What? Are you for real, PTC? You've been saying that Pro/INTRALINK is the best thing since sliced bread, now you're telling me it may not be the right move for me. What's going on?!!?

More on that in a minute. But, let me first introduce myself. I'm Tom Shoemaker from PTC's product marketing group. I've seen quite a bit here in my nearly 13 years. From my roles in technical pre-sales to R&D to marketing, it's been a great trip. Thinking back over that time, it's kind of fun to reflect on how technology - both what we at PTC provide, and what we use internally - has changed. I started on Pro/ENGINEER in 1992 on Release 9. Back then, we shipped software on ¼ inch cartridge tapes and tracked stock prices by looking at paper printouts on the copy room bulletin board. Oh yeah, and we gave presentations using transparencies. Remember them? Now, we're writing blogs, using "googled" as a verb, and lamenting about how outdated our 2-month old Blackberry has become.

OK. Back to the topic at hand. "So, Tom, you say Pro/INTRALINK may not be right for me? Umm, you're in marketing aren't you? Isn't management going to want to 'have a word with you'?" Look - Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 goes where Pro/INTRLALINK 3.x can't. It works twice as fast over a wide-area network, it's built on a modern Web-based architecture, and the immersive user interface means it's practically blended into Pro/ENGINEER. It IS nothing short of the next generation of Pro/ENGINEER data management. It's all good stuff.

But, my sole point is this: if you are considering a move to Pro/INTRALINK 8.0, then the time might be right to also think about taking the larger step to Windchill PDMLink. It's kind of like your home project lists. For example, I'm thinking of using my basement for storage until we get around to finishing it. OK, so we need a continuously running dehumidifier to pump water out and make sure that stuff doesn't get ruined. But, if I'm going to do that, I figure, I might just as well put in a utility sink at the same time because I know I'll want one soon enough. So, I plan to do both simultaneously. Sure, it'll be a bit more work, but I'll get a far more useful basement sooner, and there will be just one combined and related effort, instead of two disjointed ones: first the dehumidifier, then the sink sometime later.

"Oh, great. The ol' PTC upsell," you may be thinking, "I knew it was coming." Well, my reply to that is both "yes" and "no." Not everyone needs to make the move to Windchill PDMLink. Hey, frankly, for some it may be completely unnecessary. If your needs are exclusively focused on Pro/ENGINEER workgroup data management - and if you expect that to be the case for the foreseeable future - Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 is the right choice. Realize too, that you can take some time (through June 2008) to make that move, before ever leaving the Pro/INTRALINK 3.x world.

But...if you forecast that in the near term (perhaps over 1-3 years), your needs would evolve substantially beyond what they are today, then time spent up front in the consideration of Windchill PDMLink is worth the effort.

Questions to ponder include the following:

• Might you wish to manage more than Pro/ENGINEER CAD data?
• Do you seek to consolidate disparate CAD PDM tools?
• Is it important to manage ECAD files and/or software in addition to MCAD data?
• Do you wish to have a tight integration between your product development world and your ERP world?
• Do you want to tackle a less-than-ideal change management or configuration management process?
• Is there a strong company/engineering mandate to improve design re-use?
• Do you have a significant number of non-engineering users who need to participate in the process of product development?

More on Windchill PDMLink to come. Stay tuned, let me know what you think in the forums, and wish me luck with the basement.