trane Residential Systems is a pretty cool company (bad pun fully intended). As you may know, they make central air conditioning and other climate control equipment. It’s the kind of product you really appreciate on a mid-afternoon 95 degree/99 percent humidity day in July here in the Northeast.

“Anyway, they have a bunch of different design centers, including one at headquarters in Tyler, Texas (it get really hot there); each uses its own instance of Pro/INTRALINK. Trane wanted to improve data sharing and concurrent engineering. Additionally, they wanted to better meld engineering and PDM tasks.”

Reader: “Let me guess, they went to Pro/INTRALINK 8.0?”

Shoemaker: “Yes and No. They acquired all the capabilities of Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 (such as better wide-area-network performance, and more streamlined interaction with Pro/ENGINEER), but because they also were considering near term needs beyond workgroup data management, such as change management improvements, they decided to go to Windchill PDMLink 8.0.”

Reader: “Has it been a good move for them?”

Shoemaker: “Yes, and thanks for the great question!! (as this marketing guy tries in vain not to appear too transparent…) I was hoping you’d ask that! Well, so far, they’ve seen a few really nice benefits. First, they’ve consolidated the 3 Pro/INTRALINK instances down to 1 database. This enables a much cleaner solution and will help them in terms of reducing ongoing administration and system maintenance. It’s a real win for the IT and Pro/INTRALINK admin team! Also, since they now have a much more immersive CAD-PDM environment, they’ve realized better end-user productivity, and a total elimination of jumping back and forth between Pro/ENGINEER and Pro/INTRALINK clients. Plus, there’s total product information clarity. There’s no redundant processes, data, or guesswork involved in determining where are/who has the proper versions of files.”

Reader: “OK, I see. How’d they do it: by themselves or with PTC help?”

Shoemaker: “Trane partnered with PTC’s Global Service team, which got them up and running quickly via a packaged, pre-configured Windchill PDMLink installation and set-up service offering. Plus, PTC worked with Trane to perform the data migration to a single database with data replication.”

Reader: “Sounds great. What’s next for Trane?”

Shoemaker: “Future opportunities will focus on document management, change management, and continuing to make sure the hottest parts of the world stay cool.”