TelephonyWorld
August 11, 2004

Omnify Software, a leading provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software for mid-market electronic, medical, mechanical, and defense OEMs, today announced that Pannaway Technologies is leveraging the Omnify PLM Suite to develop customized broadband convergence solutions in half the time. As a result, Pannaway is the first to market with Triple Play solutions that enable rural telephone providers to offer digital phone, cable and Internet access through a single line.

As the national telecommunications and broadband providers battled for market share and increasingly offered all three combined services in major markets, the rural telecommunications providers had a monopoly on their customer base and did not leverage their existing infrastructures to provide additional services beyond the telephone. Now, the national carriers are spreading to smaller markets and competitive local exchanges (CLECs) are increasing in rural areas. As a result there is a stronger imperative among these rural providers to offer more services and increase revenue opportunities. Pannaway recognized the market need and realized it had a small window of opportunity to bring its converged broadband solution to market. It turned to Omnify PLM to manage and speed its entire product development.

"Many in our company came from large broadband and telecommunications companies where we had used PLM solutions before, and we knew we needed PLM to be successful," said Bechir Ben-Said, Vice President of Operations at Pannaway Technologies. "When we researched an appropriate solution, we found Omnify, which offered all of the functionality of products from companies such as Agile, but at a much more affordable cost. We chose Omnify and we are certain we made the right choice. We were able to implement and begin working in the solution very quickly with the help of Omnify's top-notch services team."

Pannaway deployed Omnify PLM in a matter of weeks and with the help of Omnify's professional services, easily integrated the technology with its engineering environment, OrCAD CIS, and its ERP system, ERPlite PRO. This enables Pannaway to eliminate the data entry duplication often associated with managing product development in various spreadsheets and databases and more efficiently manage bill of materials, engineering changes and documentation. Pannaway is able to enter data into Omnify and immediately share it across all of its systems, reducing the time it takes to complete custom product development by 50 percent.

As Pannaway's momentum grows and more customers are demanding solutions, the company is opening its Omnify PLM solution to its contract manufacturer. This will enable greater external collaboration by allowing their contract manufacturing partner to participate in sourcing and design decisions as well as help anticipate inventory and materials Pannaway needs in advance, speeding product development even further.

"Pannaway is in a fantastic position to capitalize on a hot market and we are excited the company chose to partner with Omnify to bring products to its customers as quickly as possible," said Chuck Cimalore, CTO of Omnify Software. "With Omnify PLM, the company can be laser-focused on product design and innovation, and not waste time on tedious data entry and bill of materials management. The gains in efficiency help ensure Pannaway retains its position as market-leader."

© 2002-2006 Omnify Software