HCLTech Helps Manufacturers Boost Collaboration, Cut Costs by 25% Through AWS Managed Services Program

HCL Technologies, an AWS Partner, needed to help its customers enable better collaboration among global engineering teams. The company addressed this need by joining the AWS Managed Service Provider Program and developing 1PLMCloud on AWS. This solution enables seamless collaboration, lowers time to market by ten percent, boosts performance by 30 percent, and cuts costs by 25 percent.

Product engineers in discrete manufacturing companies make extensive use of computer-aided design (CAD) solutions to create 3D models. Over the past several years, however, as more employees began working remotely, many of these organizations struggled to manage application performance and security for design and product data stored in on-premises product lifecycle management (PLM) environments. 

HCL Technologies (HCL), a global technology company and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner, sought to help its customers solve this challenge. “When many engineering users started working from home, access to all the engineering data in PLM became critical,” says Shekhar Burande, Associate Vice President of PLM Consulting and Solutions at HCL Technologies. “Engineers work with applications that require significant compute storage & graphics capacity for CAD/CAM/CAE(CAx) and 3D visualization, downloading 3D data/models to run applications on local hardware or accessing them remotely over high latency networks was not optimal. We saw this as an opportunity to transform to cloud and enable better global collaboration among dispersed engineering teams.”

As part of its AWS partnership, HCLTech qualified for the AWS Managed Service Provider (MSP) Program, which validates AWS Partners’ business and technical managed services capabilities and offers promotional and technical support for their solutions. “The AWS MSP Program helps us integrate our expertise on AWS services and application support to deliver complete solutions to our customers worldwide,” says Burande. HCLTech worked with AWS through the AWS MSP Program to develop 1PLMCloud, a CAx/PLM platform as a solution based on AWS. The solution uses Amazon AppStream 2.0 service, a managed desktop and application virtualization service that helps users securely access data and applications from any supported device. 1PLMCloud integrates complex PLM solutions and CAD technology with HCLTech services and support. HCLTech collaborated with AWS to create the architectural framework, design, and test thesolution. Manufacturing companies can now use 1PLMCloud  to transform heterogeneous CAD and PLM environments into an on-demand, scalable environment. 

As a validated AWS MSP Partner, HCLTech was able to deliver business agility, cost savings, and enhanced security to its customers. 

Enterprises implementing 1PLMCloud can deliver a seamless user experience for remote product engineers and designers, who can access the platform from anywhere on any device. “We can help our customers increase collaboration because everyone can easily access the same platform on AWS,” says Burande. “The solution supports rich, graphics-intensive CAD applications so product engineers can stay productive wherever they’re working.” HCLTech has reduced organizations’ time to market through the agility gained from using AWS. “Customers can very quickly launch this environment because of the agility they get from being on AWS,” says Ashutosh Singhal, Head of PLM Cloud Center of Excellence (COE) at HCL Technologies. “New product launches can take up to two years for some manufacturers, so getting to market faster is a big advantage. In addition, they can easily scale the environment globally as they bring new users on board.”

Organizations that have deployed 1PLMCloud have seen a 30 percent improvement in the performance of their CAD applications. “We have done fine-tuning to remove performance bottlenecks, so our customers now have a very fluid experience using graphics-intensive applications,” says Singhal. In addition, HCLTech customers are experiencing lower IT infrastructure and management costs by implementing the solution. “In multiple instances, our customers have seen up to 25 percent cost savings by hosting their PLM environment on AWS,” continues Singhal. 

For manufacturing companies, strong application security is a critical factor in meeting compliance requirements. Because applications and data are not stored on users’ computers in 1PLMCloud, HCLTech customers can experience overall enhanced data protection and security. “Our customers are product manufacturers, so they need to protect their intellectual property data,” Singhal says. “AWS provides security at the data layer, along with network compliance globally, to help ensure that protection.”

As part of the AWS MSP Program, HCLTech will work with AWS to enhance 1PLMCloud and help roll it out to additional customers. “AWS is very engaged with its partners. We work with a dedicated AWS team that is helping us solve our customers’ problems and improve our solution,” concludes Singhal. “The AWS MSP Program has been a key differentiator for 1PLMCloud, and we expect that to continue.”