Hi All,

This topic had been discussed already and for number of times, I did go through few threads, but here it is:  Which PDM is best suit for small business to manage SW/AutoCAD/Non-CAD Documents - WorkGroup PDM or ePDM?

The organization is as below:

- Designer team of about 20

- Overall organization strength is about 180

- Uses Solidworks and AutoCAD as Design packages

- Involves Change Management process (ECR, ECN, etc.,)

- Involves Numbering, Revision schemes

- Involves NON-CAD Documents (belonging to various departments of the organization including non-cad departments)

- Involves Approval process for CAD and Non-CAD documents (that means lifecycle and Change Control)

- Non-CAD people will require to view CAD data (that of drawings)

- The product is not highly complicated as it is a small/medium scale business

- Need a platform where all departments (CAD as well as non-CAD) to collaborate their information in a controlled environment

Need to know which Solidworks PDM package would best suit for this business - WorkGroup PDM or ePDM??

Though I had mentioned that Change Management, Change Control, lifecycle, Non-CAD documents, etc., the processes are pretty much simple and organization is also pretty much lean.

Upon doing my bit of research, ePDM provides full scale PDM functionalities would even cater for bigger organizations with heavy products.  Gives us much powerful capabilities in defining workflows (to cater for business processes), multi-site collaboration, customizations, etc.,  For our requirements, it would be sufficient if we satisfy below needs:

- One PDM platform for both CAD and non-CAD departments

- Should be able to control both CAD and non-CAD documents

- Should have very basic Lifecycle, Change (Revision) and Approval processes

Workgroup PDM looks as a best suit, but couldn't arrive upon which packages/modules should I look for buying among below:

- SolidWorks WorkGroup PDM - will be needed

- Solidworks Viewer - will this be needed?

- SolidWorks (native CAD package which CAD department is already using)

- Solidworks Explorer - will this be needed?

- Solidworks Contributor - will this be needed?

- Solidworks Composer - I guess this won't be needed as it deals with creating complete Technical Documentation

- Any other module?

What is the tool that non-CAD departments would use to manage their documents?

What packages are licensed and what are not?

Hope you all would lead me to a correct decision.

Thanks All,

Prabhakaran V.