Content creation or content management?
Many times I am asked to explain how 3DVIA Composer "integrates" into a PDM or PLM system. While this is a perfectly valid question, what I find interesting is that this question is often asked before anyone even begins to use the software, and sometimes it is even asked as a pre-requisite or must-have before further consideration of the product.
I find this line of thought to be extremely backwards. Asking to see the integration before seeing the content creation system is like putting the cart before the horse. And unlike the chicken or egg debate, the answer to this question is obvious: content creation must always come before content management. It makes no sense to create a complex and powerful content management solution, and then not have an effective way to create content to add to that system. It's like buying a PDM system before you have CAD software and CAD data to manage.
Additionally, it makes no sense to implement a content management system but then put in place an inferior content creation system. Without great content, what are you managing? While we could spend all day discussing the pros and cons of a single vendor solution versus a best-in-class composition of products, one thing is certain: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Take Arbortext and Isodraw, for example: a single vendor solution, for documentation content management and publishing (Arbortext) and for technical illustration creation (Isodraw). Whether or not Arbortext is great at managing and publishing content, all of its potential benefits are lost by Isodraw's inferior ability to quickly create and update content from 3D CAD data. Being inefficient, outdated, and neither easy nor fun to use, the content creation tool is the weakest link.
Content management systems all have their nuances, but as it relates to workflow and vaulting, they all offer very similar benefits. In this context, content creation is king, and our customers keep telling us that 3DVIA Composer is the king of kings. And once they have maximized the initial benefits from a desktop-oriented (i.e.: non-integrated) implementation, they also tell us that 3DVIA Composer is exceptionally easy to integrate into their systems. And their logic is clear: begin by implementing an outstanding system at the desktop and make your users exceptionally happy and productive without a massive process disruption. Then integrate from the desktop back into the servers, based on how the users want to work.
Imagine that: a system that the users like and one that makes IT people happy by offering a natural, phased progression of capabilities that doesn't need to be force-fit into the environment. Now that's like having the chicken and the egg at the same time.
