SAP's Engineering Control Center - A Step in the Right Direction

Recently SAP announced it has acquired the Engineering Control Center from DSC Software AG, and the new solution will replace the old CAD Desktop interface for integrating CAD applications with SAP PLM. Engineering Control Center, or ECTR as it is generally known, was available as a partner add-on from DSC. By acquiring it and replacing CAD Desktop with it, SAP has achieved many objectives - dramatic UI improvement, significantly improved functionality, and a definitive roadmap for the future.

Let's look at these 3 aspects in detail. First of all, the ECTR is refreshingly better on the UI front as compared to the ABAP dynpro-based CAD Desktop. The layout is more modern with drag-and-drop feature that helps you achieve in a single move what would otherwise have taken several clicks and screens. It uses a familiar way of organizing objects with a folder structure on the left and object detail/preview panes on the right. SAP's 3D Visual Enterprise is embedded in the preview. Context menus and multiple icon bars provide alternative ways of carrying out different actions.

On the functionality front, there are many new improvements. ECTR provides a window for your workflow inbox, and also alerts on the objects you choose to keep an eye on. This should allow at least some design engineers to completely bypass the NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) based UI for PLM, and work completely within ECTR. There is a demo video on YouTube that shows a new object called Change Process which is similar to Engineering Record, but appears to be a coordinating object over several Engineering Records. It is not yet clear if this is an out of the box feature that customers will get when they buy ECTR licenses from SAP, or something they will have to purchase from DSC as an optional add-on. In any case, it is an interesting concept. There are situations where changes have to be carried out in products that are owned by different owners, each of whom would like to have their own Engineering Record to carry out the changes, and yet the statuses of these ERs have to come together somewhere. Many customers have done custom development, especially in the PPM solution, to somehow achieve this. A standard functionality on this will definitely find many takers.

Lastly, SAP says it plans to enhance ECTR to cover not just mechanical CAD applications but also ECAD, embedded software, simulation engineering, and so on. This adds a significant strategic dimension to this acquisition. As of now, it is not even clear whether the new ECTR even supports all the mCAD applications that the CAD Desktop supported. However, since SAP has made the strategic decision in April 2014 itself, the integration partners would have already started their work. It would also be interesting to see if the announcement triggers interest among newer partners to develop connectors to individual CAD applications. In such a scenario, customers will have a wider choice.

All said and done, it remains to be seen how popular the new interface becomes. There is very little clarity as yet on pricing - whether ECTR will come bundled with PLM licenses and customers only have to buy licenses for connectors to individual CAD applications, or they have to pay for ECTR over and above connectors and PLM application licenses. It is hoped these details are made available soon. Pricing is a sensitive factor in emerging markets, and it is hoped SAP goes for an aggressive pricing and targets for volumes that are waiting to be tapped within their ERP installed-base.