Solar Century to drive development of sustainable energy with DS ENOVIA SmarTeam

VÉLIZY, FRANCE: Dassault Systèmes (DS), a leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, announced that UK environmental energy system design and engineering firm Solar Century successfully implemented out-of-the-box ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express and Design Express for SolidWorks in just two months. Saving time and money, this PLM solution will enable Solar Century to easily synchronize, analyse and deliver information within and beyond the enterprise.

Solar Century is designing, installing and maintaining tailor-made solar systems for homes, offices, commercial and agricultural buildings. Promoting the uptake of renewable technologies, Solar Century is experiencing rapid business expansion with consequent increased demands on its own infrastructure.

As one of the leading providers of solar photovoltaic solutions, Solar Century needed to measure and report project progress in relation to business expectations more efficiently, and make decisions based on reliable information. After benchmarking several solutions, Solar Century chose ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express.

Engineering Express, preconfigured and simple to implement, provides a full PLM solution for mid-sized companies. Solar Century faced the challenge to integrate the management of product and process data, including change orders (workflows), documentation, bills-of-materials, quotations, material specifications, as well as immersive management of SolidWorks models from the CAD application.

Because it is based on standard MS apps, Engineering Express could be quickly adapted to these needs and is easy to maintain. Solar Century also appreciated that the time for implementation and the financial investment were smaller than those required by traditional PLM applications.

Engineering Express also facilitates the concurrent collaboration between Solar Century and its strong network of partners, increasing productivity by eliminating the need to complete one part of a project before another can be initiated.

“Like many growing companies, Solar Century was running a range of diverse business management software which was not effectively connected. This led to some operational inefficiencies which needed to be addressed,” said Mat Burgess, Solar Century’s development manager. “By partnering with UK Dassault Systèmes VAR Design Rule, we introduced the flexible ENOVIA SmarTeam-based methodology that provides the tools to efficiently manage all future business expectations.” As their business activities extend, Solar Century modifies and expands the solution accordingly, in a gradual and phased manner.

Design Rule Managing Director Bob Hiller commented, “Inevitably, companies that quickly grow from a small base have the same issues to deal with as larger companies and many outgrow their IT infrastructure even before it has delivered any real business benefits. To deal with Solar Century’s plans, an ENOVIA SmarTeam solution that matches the business’ current and future requirements has been deployed in less than two months.”

“In today’s challenging economic conditions, more and more forward-thinking mid-sized companies recognize the need for tools that will let them adapt their products from both the top and bottom lines, not only by reducing production costs but also by adding innovation,” remarks Alex Zeltcer, VP ENOVIA Value Channel, Dassault Systèmes. “ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express was designed specifically for these companies, and meets their budgets, schedules and most importantly, their objective to produce excellent products.” Moreover, Solar Century’s selection of ENOVIA SmarTeam demonstrates the viability and potential of PLM for mid-sized companies in growth industries.