PTC has announced that it has expanded its strategic alliance with Microsoft by delivering its Windchill product lifecycle management (PLM) solution on Microsoft Azure. Optimising Windchill with Azure is yet another milestone in the growing relationship between the two companies.
PLM is the cornerstone of digital transformation, and it enables manufacturers to understand and leverage their product and enterprise data, including information from smart, connected products and machines, to build a digital thread that connects all functions within the value chain. PTC’s advanced solutions leverage this digital foundation on Azure to enable customers to drive digital design, product and service innovation, manufacturing efficiency, service optimization, and heightened sales and marketing experiences.
Through the new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering of Windchill on Azure, users can accelerate their evolution from basic product data management to enterprise PLM with a simplified deployment and upgrade process. Standard out-of-the-box PLM functionality is configured through an open architecture to reduce deployment costs and times, as well as lower total cost of ownership.
“By combining PTC’s industry leading PLM solution with Microsoft‘s highly secure, global and scalable cloud infrastructure, we share our expertise as technology leaders and are best positioned to support our customers as they integrate their augmented reality, digital twin, and IoT efforts,” Çağlayan Arkan, global lead for manufacturing and resources industry at Microsoft, said. “By choosing to partner and empower, we accelerate value for the entire industry.”
At the heart of the PTC and Microsoft relationship is the combined technology and expertise of both companies – dedicated to delivering robust solutions for industrial environments. Since the initial announcement of the alliance in 2018, the two have closely collaborated on integrating Azure IoT with PTC’s ThingWorx industrial internet of things (IIoT) solution platform, which has allowed customers to create innovative products and improve operations with IoT connectivity, rich contextualization, business systems orchestration, and breakthrough user engagement via mixed reality. Most recently, PTC announced built-in support for Microsoft HoloLens 2 with its Vuforia product.
