VoIP enhances product development

Users of the on-demand product life-cycle management (PLM) application from Arena Solutions are applying Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to collaborative business processes.

"We're no longer wasting time waiting for people to return phone calls, retrieve drawings, and all that before we can initiate a discussion," says Cindy Seaman, product engineer with Telco Solutions, a Tempe, Ariz.-based manufacturer of semiconductor testing equipment. Telco was among the first of Arena customers to take advantage of a link Arena has forged between its application and the Skype Internet telephony service.

Arena programmers altered the application's user interface so that anyone working in the system can see a list of people assigned to the same project—whom also are logged into Arena, and have a connection to Skype. When those two conditions are met, a worker can click on the names of any dual Arena-Skype users and instantly launch a discussion.

To get the basic Skype service, users download a free software program that allows them to communicate with other Skype users. The communication can take the form of an Internet-based phone call if both users have speakers and microphones connected to their computers, or it can be in the form of instant text messaging.

Skype also offers the option of calling regular telephones from a computer, but that service requires a fee.

Seaman says this is just one valuable feature contained in the Arena PLM solution, which Telco adopted as a means of bringing order to its product-development processes.

"We needed a PLM system because we had multiple versions of product data, and it took a lot of time and engineering expertise to sort through," Seaman recalls. "Arena lets us keep a working record of things as the product goes through development, and beyond. We are a company of people who wear a lot of different hats. It allows us to spend time on truly value-add activities, instead of trying to find and sort through product data."

Arena CEO Michael Topolovac calls the Arena-Skype connection, introduced as part of the fall 2006 release of Arena PLM, "a customer-driven feature."

"At least one-third of our customers already were using Skype, primarily to communicate with contract manufacturers in Asia," he says. "They wanted to be able to use it in the context of Arena, so we gave them that functionality."

Seaman said Telco's Singapore sales manager asked about the ability to do instant messaging when he first heard the company planned to purchase the Arena solution. "So he's very excited about the Skype functionality," claims Seaman. "There is a small window of time when we are in the office at the same time they are in the office in Singapore. Now they can see when we are in—and online—and get questions answered quickly."

Currently only Telco engineers assigned to a new product line are using Arena and Skype. Ultimately, however, production and field service staff—as well as select suppliers—will have access to both applications.

Seaman admits some Telco employees had trouble adjusting to the Skype functionality, but they eventually realized, "It's no different than having someone walk up to your desk and say, 'I have a question. Do you have a minute?' If you're already working in Arena, it's no big deal to call up the records they are asking about, answer the question and move on."