Petra Solar Selects Omnify Software Product Lifecycle Management for Design of Smart Energy Solutions

Company Estimates 74% Reduction in Engineering Change Cycle Time with Empower PLM.

Omnify Software, a leading provider of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for electronic, medical, mechanical, and defense manufacturers, today announces that today announces that Petra Solar, a clean technology company focused on providing reliable, cost effective Smart Energy solutions to the electric supply industry, has implemented the Omnify Empower PLM solution to automate and streamline processes around document control, engineering changes, Bill of Material (BOM) management and compliance. The company has reported improved efficiencies with an estimated 74% time savings in Engineering Change Order (ECO) cycles.

As a new company in a high-growth industry, Petra Solar needed to implement systems and processes to manage their large volume of engineering data. Growing from about sixty employees to over one hundred and fifty in a year (a vast majority in engineering), Petra Solar found that their current environment for managing engineering activity needed to be more efficient and streamlined. The company’s processes were manual and all product related data was stored on secured drives.

Petra Solar implemented the Empower PLM solution to address their product development needs. Empower PLM is now the primary tool used to develop and solidify all design changes and track a product’s lifecycle. With Empower PLM in place, Petra Solar has replaced manual processes with a more disciplined and automated approach for part number creation, part development, BOM management, ECOs, and document control.

"We chose Omnify Software for its value in terms of quality, capabilities, ease of use and scalable licensing model," stated Stephen Gillespie, Program Manager for Petra Solar. "The user interface is easy for our staff to understand and is very user friendly, making for a smooth adoption. Also, as Petra Solar continues to grow as a company the scalability of Empower PLM will support any future expansion." Mr. Gillespie added that, "Within just two months, Empower PLM has helped to shorten development time and process throughput, and based on our current findings, there will be about a 74% savings in the time it takes to route an ECO."

"Emerging customers like Petra Solar can quickly realize the benefits of our easy to use and scalable Product Lifecycle Management solution," stated Chuck Cimalore, CTO for Omnify Software. "Empower PLM alleviates the burdens of manual product development processes through improved communication and formalized procedures which results in higher efficiencies and cost savings for our customers."