Announcement on PTC's web site today & via Bulletins email that Windchill ProductPoint is being retired and ProductPoint users will have their licensingupgraded to Windchill PDMLink. Interesting. I'd be pretty ticked if I had just migrated from a small 3.4 implementation or no PLM to ProductPoint and now have to move from that to PDMLink. Perhaps long term we'll all benefit from a tighter focus on development of Windchill PDMLink instead of PDMLink and ProductPoint. Almost makes it sound like ProductPoint was someone's pet project, though. Odd since they sure announced it with great fanfare at the user conference a few years ago. Anyway, to all those using ProductPoint....welcome to the world ofWindchill PDMLink.
links below (requireslogin on PTCs support pages)
Bulletins
Important Notification for Windchill ProductPoint Customers
I'm guessing not enough customers to justify continued deveolpment and support.
It certainly seemed to be a rather niche software offering. We looked into it and were told our implementation of Pro/E and Intralink was too big to go to the "ease" of ProductPoint (it seemed to be a more direct replacement for Intralink 3.4 - just manage my CAD data). On top of that some functionality was missing and the hardware requirements seemed to exceed what Windchill PDMLink needed. My guess is PTC was just not seeing the ROI on the continued development expenses. That and they were probably too much at the mercy of whatever direction Microsoft chooses to take SharePoint.
We implemented this and it was a disaster. The time and money we put in to this product was a hugh waste. The basic functions that were promised never were implemated. They only had 2 Support people in the US. We moved to PDM Link months ago. I am not surprised to see the POS Software Killed!!!
LOL....I sure would like to see this session.....
From the Agenda PlanetPTC Live, 12-15 June, 2011, Las Vegas, USA
Chris Bergquist, Sr. Director of Product Management
PTC
Learn the best practices and configuration considerations to allow key roles in your company to get the most value from your Windchill ProductPoint deployment. Roles addressed will include IT administrators, CAD designers, design engineers, manufacturing roles, purchasing agents, sales persons and project managers.