ERP integration

[egifford]

We are currently in the process of planning the purchase of a new ERP system. We've narrowed it down to Syteline from Infor and Syspro. My interest is integration with Windchill PDMLink to push / pull BOM information, access to viewables (pdfs generated by Windchill, possibly the productview viewables of models - make them available through ERP system) and application of an electronic Engineering Change system. So far the two companies, their respective VARs actually, seem to have totally different approaches / thoughts on this.

Infor - Syteline VAR - PLM system should control all the engineering data, generate P/Ns, be the master of the BOM and may be the better path for the Engineering Change system. Detailed that they typically exchange the information with XML files etc., triggered by certain events on either side of the PLM - ERP connection. They really seemed to know what they are talking about.

Syspro VAR - PLM system just houses the CAD data, everything else is done in the ERP system. BOM can be pushed to ERP, but from CAD via a tool they use called "CADtalk". I asked them about establishing a conversation between the PLM system and ERP and they seemed to imply they want to isolate the two. Looking into their CADtalk tool, it's a plugin that runs in the CAD software and pushes data directly to Syspro. They said "sure,we can work with Pro/E"...but all of the supporting documentation and the web page for CADtalk states otherwise - only works with Solidworks, Solidedge and Autodesk products. At that point I'm thinking they either don't know what they are talking about or weren't really listening to me.

Question to the group is who out there has successfully connected their Windchill PDMLink system to either Infor Syteline or Syspro? How deep is the connection (what are you exchanging etc)? How well does it work?Where do you operate your Engineering Change functions - ERP or PLM side? What is considered the "Master" for the CAD related information (P/N, name, revision, etc)? Any other feedback would be great, particularly on Syspro as I can't believe what the VAR is stating is accurate.

Regards,

Erik

Windchill PDMLink 10.0 M030

Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4 M220, soon Creo 2 Parametric M070

[JimTVancouverCa]

Hello Erik,

We too are in the same boat, now coming on December 2014. How did it work out for you? If you can share which ERP did your team choose, and how did the Integration go? Did you use INFO*ENGINE or Windchill ESI, or Windchill ESI: ERP Connector for XML output?

Thanks again!

[MarcHendrickson]

Also there is the question of the connector licensing and it done some other ways without the connector if licensing is still required…..

[JimTVancouverCa]

See my related post in discussion:

http://portal.ptcuser.org/p/fo/st/thread=29545&post=129278&posted=1#p129278

[egifford]

Jim,

Reviving my original post after reading your thread.  Where do your team end up with the Windchill to ERP integration?

To the general Community,

We have been up and running with Syteline as our ERP tool since July, and are now mapping out the plans for making the connection between Windchill and Syteline.   We're on Windchill 10.0 M030 and will be migrating to 10.2 M030 soon.  Depending on the stability of Windchill 11 mid / late 2016, we may migrate to 11 and complete all final integration testing on 11 as our intended go-live platform (and may have moved from Syteline 9 to I believe 10 by then).  We intend to push the typical item definition and dBOM information over to Syteline.

What I'm looking for from somewhere out here in the user community is a success story on specifically connecting Windchill PDMLink with Infor Syteline.    Lots of people say, "yup, can be done", but what is missing is a response from someone where that's the system they are (happily) living with on a daily basis.  I'm looking for the "happy customer" testimonial, not necessarily about a specific consultant / integrator, but about how well their PDMLink to Syteline integration works, what they feel they've realized as a benefit and what they would or would not do differently if done over again.

Thanks for any feedback,

Erik C. Gifford

Windchill PDMLink 10.0 M030

Creo Parametric 2.0 M190

Infor Syteline 9.00