As Oracle Agile PLM approaches end of life, organizations who’ve relied on the system for years face a critical juncture.
Since the introduction of Process Extensions (PXs), over time Agile customers have been slowly building custom processes for their unique business needs, adding PX after PX to create the functionality they’re after. As a Solution Architect with 19 years of experience working on Agile PLM, I know how much its users dread leaving the system. But as the end of life looms closer, companies aiming for growth and competitive advancement must explore modern PLM solutions like Propel Software that not only offer the same functionalities as Agile’s PXs but also enhance and streamline them.
Propel’s cloud-native platform offers a seamless transition, with dozens of successful migrations resulting in impressive ROI.
Streamlining Everyday Process Extensions in Propel
The traditional Agile PLM system, despite its initial emergence as a titan in the field, demands substantial maintenance and development efforts.
For instance, Process Extensions in Agile PLM often involve third-party maintenance, slow and manual customization efforts, and a high risk of errors. With end of life approaching, legacy PXs face some extreme obstacles:
- High Maintenance Costs: Extensive coding required for PXs leads to high costs in terms of development and maintenance.
- Complex Upgrades: Upgrading systems with custom PXs often involves significant downtime and risk.
- Knowledge Retention: The departure of key developers can result in lost critical knowledge, complicating future modifications.
By contrast, Propel provides the equivalent PX functionality natively, either out of the box or easily configurable. This approach eliminates the need for custom coding, simplifies maintenance, and enhances the flexibility and scalability of PLM systems.
While there are hundreds of Process Extensions in Agile, there are a handful that users rely on almost every single day. Here’s a look at how Propel compares to two of the most common PXs:
1. Agile’s Approval Matrix vs. Propel's Criteria-Based Approvals
The Approval Matrix in Agile PLM is used to determine the necessary approval groups for changes based on specific criteria. Typically, this matrix is an external file—such as Excel—requiring manual input and decision-making by change analysts. This manual process is often complex and prone to errors, making it inefficient.
Propel addresses these issues by offering three distinct and integrated options for configuring approval processes, each tailored to different business needs and reducing manual intervention.
1. Constant Approval Group:
Users can set up fixed approval groups that are automatically added during each approval phase upon change type creation. This is particularly useful for consistent requirements, such as including a document control group in every approval phase.
2. Dynamic Assignment:
Utilizing lookup functionality, Propel links changes to specific users within the system. This means that a user added to a specific field on the details tab will automatically be included as an approver, offering flexibility similar to Oracle’s “$USER” for example, but more integrated into the approval process.
3. Criteria-Based Approvals:
This versatile option allows the creation of approval rules based on various criteria across objects like change, affected items, item, and item revision. Users can define up to 10 criteria, adding up to 10 user groups per criterion, ensuring highly customized and dynamic approval processes. These criteria-based approvals can be automatically added or selectively reviewed by the document control team, providing a balance of automation and oversight.
2. Agile’s Access Control vs. Propel’s Sharing Capabilities
Access Control in Agile PLM involves managing who can discover, read, or edit certain objects, using a pick list field. This method requires a manual update of access fields for each component, which can be labor-intensive and error-prone, especially for large assemblies.
Propel enhances this with its advanced sharing capabilities, offering more automation and flexibility.
- Inherited Sharing: In Propel, the "Accessible By" field inherits values down the hierarchy, unlike Agile, where each component needs a manual population. This inheritance ensures consistent access control across all related components.
- Granular Control: Propel provides fine-grained permissions, allowing detailed control over read, edit, and sharing rights. Users can manage access at various levels, including exceptions for certain categories or attachment types, enhancing both security and flexibility.
- Comprehensive Rules: Propel's sharing rules are comprehensive, controlling access at the BOM level with the ability to exclude specific categories and types of attachments from sharing. This ensures that sensitive information is protected while promoting collaboration across the supply chain.
Why Leaving Agile PLM is Critical
The impending discontinuation of Agile means that maintaining complex customizations like Process Extensions will become increasingly difficult and costly.
The future of PLM customization lies in low-code/no-code platforms that empower users to innovate and adapt quickly. Propel is at the forefront of this transformation, offering a solution that is not only powerful but also user-centric and future-ready.
Transitioning from traditional Agile PLM to Propel’s cloud-native platform represents a strategic move towards more efficient and adaptable PLM management.
By leveraging Propel’s modern tools for criteria-based approvals and enhanced sharing capabilities, organizations can reduce costs, simplify maintenance, and ensure their PLM system evolves with their business needs.
