Centric Software, provider of Product Intelligence solutions for the extended enterprise announced their full support for the IBM Product Development Integration Framework and the release of Centric InSight, Centric MultiSight, and Centric Decision Center Product Intelligence applications certified by IBM as “SOA connected.” Executives and multi-disciplinary teams use Product Intelligence to achieve and surpass the business goals established for products or programs by intelligently connecting related product and financial information from multiple information sources across the enterprise.

Based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), the IBM Product Development Integration Framework (PDIF) leverages IBM Websphere middleware to provide a robust platform for large scale enterprise deployments of Product Intelligence solutions. PDIF SOA interfaces extend the number of off-the-shelf adapters available for connecting Product Intelligence solutions to additional information repositories. Centric Software also makes SOA-based connection services available so that data from the extensive library of existing Centric Software Connectors can be accessed from the IBM PDIF.

“Centric Software with their Product Intelligence solutions delivers an exciting new approach for extended PLM applications that can combine and synthesize information from the different discipline-specific tools and data sources demanded in a modern product-driven enterprise,” stated Vish Narayan, IBM’s CTO Industry Solutions Architecture SWG. “Centric Software and IBM’s SOA-based PDIF allow us to jointly broaden the market for our new vision of PLM, outside of engineering and across the enterprise.”

“Acceptance into this initiative validates the unique contribution of our Product Intelligence solutions to their PDIF strategy,” said Chris Groves, CEO of Centric Software, Inc. “The IBM PDIF opens new avenues to connect existing enterprise applications to our Product Intelligent solutions and deliver cross-functional visibility for superior executive decision-making.”

Centric Software Product Intelligence solutions for SOA provide the critical capabilities needed to perform core business processes that require relating product information across multiple data sources, such as: Multi-disciplinary program office , Functional integration, Global part and BOM data consolidation.

Multi-disciplinary program office is more effective when program executives and team members can make superior decisions using real-time dashboards with the latest, up-to-date status automatically compiled from the many sources involved with cross-functional product or systems development programs. Centric Software adds strategic value to traditional program and project management software by enabling bottom-up linkage from discipline participants and their local software systems. This allows independence for different disciplines while maintaining transparency to real-time status and deliverable content.