Modern engineering with Cloud PLM

Product lifecycle management (PLM) software improves processes and teamwork across disciplines, systems and organizations. However, traditional on-premises installations are not ideal in every scenario. That's why we developed CIM Database Cloud: our modern SaaS (Software as a Service) solution opens up the world of PLM to companies of all sizes. Your company benefits from fast onboarding, low investment costs, and high IT security.

Product lifecycle management (PLM) software improves processes and teamwork across disciplines, systems and organizations. However, traditional on-premises installations are not ideal in every scenario. That's why we developed CIM Database Cloud: our modern SaaS (Software as a Service) solution opens up the world of PLM to companies of all sizes. Your company benefits from fast onboarding, low investment costs, and high IT security.

Product lifecycle management (PLM) software improves processes and teamwork across disciplines, systems and organizations. However, traditional on-premises installations are not ideal in every scenario. That's why we developed CIM Database Cloud: our modern SaaS (Software as a Service) solution opens up the world of PLM to companies of all sizes. Your company benefits from fast onboarding, low investment costs, and high IT security.

Benefits of our Cloud PLM software

  • Make product development more efficient and flexible
  • Scalability and cost-efficiency – no expensive investments in server infrastructure
  • Access product information smoothly and securely – anytime, anywhere
  • Integrate software quickly and easily into existing IT infrastructures
  • Focus on what matters most – the products

A glimpse of our satisfied customers

Features at a glance

CIM Database Cloud connects teams, data, and processes. From the initial idea to testing and market launch, the software provides you with all the tools you need for modern product lifecycle management. Choose the range of functions that suits your requirements and goals!

Document Management

  • Enterprise-wide organization and sharing of documents and knowledge
  • Fast document retrieval with Enterprise Search
  • Protection of know-how through roles & privileges system
  • Ensures compliance with regulatory requirements thanks to automatic documentation
  • Provision of documents, e.g., for review and approval processes
  • Seamless integration with MS Office, including Outlook

Product Data Management

  • Efficient management, distribution, and provisioning of product data such as CAx documents, parts, and bills of materials
  • 2D and 3D visualization of individual parts and entire products
  • Fast parts search, reduced parts redundancy, and lower costs thanks to powerful classification mechanisms (see “Classification” function)
  • Accelerated and transparent planning and implementation of technical changes
  • Ensuring quality by capturing issues and implementing appropriate resolution strategies

Project Management (Basic & Advanced)

  • Share and collaborate on project documents and product data (Basic)
  • Efficient task management with open issues and agile task boards (Advanced)
  • Holistic planning, controlling, and execution of projects with work breakdown structures, Gannt charts, checklists, and quality gates (Advanced)
Benutzeroberfläche der 3D Collaboration im PLM-System CIM Database Cloud

3D Collaboration

  • Secure decisions and high process quality through the availability of 3D models everywhere
  • Cost savings on CAD licenses and elimination of the need for workaround solutions through separate CAD viewers
  • Diverse interaction possibilities for flexible usage
  • Seamless integration into PLM specialist applications and direct interlinking with users' typical tasks
  • End-to-end process integration from early design phase to product validation

Classification

  • Efficient master data organization through universal classification system
  • Transparent parts inventory and reduced maintenance effort
  • Increased reuse and cost reduction through parts classification
  • Rapid parts search through characteristics and the visual class browser
  • Support for geometric similarity search through integration with 3D Collaboration

Requirements Management

  • Easily enter and edit requirements using the integrated editor
  • Manage requirements with transparency: Automate and trace every change with the integrated audit trail
  • Graphical visualization of requirements relationships in the context of the virtual product model and intuitive drag & drop editing
  • Monitor processing status and compliance with reports
  • Exchange requirements with external stakeholders and systems in a secure and efficient manner using baselining as well as import and export functionality

Material Data Management

  • Company-wide availability of detailed material information for a wide range of applications
  • Seamless collaboration through reliable material data
  • Clear representation and easy modeling of material data in various contexts (development, procurement, quality assurance, etc.)
  • Efficient material selection and quick identification of alternatives with graphical comparison of material properties

Variant Management

  • Efficient management of product variants through rule- and characteristics-based configuration for targeted product variability
  • Combination of individual product customization for customer-oriented solutions with efficient value creation
  • Management of variability from portfolio management to variant implementation
  • Overview and improved decision confidence even in complex variant spaces
  • Automatic provisioning of suitable data for subsequent systems such as ERP, CRM, digital shops, or IoT

Product Costing

  • Quick and direct calculation of product costs in early development phases
  • Easily adaptable costing schemes with fixed and variable costs, as well as unit and overhead costs for precise calculations
  • Use bills of materials and product structures as calculation components
  • Integrate and allocate project costs
  • Setting of sales targets for optimal pricing and increased product profitability

Project Costing

  • Cost planning, calculation, and recording directly within the project
  • Break down according to your needs: Derive or customize cost items from project structure
  • Determine actual labor costs from time tracking
  • Synchronize work breakdown structure elements and cost items
  • Easy and transparent comparison and analysis of project costs
  • Real-time controlling of ongoing target, planned, and actual costs
  • Recording and analysis of costs, e.g., time-based by cost type, cost center, or site

Resource Management

  • Strategic resource planning to optimize the use of existing and future planned capacities across the entire project organization
  • Define a hierarchical resource pool regardless of organizational structure for optimal alignment with demand planning requirements
  • Early planning of rough resource requirements for new projects at the resource pool level
  • Preplan requirements in project templates to speed up requirements planning for new projects
  • Assign human resources to requirements and drill down to project tasks for detailed planning

xBOM

  • Efficient collaboration between design and work preparation
  • Fast and reliable transfer of design changes from the engineering BOM to the manufacturing BOM – for instance, simple and safe resolution of quantity discrepancies
  • Reliable error prevention through synchronization in the central work preparation when supplying globally distributed locations with location- or order-specific manufacturing BOMs
  • Synchronization with other BOMs for service, spare parts, and maintenance
  • Direct and reliable assessment of deviations in the 3D model

Work Plan

  • Efficient transition from development to manufacturing thanks to work planning in the PLM system at an early stage
  • Address order-independent aspects of work planning in the PLM system, thereby establishing the foundation for integrated product and process planning
  • Improved interaction between PLM, MES, and ERP systems
  • Reliable transfer of changes to the engineering BOM to production
  • Direct transfer of work plans for processing production order

Customizing Tools

  • DevOps services developed for companies with high customization requirements for a PLM system
  • Ensures customization of specific business processes
  • Reliability: Continuity of business processes, both during and after migration
  • Benefit: Combination of cloud technology and the adaptability of an on-premises system

Integrate existing systems

Easily connect CIM Database Cloud to the software tools you already use. Integrate MCAD, ECAD, ERP, MES, CRM, MS Office, and more.

Expand CIM Database Cloud step-by-step

The goals and key areas of the Cloud PLM project depend on your level of digital maturity. That's why we offer CIM Database Cloud in three packages that complement each other and enable growth at your pace: Collaborate, Accelerate & Innovate. 

Improve collaboration within the design team
Integrate systems and speed up processes
Introduce innovations faster and master complexity
Collaborate Accelerate Innovate
Document Management

Systematically manage, organize, and control product information documents throughout the entire life cycle.

Product Data Management

Manage and control all relevant product information during the entire product life cycle.

Project Management Basic

Use projects as collaboration context for documents, parts, and other objects. Process and track project tasks in an agile manner using task boards.

3D Collaboration

Take design decisions quickly and confidently based on 3D model data available enterprise- wide.

Classification

Classify parts, documents, and other objects to increase transparency, accelerate processes, and reduce parts diversity.

Requirements Management

Automatically track and document requirements and their implementation and visualize relationships between requirements in the virtual product model.

Project Management Advanced

Plan, manage, and execute projects using work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, checklists, and quality gates.

Material Data Management

Manage material information throughout the company and collaborate seamlessly using reliable data.

Variant Management

Model product variability both rule- and feature-based and efficiently manage complex variant spaces.

Product Costing

Calculate product costs and analyze them throughout the entire lifecycle to enable well-informed decisions regarding cost optimization and profitability.

Project Costing

Capture, manage, and analyze costs for product development projects to stay within budget and ensure profitability.

Resource Management

Identify project requirements, plan according to capacity, and distribute resources precisely to optimize capacity utilization, increase deadline adherence, and timely recognize personnel needs.

xBOM

Reliably synchronize engineering BOMs and manufacturing BOMs and support order- and location-specific work preparation.

Work Plan

Connect product development and work planning – prequalify order-independent aspects of work planning in the PLM system.

ERP-Integration

Integrate ERP systems and create end-to-end processes along the entire value chain.

MCAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date design data, 3D models, and drawings to efficiently create physical product structures.

ECAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date data for electronic structures and designs to efficiently create mechatronic products.

Customizing Tools

DevOps services for companies with high customization requirements for their PLM system.

Collaborate
Document Management

Systematically manage, organize, and control product information documents throughout the entire life cycle.

Product Data Management

Manage and control all relevant product information during the entire product life cycle.

Project Management Basic

Use projects as collaboration context for documents, parts, and other objects. Process and track project tasks in an agile manner using task boards.

3D Collaboration

Take design decisions quickly and confidently based on 3D model data available enterprise- wide.

Classification

Classify parts, documents, and other objects to increase transparency, accelerate processes, and reduce parts diversity.

ERP-Integration

Integrate ERP systems and create end-to-end processes along the entire value chain.

MCAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date design data, 3D models, and drawings to efficiently create physical product structures.

ECAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date data for electronic structures and designs to efficiently create mechatronic products.

Customizing Tools

DevOps services for companies with high customization requirements for their PLM system.

Accelerate
Document Management

Systematically manage, organize, and control product information documents throughout the entire life cycle.

Product Data Management

Manage and control all relevant product information during the entire product life cycle.

Project Management Basic

Use projects as collaboration context for documents, parts, and other objects. Process and track project tasks in an agile manner using task boards.

3D Collaboration

Take design decisions quickly and confidently based on 3D model data available enterprise- wide.

Classification

Classify parts, documents, and other objects to increase transparency, accelerate processes, and reduce parts diversity.

Requirements Management

Automatically track and document requirements and their implementation and visualize relationships between requirements in the virtual product model.

Project Management Advanced

Plan, manage, and execute projects using work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, checklists, and quality gates.

Material Data Management

Manage material information throughout the company and collaborate seamlessly using reliable data.

ERP-Integration

Integrate ERP systems and create end-to-end processes along the entire value chain.

MCAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date design data, 3D models, and drawings to efficiently create physical product structures.

ECAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date data for electronic structures and designs to efficiently create mechatronic products.

Customizing Tools

DevOps services for companies with high customization requirements for their PLM system.

Innovate
Document Management

Systematically manage, organize, and control product information documents throughout the entire life cycle.

Product Data Management

Manage and control all relevant product information during the entire product life cycle.

Project Management Basic

Use projects as collaboration context for documents, parts, and other objects. Process and track project tasks in an agile manner using task boards.

3D Collaboration

Take design decisions quickly and confidently based on 3D model data available enterprise- wide.

Classification

Classify parts, documents, and other objects to increase transparency, accelerate processes, and reduce parts diversity.

Requirements Management

Automatically track and document requirements and their implementation and visualize relationships between requirements in the virtual product model.

Project Management Advanced

Plan, manage, and execute projects using work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, checklists, and quality gates.

Material Data Management

Manage material information throughout the company and collaborate seamlessly using reliable data.

Variant Management

Model product variability both rule- and feature-based and efficiently manage complex variant spaces.

Product Costing

Calculate product costs and analyze them throughout the entire lifecycle to enable well-informed decisions regarding cost optimization and profitability.

Project Costing

Capture, manage, and analyze costs for product development projects to stay within budget and ensure profitability.

Resource Management

Identify project requirements, plan according to capacity, and distribute resources precisely to optimize capacity utilization, increase deadline adherence, and timely recognize personnel needs.

xBOM

Reliably synchronize engineering BOMs and manufacturing BOMs and support order- and location-specific work preparation.

Work Plan

Connect product development and work planning – prequalify order-independent aspects of work planning in the PLM system.

ERP-Integration

Integrate ERP systems and create end-to-end processes along the entire value chain.

MCAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date design data, 3D models, and drawings to efficiently create physical product structures.

ECAD-Integration

Provide PLM processes with up-to-date data for electronic structures and designs to efficiently create mechatronic products.

Customizing Tools

DevOps services for companies with high customization requirements for their PLM system.

From the cloud to the racetrack

Motorsport specialist Manthey relies on CIM Database Cloud to future-proof its product development. Find out what convinced Manthey about the SaaS PLM solution.

From the cloud to the racetrack

Motorsport specialist Manthey relies on CIM Database Cloud to future-proof its product development. Find out what convinced Manthey about the SaaS PLM solution.

Motorsport specialist Manthey relies on CIM Database Cloud to future-proof its product development. Find out what convinced Manthey about the SaaS PLM solution.

Support

FAQ

Quick overview: Your questions, our answers.

CIM Database Cloud is characterized by two features in particular: as “Software as a Service”, the application is run on the infrastructure of a cloud provider. There is no need for a local installation on company-owned servers. The ready-to-use no-code software with an intuitive web interface can be put into operation immediately thanks to its standardized, pre-configured modules.

CIM Database Cloud is the ideal solution for companies that develop complex products and are looking for uncomplicated Product Lifecycle Management – quick, cost-effective, and requiring minimal effort for technical administration. CIM Database Cloud is equally suitable for start-ups and medium-sized companies with more than 1,000 employees.

The development and operation of cloud products based on CONTACT Elements meet the stringent requirements of the ISO 27001 standard. This certification confirms that CIM Database Cloud adheres to the highest security standards and ensures effective management of information security risks. Our SaaS solution architecture is designed based on the Zero-Trust principle, meaning that every access to your SaaS cloud instances is authenticated and logged. At the application level, security is ensured through measures such as Single Sign-On with CONTACT ID. Your data is hosted on Amazon Cloud Services (AWS) servers in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which comply with GDPR regulations and are certified according to established standards such as ISO and CSA-STAR.

Learn more about IT security here.

With the SaaS Functions Framework, you can customize and extend CIM Database Cloud to your requirements. It is a collection of architectures, best practices, and guidelines that simplify and optimize the development and operation of SaaS applications. Thanks to special tools and interfaces, your company can customize the standard functions of our cloud solution. The core code of the application remains unchanged.

We offer different types of licenses:

Named User Licenses are billed at a fixed monthly rate – for users who work with the system regularly.

Read-only users are granted a read but not a write permission.

While we have designed CIM Database Cloud to be user-friendly and intuitive, we still recommend an onboarding. During this process, one of our Customer Success Managers will assist you and serve as your personal point of contact. In addition, you will get access to our tutorials and e-learning resources, allowing you to familiarize yourself with the system at your own pace.