The challenge
Concepts industriels 2000 is an ERP software developer that has been particularly successful with ETO (Engineered-To-Order) and BTO (Built-To-Order) product manufacturers.  Their success is largely based on an outstanding product, backed up by unmatched expertise on the business issues of their customers.  They have consequently experienced remarkable growth over the last few years.  However, they had identified with many of their customers a crucial and growing problem with the handling of CAD and ERP data, observing the usual symptoms, namely: desynchronized CAD and ERP data, triple data entry and damaging delays in vital data updates. 

They were looking for a third party solution that they could seamlessly integrate into their very successful Orchestra pour PME ERP application, and made a decision that the selected partner should use the live approach, which offered better guarantees of success.

The solution
Concepts industriels 2000 selected Agni Link (formerly known as Elmo Link), an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) companion product to CAD applications such as SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, AutoCAD/Mechanical, that could deliver the most advanced and efficient solution to the CAD-ERP integration issues raised by Orchestra pour PME customers.  Entirely based on the live approach, the new module gave Concepts industriels 2000 customers the ability to easily integrate not only Bills of Materials, but also component, raw material, assembly and routing data, from their CAD models to Concepts industriels 2000 ERP, thus dramatically increasing efficiency, and substantially reducing the cost of opportunity due to redundant data entry.

Moreover, the live approach allowed Concepts industriels 2000 customers to drastically reduce the cost of errors on the shop floor due, for example, to the use of the improper raw materials, or erroneous routing instructions.

“We're thrilled to be among the very first ERP software vendors who can deliver a fully integrated CAD-ERP integration solution that boasts a live, bidirectional link between design and manufacturing databases,” says Jocelyn Drolet, PhD, Concepts industriels 2000 CEO.  “Customer response so far has been really promising, and we are confident that integrating an application of such power into our solution is a breakthrough not only for us, but also for our customers' efficiency and profitability.