Arena Solutions Announces Winter '09 Release of Arena with New Arena-SolidWorks Integration

Functionality simplifies data sharing and communication among product teams without imposing overhead, changes in workflow or investments in consulting and customization—Gives engineers power to manage information from within the SolidWorks environment

Foster City, Calif — Arena Solutions, a provider of on-demand software that helps small and mid-size manufacturers manage their complex and constantly changing product record, today announced it will go live with its new Arena Winter '09 release on Sunday, February 15, 2009. With more than 30 new enhancements—including the new Arena-SolidWorks Integration—the Winter '09 release strengthens the position of Arena as the central hub of the product development process, connecting with systems like CAD, EDA, PDM and ERP, and simplifying how product information is shared across organizations and throughout the supply chain, without imposing overhead, demanding changes in workflow or requiring heavy investments in consulting and customization.

The new integration enables engineers to access and update the latest product information in Arena—and share updates with key stakeholders in engineering, operations, purchasing, quality, contract manufacturing and the supply chain—without having to leave the SolidWorks design environment. From within the SolidWorks application, for example, engineers can now assign new intelligent part numbers and link SolidWorks parts, assemblies, configurations or drawings to new or existing Arena items. They also can update linked Arena items with information from SolidWorks properties. Using the Arena-SolidWorks Integration, these manufacturers can reduce the risk of product record disparity, make earlier and better-informed decisions, avoid scrap and rework and significantly improve productivity by streamlining the hand-off of important product information.

"SolidWorks and Arena are both critical to our business's success, and this integration is like a marriage of two best-of-breed systems. As a new Arena customer, we're excited to use the integration from the start, to make sure our data is in order from day one," said Todd DeVore, director of product development and quality at AcuTemp Thermal Systems, which delivers high-performance temperature management solutions for the pharmaceutical, biomedical and logistics markets. "Anything that promises to reduce time spent doing manual, error-prone and time-consuming data entry and that, frankly, lets our engineers be engineers, will be embraced by users and will have tangible benefits for our counterparts in operations and the organization as a whole. We believe that will certainly have a positive impact on us getting our products to market on time and on budget."

"A tool like Arena is most effective when high-quality data is fed into it—after all, that's the data that operations teams use to get their products to market. If their engineering counterparts are reluctant to enter design and change information—because doing so would require double work—the whole system breaks down," said Marc Escobosa, vice president of product design at Arena Solutions. "By letting engineers enter information one time, in one place, from within the SolidWorks design environment where they spend all of their time, the Arena-SolidWorks Integration goes a long way toward removing the roadblocks to a clean, complete, up-to-date product record."

On Thursday, February 5, 2009, from 10 to 11 a.m. Pacific, Arena Solutions will host a one-hour webcast to demonstrate how the Winter '09 release, with the new Arena-SolidWorks Integration, helps companies meet and exceed their time, cost and quality objectives when bringing products to market. Registration, which is required for all attendees, is currently underway at http://www.arenasolutions.com/winter09. For more information contact Arena Solutions at 1-866-937-1438 (from within the U.S. or Canada) or 1-650-513-3500.

In addition, Arena Solutions will be demonstrating the new Winter '09 release of Arena software and the Arena-SolidWorks Integration at the SolidWorks World 2009 Conference, February 8-11, 2009 in Orlando, Fla. Show attendees can come to the Arena booth (#305) to learn more about how Arena, in conjunction with SolidWorks software, simplifies how product information is shared across organizations and throughout the supply chain. Along with software demonstrations, Arena experts, who have helped hundreds of manufacturers improve the way they bring products to market, will conduct complimentary 20-minute, one-on-one business process improvement consultations. Each session will center on the individual's company's particular challenges and offer concrete advice about how to solve pressing product development issues and transform internal and external product communications. Space is limited and consultation appointments must be booked in advance by emailing Sheryl Johnson at sjohnson@arenasolutions.com with your name, title, company name, industry and the product development challenges you wish to discuss. Arena will respond to arrange individual appointment times. For those not attending the conference, Arena will also schedule a limited number of complimentary telephone consultations on a first-come, first-served basis.