Vizola Technology Announces Sale of Documentor System to VegaStream

• VegaStream takes early advantage of new technology
• Shortened time-to-market with less effort
• Better control of complex supply chains
• Automated change control processes

London 21st February 2001. VegaStream, a leading supplier of Voice-over-IP communication systems, has implemented Vizola's Documentor product in order to shorten product development timescales and increase productivity.

Documentor plays an important role in the VegaStream process of getting a product off the drawing board and into manufacture. It provides the management controls and baseline information for Bill-of-Materials (BoM), change control, build scheduling and materials control.

Richard Webb, Hardware Manager for VegaStream, comments - “Managing the process between design and manufacture is a key factor in determining product cost, quality and delivery timescales. Getting a product to market quickly improves our competitiveness and ultimately profitability. For many companies this is a manual process supported by spreadsheets and WP, which is prone to error, slow and costly in terms of manpower. Documentor removes these issues and makes the whole process efficient”.

Webb continues – “Documentor takes input directly from the design schematic to assemble the BoM using preferred parts. We can then quickly add mechanical parts like the PCB and fixings. Like a lot of companies, our products are modular and we need to produce a number of variants for different territories - Documentor allows us to easily manage these without errors creeping in. And it streamlines change control when the inevitable need arises, with email distribution lists and secured virtual signoffs. Once in production, we use Documentor build schedules to plan ahead for materials requirements and advise suppliers accordingly”.

Chris Cohen, Managing Director of Vizola Technology, states – “Easy management of changes is particularly important for VegaStream. Being leading edge means change happens frequently and their products are certainly complex. The overhead and delay of weekly Change Control Team meetings would be unacceptable”.

Cohen continues – “With increasing competition, shorter product lifecycles and more complex supply chains there is a compelling need for product data management tools to streamline the route to market. Documentor interfaces flexibly with office applications on one side and more specialised EDA (Electronic Design Automation) and MRP (Materials Requirements Planning) products on the other. It introduces control and facilitates collaboration”.

Webb concludes – “Without doubt Documentor has given us control and over the design-to-manufacture process. The business is now more confident in our build forecasts and at the same time we have reduced costs and shortened the time to market. Equally we have simplified and reduced the costs of managing the supply chain. Documentor has given us management control”.

By reducing costs and timescales for new product introduction Vizola is providing the driving force for VegaStream to increase profit potential whilst achieving higher standards of quality.

Cohen concludes - “Documentor is the first PDM product to come within reach of all electronics firms. Rapid implementation and a shallow learning curve mean any company is going to get a quick return on their investment, and enormous benefits down the line”.