Microsoft SQL ServerCustomer Solution Case Study

Automotive Firm Deploys Product Lifecycle System, Speeds Development by 30 Percent

OverviewCountry or Region: South AfricaIndustry: Professional services—Mechanical engineering

Customer ProfileBased in Cape Town, Africa, Optimal Energy is a privately owned company that is creating Africa’s first electric car, Joule. Founded in 2005, the company employs 100 people in two locations.

Business SituationOptimal Energy wanted to consolidate eight disparate data management systems into one integrated product lifecycle management (PLM) solution that included document management and development tools.

SolutionThe company deployed a solution from Dassault Systèmes that runs on the Microsoft platform and works with Microsoft Office applications. It includes tools for 3-D design, visualization, and simulation.

Benefits Speeds development by 30 percent Accelerates data access and cuts costs Increases data accuracy Simplifies system administration and

reduces learning curves

“With our ENOVIA PLM solution, which runs on the highly reliable and scalable Microsoft platform including SQL Server 2008, people can work at least 30 percent faster and with much greater accuracy.”

Anton Greeff, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Optimal Energy

African automotive company Optimal Energy wanted to replace its eight data management systems with an integrated product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. Employees struggled to access and share data, and collaboration was difficult, especially between people who worked at different locations. To address its challenges, Optimal Energy deployed a PLM solution from Dassault Systèmes. It runs on the Microsoft platform and provides integrated collaboration tools for data management and three-dimensional development and simulation including ENOVIA V6, ENOVIA 3DLive, and CATIA V5. The solution also supports a central, global database that runs on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and seamless interoperability with Microsoft Office applications. As a result, the company has accelerated development by 30 percent, improved accuracy, cut expenses, and streamlined data access and system administration.

SituationFounded in 2005, Optimal Energy is a privately owned company based in Cape Town, South Africa, that designs and builds electric cars. Its goal is to transform public transportation so that it uses fewer natural resources and less energy. The company’s first product, Joule, will be Africa’s first electric car. It will be available for purchase in Africa and Europe in 2014.

The company’s 100 employees work at two locations. One site serves as the design facility, and the other supports production. Because the company has grown rapidly, employees implemented IT to meet needs as they arose. By 2009, the company had eight distinct data management systems to facilitate product development. Employees used these systems for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)—and also to manage product requirements and materials. Although many of the systems used Microsoft SQL Server data management software, employees lacked a central data store. Instead, project files resided on individual workstations and numerous server computers at the two locations. These decentralized solutions made it difficult to share data, reduced accuracy, impeded project management, and hindered system administration.

For example, because the company used different systems and file formats, employees spent significant time either converting files or re-creating them. This included transferring information between CAD programs and applications such as Microsoft Office Excel 2007 spreadsheet software, Microsoft Office Word 2007, and

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation graphics program. In addition, managers could not quickly access detailed, real-time project information and, instead, had to rely on manual processes to collect data. Consequently, project information was sometimes out of date.

Without a central database, employees spent hours each week finding the newest version of specific documents. To help prevent people from either duplicating work or using an older file version, managers strictly partitioned design tasks. Ultimately, however, building a car requires collaboration—especially with third-party vendors who produce parts. Each day, engineers, production personnel, and third-party vendors in Europe had to coordinate the exchange of information. Depending on the size and number of the files that needed to be sent, people used email or File Transfer Protocol (FTP)—a process that could take several hours. In addition, employees and third-party vendors sometimes transported files on a portable hard drive because FTP can pose a security risk and because transferring some data sets, which can be 40 gigabytes in size, takes too long.

As Joule’s development progressed and Optimal Energy continued to grow, delays created by manually sharing files increased. For example, if production personnel found an issue with a part, they often modified the part’s physical and virtual design and then notified engineering. “Data was always out of sync,” says Anton Greeff, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Optimal Energy. “We knew that at any given time, the CAD data we had was at least three or four days out of date compared to the data at the

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production facility. We had to be very rigorous in following up with phone calls and email messages to ensure that these issues didn’t cause big production delays.”

Because employees at different locations could not work on the same file simultaneously, they sometimes agreed on product changes over the phone—or through email or instant messaging (IM)—even though they were not viewing the same diagrams. As a result, misunderstandings occurred that sometimes led to production errors.

To address these challenges, Optimal Energy decided to implement an integrated product lifecycle management (PLM) solution that provided centralized tools for document management and development including CAD, CAE, and CAM. Optimal Energy sought a solution that was easy to deploy, learn, and scale.

SolutionIn March 2010, Optimal Energy decided to implement the ENOVIA V6 PLM solution from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Dassault Systèmes. The solution, which runs on the Microsoft platform, gives employees a “single version of the truth” through one data management platform and centralized database that runs on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard. In addition, ENOVIA and its service-oriented architecture (SOA) make it possible for multidiscipline teams to work on the same file from different locations. Employees simply check out the same file from the database, and as people make changes to the file, ENOVIA updates the file wherever it is stored—in the database and on workstations.

Optimal Energy also decided to add Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5 and ENOVIA 3DLIVE to its solution. Accessible from ENOVIA, CATIA is a product-design solution that provides integrated CAD, CAM, and CAE tools. ENOVIA 3DLive, part of ENOVIA, federates data from multiple CAD and enterprise systems and delivers it in 3-D, virtual workspaces that guide users to the projects, people, and information they need to collaborate.

Because the solution includes SQL Server 2008 and works seamlessly with Microsoft Office applications, employees can increase efficiency and minimize costs. For example, with SQL Server 2008, IT personnel can use built-in tools to implement failover clustering and easily scale databases. In addition, employees can access and share engineering data created in ENOVIA using familiar tools such as Office Word 2007 and Office Excel 2007. “Having all of these tools integrated in one platform was really a huge selling point for us,” says Greeff. “The Microsoft-based solution from Dassault Systèmes is also simpler and easier to roll out than solutions on other platforms. This includes SQL Server, which can be installed and managed by our IT personnel.”

Before it deployed its solution, Optimal Energy evaluated how it could use its innovative tools to support new standardized processes. Once the processes were established, a team of four employees from Optimal Energy implemented the ENOVIA PLM system on a SOA running the Windows Server 2008 Standard operating system. Four server computers with Intel processors support the production environment that includes a web server to facilitate access to the

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“A manager who may not know how to use a CAD program like CATIA can open the 3-D representation of a product in a Microsoft Office application and instantly see, by the color coding, which parts are under or over budget.”Anton Greeff, Chief Mechanical Engineer,

Optimal Energy

solution; a license server that manages access for all users; an application server that supports CATIA, ENOVIA, and ENOVIA 3DLive; and a database server that contains all project data. Virtual servers support a mirrored copy of this environment, which employees use to validate and test system changes including software updates.

In the first quarter of 2011, Optimal Energy will release the first phase of its new solution into production. Employees will use it for CAD, CAM, and CAE. They will also use it to manage and share project requirements and design documents. In the second quarter of 2011, the company expects to deploy ENOVIA 3DLive to facilitate data sharing with several development partners in Europe.

BenefitsBy implementing a scalable PLM solution from Dassault Systèmes on the Microsoft platform, Optimal Energy expects to speed development by 30 percent, accelerate data access, cut costs, improve data accuracy, simplify system administration, and minimize learning curves.

Speeds Development by 30 PercentThe new solution boosts collaboration and accelerates time-to-market. Greeff says, “With our ENOVIA V6 PLM solution, which runs on the highly reliable and scalable Microsoft platform including SQL Server 2008, people can work at least 30 percent faster and with much greater accuracy.”

For example, IT personnel can automate backups with tools in SQL Server 2008. In addition, with CATIA and ENOVIA 3DLive, employees can conduct virtual 3-D design reviews—and share them with other people

around the globe in real time. The ability to view virtual prototypes simultaneously also increases efficiency and helps reduce the number of physical prototypes. Built-in tools enhance communication between people at different locations so that when changes do need to be made to a product, people can convey those changes over the phone, email, or IM while viewing the same design documents. “If the person you are working with is online and available, you can instantly start collaborating,” says Greeff. “Being able to view the same 3-D file or simulation at the same time is a major time saver and benefit.”

Employees can also use the 3-D tools to gain real-time insight into the status of projects. “One strength of using ENOVIA 3DLive is that you can color-code parts on a model according to any criteria you want,” explains Greeff. “A manager who may not know how to use a CAD program like CATIA can open the 3-D representation of a product in 3DLive and instantly see, by the color coding, which parts are under or over budget. The graphical outputs of 3DLive can the also be embedded in Microsoft Office documents to create reports that convey much more visual information. This means people do not have to wade through printouts or track projects manually. They don’t even need to have CATIA running on their machine to visualize the design.”

Accelerates Data Access and Cuts CostsWith the new solution, employees can find the information they need in seconds. “People will spend less time looking for files,” says Greeff. “Everyone works on the same platform, so we have a single version

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“The level of integration between ENOVIA and Microsoft Office has made things a lot easier for us. With our new solution, we expect to improve data accuracy tremendously.”Anton Greeff, Chief Mechanical Engineer,

Optimal Energy

of the truth, and you can see who has access to the files.”

In addition, people will no longer have to spend time coordinating the exchange of documents or waiting for files transfers. “It is fantastic knowing that your data is sitting in one single place,” explains Greeff. “You know you can always find your information there but, more importantly, other people can find it there as well.”

Travelling to Europe for every design review will no longer be necessary. “It usually costs about $5,000 to fly between South Africa and Europe, so by minimizing travel, we can quickly save hundreds of thousands of dollars,” says Greeff.

Optimal Energy expects other cost savings as well. Greef explains, “Less third-party support will be needed. And once we fully implement our new solution, we will spend a lot less time managing our databases.”

Increases Data AccuracyBecause the PLM solution from Dassault Systèmes interoperates with Microsoft technologies, employees can easily share data between applications rather than converting files or manually reentering information in multiple systems. “The level of integration between ENOVIA and Microsoft Office has made things a lot easier for us,” Greeff says. “With our new solution, we expect to improve data accuracy tremendously.”

Simplifies System Administration and Reduces Learning CurvesBy replacing eight disparate systems with one solution built on the Microsoft platform including SQL Server 2008, Optimal Energy can streamline system administration. This includes spending less time managing databases. “Having our systems consolidated in one place will reduce IT workload significantly,” says Greeff. “Scaling the system is really just a matter of adding licenses. The complexity of the system doesn’t increase just because you add more users and data.”

In addition, transitioning to the new system requires almost no learning curve for users. “Almost everyone already knows how to use Microsoft Office applications,” says Greeff. “And most of the time, employees will not even be aware that they’re working inside a PLM system, because they work directly in applications such as Office Word 2007. To them, these applications will look and feel like they always did.”Microsoft Server Product PortfolioFor more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:www.microsoft.com/servers

Microsoft Office SystemThe Microsoft Office system is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Dassault Systèmes products and services, call (33) 1 61 62 61 62 or visit the website at: www.3ds.com

For more information about Optimal Energy products and services, call (27) 21 462 7804 or visit the website at: www.optimalenergy.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2011

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2008 Standard− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard

Microsoft Office− Microsoft Office Excel 2007− Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007− Microsoft Office Word 2007

Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5 Dassault Systèmes ENOVIA 3DLive Dassault Systèmes ENOVIA V6

Partners Dassault Systèmes

For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office

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