Company Profile
People & Organization
- Typically range from small to mid-size organizations.
- Mostly inside design department, may expand into purchasing or manufacturing.
Requirements
- Desire to standardize on Revision and Naming Schemes.
- Need to manage design variations and progressions as well as understand the active status of every item.
- Occasionally Collaborate with External Stakeholders.
No Formal Approval Processes or Data Migration requirements.
Adoption Strategy
If you are a company that fits into this scenario, you will typically have more organizational hierarchy than those only requiring basic cloud storage; therefore should have at least one person responsible for the 3DEXPERIENCE platform administration. These persons or persons will be the only ones allowed to make modifications to your 3DEXPERIENCE platform configuration.
It is important to identify all the appropriate personnel up front to avoid slippage in implementation time due to the lack of customer availability.
It is recommended that, unless you have previous experience of implementing the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you work with your SOLIDWORKS reseller to formulate a training and implementation plan for all of your users.
You may already have official design to release guides already documented, which can make your company a good candidate for a pre-configured implementation from your SOLIDWORKS reseller.
At the start of the adoption journey, it is important to understand data flow throughout your organization to make sure processes are defined to share design information needed with purchasing, manufacturing, etc. Any changes you decide to make your design process, you likely won't have to go through an extensive validation/approval process. Starting simple and expanding is the recommended best practice here.
If you are already experienced with using a PDM solution, it's likely that you will already have some predefined workflows that relate to different approval processes. Mapping these existing processes to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will require further training and configuration, so it's important that this is factored into the implementation and training plan.
When working with your SOLIDWORKS reseller partner, a formal Statement of Work (SOW) should be created and agreed upon by all of the key stakeholders.
The SOW should detail:
The scope and tasks of the work to be performed
Assumptions made regarding the implementation
Customer requirements – what will be required by the customer in order to complete the tasks. Such prerequisites from the client may consist of IT-related issues, project-related requirements (i.e., availability of respective personnel, etc.)
Estimated Time for each task
Acceptance criteria and any deliverables, if applicable
Agreed price for the Implementation Program delivery
The SOW is a key document to ensure that you and your SOLIDWORKS reseller partner agree on the scope of the implementation, as well as all the resources required to deliver it. Changes that are requested during the implementation should be clearly discussed as to their impact on the deployment timeline, as well as any additional costs that could be incurred. Proper project management principles should be followed to document the approved changes.
🚦 Readiness Assessment
In order to ensure that your outcomes and expectations are met, a readiness assessment can be a great way to set realistic milestones. We've created two different readiness assessments for your convenience.
Set Up and Onboarding Essential Topics
It is recommended that all of the setup and onboarding topics listed in the table below be considered and discussed. All of these topics fall under the Basic Cloud Storage and Lifecycle & Revision sections in the Outcome Worksheet.
Data migration is an important topic to consider for any existing SOLIDWORKS customer adopting the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Migration of data to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform should be treated as a separate activity to user onboarding, and must be planned and costed accordingly. In order to plan successfully, a thorough discussion must take place between you and your SOLIDWORKS reseller to ensure that the right strategy is put in place, and the right expectations set with both parties before any migration activities are started.
The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is not an archiving solution. Attempting to move every SOLIDWORKS design going back years will only serve to use up your companies platform storage allowance. Instead, it’s recommended that where possible only required content should be moved across, for example current projects and component libraries.
Implementation & Onboarding
1. Kickoff
This kickoff meeting is set up to review desired outcomes and fill in any gaps that may not have been addressed. It's also a time to make sure that the platform administrators are identified. Having at least two administrators is recommended, ideally from different departments, to ensure the platform is configured to account for everyone's needs. A roadmap and timeline should be discussed and documented, as well as milestones set, and commitment from both parties to hit targets and maintain an open line of communication if anything comes up.
2. Administrator Training
There will be 3DEXPERIENCE platform configuration requirements, so it's recommended that the administrators go through training first to obtain fundamental knowledge of platform features and functionality before scheduling any workshop sessions.
3. Administrator Workshop
Workshops are 1:1 or small group consulting sessions. They are great opportunities to review outcomes between you and your SOLIDWORKS reseller, get users/groups set up and roles assigned, configure collaborative spaces, and walk through how users will complete their assigned tasks in the new system. If possible, and time permits, this is also a great time to review any platform concepts that may not be clear to the administrators. A Pilot Project should also be identified and completed before going live to validate workflows and platform configurations.
4. User Training
In addition to the single-day add-on user training, tailored training may be required to address any specific configuration and/or specific working practices.
5. Go Live
Ongoing Engagement
During and after the Go Live, it's critical to ensure that adoption stays on track and that the time and effort invested in the setup and training is not wasted. Scheduling monthly/quarterly status reviews with your SOLIDWORKS reseller partner can prove valuable.
If you have followed a pre-configured implementation path with your reseller, it can leave a lot of room for expansion into formal process management as the natural next step.
Collaborating in a SWYM Community is a great way to develop a specialized knowledge base and document Standard Operating Procedures.
See below for an example roadmap illustrating the recommended engagements and milestones during the first year of your adoption journey. Remember, this is just an example; any plan should be tailored to suit both your company's needs and internal strategies.
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