What are pros and cons to set up multiple organizations over single organization in Windchill?

[Cat]

What are pros and cons to set up multiple organizations over single organization in Windchill?

1. Business Case

The head quarter office of ABC company is located in Japan, The company use Windchill PDMLink as their PLM solution.

Currently, the organization has single organization, setting one organization in Windchill.  Please, check the image below for your reference

---------------------   Image  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Site --- Organization (i.e., ABC Japan)    <--------------- Single Organization

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ABC company is going to establish a new branch office in China.  ABC China will use Windchill as their PLM solution, too.

The Chinese CAD designers do not need to access design data which is located under organization ABC Japan in Windchill.

I am not sure whether the company need another organization (i.e., ABC China) in Windchill.

Site --- Organization

                L  ABC Japan                <--------------- 1

                L  ABC China                 <--------------- 2            Multiple Organizations

What if the company has another organization, I am not sure that it would be tricky to manage Windchill environment, setting, File Vault, Replica Server ant etc. 

[ChrisPLM]

早上好

This is difficult to reply but here is my approach I have used in the past.

I have worked in a global organization which 3 divisions. They all claimed they had nothing to do with each other.

However, a detail study of their business process (and how they will be improved with Windchill), of purchased parts they used (such as bolt nuts etc....), use of templates etc... made it clear that we did not need 3 orgs in Winchill.

Interestingly enough 4 years after I decided to have one org in Windchill (which was quite easy to decide because at that point the business did not really understand windchill) the company grouped 2 divisions into one making the company having 2 divisions instead of 3.

Therefore, for me the org cabinets should be decided based on the business process, reporting needs, sharing on information etc...  It should not be a copy of the legal entities (divisions).

Try to find what is common (and often the commonality is in the details) and see how you would manage this if you had 2 orgs.

While I understand if it is a lot easier to share data between orgs in Winchill 10 and above,  you may find out that from an admin point of view it does not make sense to have 2 orgs.

As for the end users, they will not see the difference anyway as Contexts (Products and Library) will be hidden from them.

Hope this helps

[Cat]

Hi Chris,

I really appreciate your input.

Well, I also believe that  it is not necessary to set up multiple organizations in Windchill.

Do you think that ABC China need to implement their own Windchill in their region?

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Site --- Organization (i.e., ABC China)    <--------------- Single Organization   [Production Server located in China]

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Site --- Organization (i.e., ABC Japan)    <--------------- Single Organization  [Production Server located in Japan]

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[Anand]

Hi,

Instead of setting up a different organization why don't you create a new library / product in the same organization ?

You have all flexibility to set up your own access control rules and in case if you have enabled ProjectLink in PDMLink context you can also share your content safely with external vendors, from an administration point of view, having single organization is a good approach

Thanks,

Athmanand

[Anand]

In order to clarify your question  instead of adding the location name in organization just add the name please check below,

SiteA --- Organization (i.e., ABC )    <--------------- Japan ( Library / product name )

SiteA --- Organization ( ABC )          <--------------- China ( Library / product name )

It's up to you to decide where you want to set up your production server

Thanks

Athmanand

[TomU]

It's worth pointing out that even with multiple remote file servers, ALL web traffic is handled by the main server (or cluster).  This means you have to have good connectivity between the main location and any other locations.  If you cannot guarantee this, then completely separate servers might be better.

[ddemay]

ALL traffic?  I think that is configuration specific, even down a user level .  Point about good connectivity is still a good idea.

[TomU]

The only thing a remote file server does is store files.  Nothing else.  All webpage serving and database calls are provided exclusively from the main server.  Having a remote server will speed up uploads (and downloads if already cached) since the files can be kept locally, but all communication about each event is going back "home".  Yes, a user can choose their primary server (local or remote), but this impacts file storage and transfer, not web traffic, ldap requests, etc.

[hn.a]

What will be the impact on maintenance and upgrade when we have multiple organizations?

[ddemay]

As one of the major advocates for multiple organization topology, it really depends on user classificiation, corporater data access policies, and access control.   PTC views organizations as "Tenants".  I must say I think this is not the best way to think about them, but that has come from years where Organizations were thought to keep data separated.   No longer, is that the only reason.

While you may define access control policies for individual organizations that impact where data is stored / cached / replicated on file servers, multiple organization does not have a big impact.

If you already have a production system, unless there are reasons we identify here in the discussion topic thread, the migratory configuration to accurately configured multiple organizations are not worth the expense in all likelyhood.

Out of the box product and library templates are the worst enemy for transition to multiple organization system.

As for anyone who says the information about products, libraries, or organization names are not useful, keep in mind workspaces, profiles, reports, and configurable table views can reveal context / container names, including the name for an OrgContainer.

If you have specific questions, that would help provide specific answers.