I Started The Teamcenter X SaaS PLM Trial. Here Is What I Learned…

The original article was published on my Beyond PLM blog

Teamcenter X: Future Ready Cloud PLM says Siemens' website invites you to try Teamcenter X for 30 days. If you follow my blogs, you probably had a chance to read my earlier commentary about Siemens Teamcenter X, SaaS, and cloud PLM. Check this out here - Learning about Teamcenter X and how it can impact SaaS PLM development.

But nothing cannot compare actually with hands-on experience. So, I decided to start a trial. Click on "Start a Trial" will ask you to register. In my case, I already had a Siemens account online I used for online conferences, which I used. Siemens website informed me that it is configuring my trial.

After that, I was redirected to the management page, which was building my "virtual computer". The entire process took some time and after that, I was informed that I can access my trial environment.

I was able to actually launch a software, which started Citrix virtual machine access in the browser. The experience was seamless and I was running in a fully virtual session of Windows, which as browser-based configured Active Workspace (with login account) as well as NX software running in this virtual desktop machine.

Teamcenter X was identical to what I knew as ActiveWorkspace user interface and functions. As you can see, the interface is the same as a regular Teamcenter Active Workspace.

Few words about collaboration and users. I was able to invite users into this virtual environment and the readme file says that up to 4 users can be invited.

What is my conclusion?

When it comes to Teamcenter features, I didn't find much difference between Teamcenter X and a regular Teamcenter I was familiar with. The launching management environment seems to be completely new and this looks like a way to manage all hosted instances of TCX in the cloud. I didn't find answers to several questions about how regular users will be getting into this environment. When I stopped a session, I had to restart the virtual computer and it took time. But my data was saved (as it was mentioned in Readme). Another question I didn't find an answer to is multi-tenancy. I realized that all virtual computers can run from the same server and Siemens most probably invented a very sophisticated SaaS environment managing hosting, access to virtual computers, and their management system. I didn't find any signs of data multi-tenancy - in my view, one of the key features in SaaS PLM, which includes the ability to share data and collaborate between users (and actually tenants). I look forward to more experiments and I will report back. I am also very much interested to learn what is common and what is different between multiple applications of SaaS/ cloud PLM systems. Looks like one size doesn't fit all and Siemens' strategy is fundamentally different from Dassault, Autodesk, and PTC. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a digital network-based platform that manages product data and connects manufacturers and their supply chain networks. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.