Aras Switches to Microsoft-Only Open-Source Model

By DE Editors

Jettisoning its old licensing model in favor of free and open-source software, Aras Corporation (Lawrence, MA) yesterday announced it will forego a traditional sales force and beef up its service and consulting forces as it offers Aras Innovator 8 exclusively on the Microsoft .NET platform.

“Open source means unlimited user access to the system,” said Aras President Peter Schroer during a phone conference. Schroer went on to explain that his company was switching its licensing model to wipe out the big upfront capital expenditure obstacle many companies face when looking at a product lifecycle management (PLM) application. “By delivering the Aras Innovator solutions as enterprise open source on Microsoft, we provide software licensing simplicity and align with the technologies that companies already have and understand.”

Companies, many already familiar with the Windows environment, will be able to download the application for free, immediately begin to use it, and pay for help or consultation as they need it. And because the source code will be open, the company expects that users will contribute to the software’s further development.

Innovator 8 is configured to run on Vista, Internet Explorer 7, and SQL Server 2005 with options for Office 2007, SharePoint 2007, and other Microsoft products. These include SharePoint Portal Server; Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007; Business Scorecard Manager; Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006; and Active Directory.

“Companies already have IT staff that know how to work with Microsoft,” said Marc Lind, Aras vice president of marketing. “It allows them to work with our system without having to learn another language.”

Aras Innovator is designed to help manufacturers with processes such as new product introduction, quality compliance, and enterprise PLM. It provides phase-gate project management of milestones and deliverables; failure mode and effects analysis as well as closed-loop actions for mitigating risks and achieving compliance; and bill of materials, document management, and engineering change workflows for product development control and project cost tracking.

While the enhancements to Version 8 rest mainly with tweaks and changes to accommodate the new open-source model, the functionality of the solutions can be tailored to support such processes as project lifecycle management, asset lifecycle management, and service lifecycle management. Aras Innovator’s technology is a model-based, service-oriented architecture designed to enable companies to deploy quickly and adapt easily. It can operate either as a stand-alone enterprise application or as an integrated complement to existing systems.

Aras Innovator is based on open standards, including XML / SOAP web services, for simplified integration with conventional enterprise systems such as SAP, Oracle, UGS, PTC, Dassault, and Infor legacy applications; enterprise application integration suites; or enterprise service bus (ESB) products. Price: download is free; $8,300 (monthly Enterprise Edition support subscription); $4,100 (monthly Small Business Edition support subscription).

The free download and further information are available at aras.com.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.