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Review: .riess engineering UPDATE 20.0

Read everything about this years user meeting on the integration of PTC Solutions in SAP

.riess engineering UPDATE 20.0, the 20th user meeting on the integration of PTC solutions with SAP, brought the attending companies a step closer to the Intelligent Enterprise. Visitors of the event were given the opportunity to attend exciting and informative presentations and learn the latest news about SAP Engineering Control Center (SAP ECTR) as well as SAP ECTR interface to PTC Creo and SAP ECTR interface to PTC Windchill, the two SAP products developed by .riess engineering. The event took place on February 20, 2020, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ettlingen near Karlsruhe, a proven venue.

“Much has happened in the past year at SAP and .riess engineering to support your digitalization strategies with SAP Engineering Control Center, its related applications and its integration options. We have developed a lot of software, built up a lot of know-how, and carried out many consultancy projects, during which we have gathered a lot of experience. Today, we will update you on these developments and share our experience with you” said Wolfgang Schukowski, Managing Director of .riess engineering europe gmbh, in his welcome address.

In his keynote speech “Design to Operate,” Stefan Ziegler, Regional Presales Expert PLM at SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, outlined the importance of an end-to-end digitalization strategy based on SAP from development to the operation of smart products. UPDATE 20.0 attendees learned how to integrate the early stages of product development with the overall process of product creation and which strategies are supported by SAP in pursuit of the prime goal of developing, manufacturing, delivering and eventually using smarter products. Product development is an essential link in the supply chain (Design-to-Operate) and the cornerstone of a successful digitalization strategy. Whether the existing CAD software integrates directly with SAP or relies on external PDM systems to manage SAP connections makes no difference in this context. SAP standard software solutions exist for both scenarios.

Does SAP offer any hybrid PLM operating models between the counterparts of On-Premise and Cloud? What is, in this context, the importance and role of SAP ECTR, the 3-D Visualization Cloud, IPD Collaboration and api.sap.com? The subsequent presentation on “SAP PLM: operating models and functional extensions,” held by Gerhard Himmelsbach, Product Owner SAP PLM at SAP SE, looked into — and answered — a lot of what-ifs and many other questions. Cloud-operated systems have only one valid system version, i.e. the most current and thus the best available version, which is automatically deployed to all Cloud customers — a key benefit of the Cloud solution.

After lunch, which was served in the hotel’s ATRIUM, attendees could select one of two parallel tracks introducing SAP ECTR and its integration options: either direct integration using “SAP ECTR interface to PTC Creo” or TDM integration using “SAP ECTR interface to PTC Windchill”.

The track “SAP ECTR interface to PTC Creo,” presented by members of the Product Management and Business Development at .riess engineering, featured introductions to and live demonstrations of new features and working methods for this solution, focusing on process optimization through improved usability and extensions to the application structure.

Users working in environments with multiple CAD systems could learn how to benefit from the support of PTC Creo's Unite Technology and how to prepare material BOMs for the new SAP Advanced Bill of Material maintenance. After a live demonstration, Gerhard Himmelsbach brought the track to a close by giving the attending customers and other guests an outlook on upcoming developments in SAP ECTR.

The track “SAP ECTR interface to PTC Windchill” started with a presentation held by Dennis Detjens of SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, explaining the working principles, features and benefits of bidirectional integrations of PTC Windchill with SAP. The .riess engineering Business Development team then introduced the interface’s new functions, supported out-of-the-box use cases as well as the related administration and technology in its presentation named “Real PLM across system boundaries” — which was apparently the perfect title for this really exciting session, judging by the overwhelming reception of an enthused audience.

In the following success story presentation with the title “PLM processes integrated with SAP ERP at SARTORIUS,” Sebastian Slomczyk of Sartorius Corporate Administration GmbH granted participants an insight into the company’s current SAP ECTR projects. Topics included introductions of SAP ECTR at company sites in Finland (PTC Creo) and England (Autodesk Inventor) which involved the elimination of several ERP and PLM systems. According to the company’s strategy and planning, this year will see further migrations of CAD Desktop sites to SAP ECTR.

The final presentation was held by Daniel Schultheiss, CTO of the Swiss allvisual ag, a joint partner of .riess and SAP. In “A closed loop for generating digital enterprise value from authoring systems to customer service,” Schultheiss posed a fundamental question: “why are we doing this?” In his attempt to answer, he summarized, with great credibility and a refreshing sense of humor, the challenges of digital transformation in the context of holistic PLM data models. Schultheiss demonstrated the benefits of digital twins in the extended supply chain and illustrated the critical success factors for digital transformation by way of real-world examples.

Throughout the day, UPDATE 20.0 offered a panoply of exciting speeches and presentations, providing 130 attendees from 65 companies with first-hand access to the latest information, and served a platform for professional exchange among the attending customers and interested parties. The .riess engineering team as well as the experts of .riess partners SAP, CENT, CIDEON, DSC, Sealsystems, XPLM and allvisual had set up their info pods in the Radisson Blu’s ATRIUM to answer questions and present their respective solution portfolios centered around SAP PLM and the SAP Engineering Control Center during breaks and before and after the presentations.

At the end of a day which was packed with information and yet entertaining, Wolfgang Schukowski invited the contented participants to a final get-together at the hotel’s ATRIUM and BLU LOUNGE where live music, refreshing drinks, tasty finger food and a delicious buffet with several stations created a pleasant environment for further networking.

The day after the UPDATE event, .riess engineering hosted the annual meeting of the SAP ECTR interface to PTC Creo task force — now counting 30 members — at its Karlsbad premises.
We would like to express our gratitude to all customers, partners and all other interested guests for these two very successful days!

Next year’s .riess UPDATE 21.0 is scheduled for February 2021. We will notify you of the exact date in good time.