Autodesk PLM 360: Insanely configurable?

I’ve spent the last few days playing around with Autodesk’s new PLM 360 offering. I’m an engineer and have been around CAD, PDM, PLM and the like for 30 years – but no one should think of me as a PLM implementation expert. I also don’t have to configure anything for a large team, tie in legacy databases or anything like that. I set myself the very simple goal of creating a single workflow, to manage the redesign, construction and launch of the new Schnitger Corp. website. I defined users, assigned roles, created workflows and moved through a pretend launch process. Autodesk PLM 360 worked well, intuitively, and I couldn’t break it. But I suggest you try it for yourselves, using your more stringent requirements, rather than just taking my word for it. All of the comments below are based on the product as it was on the days I played with it — it is a work in progress and may be substantially different on the day you try it. Here’s what I found:

• Like anything, you have to get used to how the system wants to be interacted with. PLM 360 uses workspaces, which I think of as templates, that can be modified, copied, expanded or contracted to suit individual needs.
• After poking around for a while, I created my own workspace. The basic admin setup offers a number of choices, including workspaces with and without workflow management, revision control, and supplier management (there may be more when you try it). I selected a workspace with workflow management, gave it a name and started to configure the workspace. I worked on it for perhaps 15 minutes before realizing that I had made a cardinal RTFM mistake: I should have found a workspace similar to what I was trying to do and cloned that. So I backed up a bit, cloned the new product introduction workspace and customized that for my project.
• Once my workspace and customization were set, I created users and gave them roles (which defines what they can and cannot do). Very easy, I explored the relationships between items and decided to leave them alone.
• Then I put the new website design process into play. I assigned tasks, completed them, moved them around, added documents to the flow … Nothing too stressing on Autodesk PLM 360, but very simple to do and execution time was fast.
• The user interacts with PLM 360 from a home screen that includes a dashboard, tasks to be completed and links to information posted via the PLM 360 server. It’s clean, visual and intuitive.
• The help functions are, for the simple things I tried to do, very useful. Autodesk has an extensive WikiHelp site for PLM 360, with official guides and space for eventual community-contributed content.
• One recommendation: take the tour. After you log in and agree to Autodesk’s terms and conditions, you’re shown a splash screen and asked if you want to take a tour. In 6 screens, you get a quick tutorial on the menus and tools, the home page and dashboard, and an overview of workspaces. You can also click through to tutorial videos. It makes a lot more sense if you start here!
• I did get a couple of system errors when I didn’t think I deserved them, but attribute that to operator error. I was able to back my way out each time and did not lose any work.

Is it “insanely configurable”, as Autodesk has hyped? Probably not. If you truly have no idea where to start or how a workflow tool should be set up, you’ll need some help. But if someone with my background can be productive in a few hours, I would imagine that teams with fairly standard workflows or workflows that match the workspaces included with the product will be up and running very quickly. One of the concerns I’ve heard a lot is how an “insanely configurable” product could reduce the importance of channel partners’ contribution to their accounts. I don’t think that will happen; Autodesk PLM 360 isn’t that easy, customers who are essentially designers/engineers/users rather than IT people will want to have their reseller to do a simple, fast, relatively expensive install. For many resellers, this will become another part of their services offering. For some, it could become a nice source of new revenue, as they customize workspaces for particular processes, industries or types of compliance and make those available in some sort of app marketplace. Am I now a PLM configuration or implementation expert? Absolutely not. But Autodesk made it very easy for me to try it out, which led to this experiment. I signed up for an account the day of the launch, (at www.autodeskplm360.com) and received a login within 48 hours. There was no paperwork, no money changed hands, nothing to download (other than a Java workflow editor), no install. Autodesk’s “try it you’ll like it” approach, with Autodesk PLM 360 free for the first three users and $75 per user per month on an annual contract basis beyond three, will lead a lot of companies to do what I did – give it a try. What do you think? Have you tried it? Let me know! I’m sure there are going to be far more detailed reviews coming — as I see them, I’ll point to them via Twitter. Follow me at @monica_schnitge for updates.