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Enterprise PLM, delivered as a service

Windchill+.Keep product work moving.

Bring product information and team workflows into a SaaS operating model. Give the platform a service plan—and your people a clear path forward.

Explore the SaaS approach
Discuss your environment
Windchill product data, delivered as a serviceThe official Windchill vector symbol sits within a cloud-service study connected to product records, team access and service operations. These are illustrative delivery relationships, not a software interface or a promised service configuration.
Product continuity. Service-led operations.
Understand the service behind the software

What is SaaS
PLM software?

Software-as-a-service PLM provides product lifecycle management through a service-managed cloud environment, with operating responsibilities defined by the agreement.

Windchill+ uses the Windchill foundation: product structures, configurable workflows and change processes remain the working tools. The service model concerns how their supporting environment is operated and maintained.

A product decision stays with your team.

For a component revision, your reviewers assess the affected information and accept the change. SaaS delivery supports that work; it does not replace the engineering decision.

PLM work, supported by a service-managed environment.
The service environment
Clarify the contracted operating scope, supported configuration and update arrangements.
Your product organization
Own the data, user access, business processes and acceptance of change.
Connect the operating choice to everyday value

Advantages of
SaaS PLM software

Consider the gains in everyday work: less platform effort, clearer product context and an easier path for people to participate.

SaaS simplicity & ongoing improvement

Give internal teams more capacity for product work by agreeing which platform-management tasks are handled through the service.

A more approachable user experience

Help occasional participants complete their work with less explanation and fewer steps to find the right information.

AI-assisted productivity

Spend less effort locating knowledge and more time assessing whether it answers the engineering question.

A connected digital thread

Reduce the need to reconstruct why a decision was made when work passes to another discipline.

Wider enterprise collaboration

Reduce clarification loops between contributors by giving each participant a dependable reference for the work under review.

Support for controlled environments

Make review and acceptance evidence easier to follow as requirements, product information and responsibilities change.

Assess the gains against current effort, participant experience and review needs. The feature guide below covers capability prerequisites.

Explore configuration requirements
Explore the capability through a working task

Success with SaaS PLM software:
Top Windchill+ features

Explore seven capabilities through concrete review tasks. The advantages above explain the value; these readings help define what to evaluate.

AI-powered PLM intelligence

Document assistance and part rationalization support information discovery and reuse investigations.

Compare a specification answer with a similar-part candidate. Check the cited passage and the candidate’s engineering attributes before use.

What would count as useful evidence for each task?

Explore Windchill AI

Next-generation user experience

Role-oriented navigation, dashboards and product views organize everyday PLM tasks.

Ask a representative reviewer to find the right revision and complete one familiar task.

Which task still needs manual guidance?

Explore Windchill Navigate

Manufacturing process optimization

Manufacturing BOMs, process plans and 3D instructions carry product definitions into production planning.

Follow a component change into an affected operation, then identify who reviews the instruction.

What evidence confirms that the planning definition is ready?

Explore manufacturing process management

Integrated product engineering

Hardware and software relationships support traceable reviews and coordinated change.

Trace a hardware revision to an associated software requirement. Record which team resolves a mismatch before release.

Which dependency must both disciplines review?

Explore application lifecycle management

Enterprise collaboration & data sharing

Shared product records and controlled access connect colleagues and partners to relevant work.

Share an agreed drawing revision with a supplier reviewer. Check what they can view and how a response returns to the internal team.

Is the shared information current and appropriate for that reviewer?

Explore collaborative product development

Flexible extensions & customization

Supported configuration and extensions adapt the service to working requirements.

Select one existing customization and state the business rule it implements. Review supported options for preserving that rule.

What is the simplest supported way to retain that business intent?

Discuss PLM architecture

Multi-CAD & connected ecosystem

Connected design tools bring engineering files into managed product context.

Use an assembly from your actual authoring tools to review file relationships, versions and access.

Which supported connector and product relationships does this workflow need?

Explore product data management

Confirm supported releases, applications, connectors, permissions and entitlements for the proposed environment. AI and advanced functions are not automatically included in every deployment.

Choose access around the work

Windchill+ access
and author bundles

Start with the work each person performs. View and Contribute support information access and participation; Author supports controlled content creation and management. Specialist author bundles then add discipline-specific capabilities. These are access and application choices within Windchill+, not different SaaS delivery models.

View
Browser search and viewing, non-CAD downloads, Creo View Lite and project participation, with entitled Navigate viewing apps.
Contribute
Adds document creation, issue reporting and review or approval participation, with entitled contribution apps.
Author
Adds document and change management, project plans, dynamic document integrations, PDF markup, security labels, document classification, Office publishing and storage allocation to the viewing and contribution functions.

Match authoring depth to the discipline

Use these descriptions to prepare a role-and-task discussion, rather than assign every user the broadest package. Identify the records each team creates, the decisions it makes and the information it needs from other disciplines; TriStar can confirm the applicable bundle and permissions.

Engineering4 bundles

  • Design Engineering Lite

    Manage MCAD creation, CAD publishing and additional storage.

  • Design Engineering

    Add parts, classification, sourcing and BOM structures to Lite.

  • Product Engineering

    Author parts, classification, sourcing and BOM structures.

  • Advanced Product Design

    Define complex configurable platforms and transform BOMs.

Manufacturing1 bundle

  • Manufacturing

    Manage classified parts and sourcing, associative manufacturing BOMs, process plans and related work instructions.

Quality2 bundles

  • Quality Management

    Connect CAPA, nonconformance, complaints, controlled documents and training with classified parts and BOMs.

  • Audit Management

    Manage audits and quality documentation alongside classified parts and BOMs.

Service2 bundles

  • Service Information

    Manage multilingual publications, service information and part associativity, with classified parts and BOMs.

  • Service Parts

    Extend Service Information with catalogs, associative service BOMs, parts lists, illustrations and service parts.

These Windchill+ role bundles are separate from the Windchill Enterprise tiers. Confirm Navigate app access, bundle contents, capacity and licensing with TriStar; updates follow the SaaS service terms.

Compare Windchill Enterprise packagesDiscuss Windchill+ licensing
A transition is more than a hosting move

Assess the fit.
Prepare the move.

PTC describes the transition in three phases: Assess, Convert and Operate. Use the sequence to organize decisions, evidence and ownership—not just technical tasks.

  1. Assess

    Understand the current environment, hardware and customizations.

    Bring an inventory of interfaces, working processes and user groups. Agree the target scope and the questions that must be answered before conversion.

    A shared view of the starting point.

  2. Convert

    Standardize the required customizations, export, upgrade and validate the environment.

    Keep representative product data and working scenarios available for review. Assign people to examine the converted behavior against agreed expectations.

    A reviewed transition candidate.

  3. Operate

    Move through go-live into day-to-day operations.

    Make support routes, administration responsibilities and user preparation visible. Keep an owner for the issues that need attention after the move.

    An explicit working handover.

For product-release detail, use the separate Windchill update guide. Migration scope and service arrangements are confirmed for your environment.

Explore Windchill updates
Put the service decision in a real operating context

Different products.
Specific planning questions.

A service decision changes with the information, obligations and system boundaries involved. Use these three situations to define what your evaluation must prove.

Jet engine in an aerospace manufacturing facility.
Aerospace & Defense

Define the required boundary.

Identify the program information, access expectations and contractual requirements that determine which offering and service arrangement can be considered. Have the responsible security and program teams assess the fit.

Program boundary

Which requirements must the target environment satisfy?

Explore Aerospace & Defense
Medical imaging equipment and precision device components.
MedTech

Plan the controlled transition.

Start with a released device-document set. Agree how its approval history and required evidence must remain inspectable in the target environment.

Controlled evidence

Which records must remain inspectable throughout the transition?

Explore MedTech
Industrial machinery and precision mechanical assemblies.
Industrial machinery

Follow a working handoff.

Review a configured machine’s BOM handoff to the receiving business system, including exceptions, update ownership and support escalation.

System handoff

Who resolves a rejected or incomplete exchange?

Explore Industrial Machinery
Clarify the operating decision

Windchill+ questions.
A practical starting point.

Set expectations for the service, the transition and the responsibilities that remain with your organization.

How does Windchill+ differ from Windchill?

The main distinction is the delivery and operating arrangement. Establish who provides the application service and what remains your responsibility.

Is moving a server to the cloud the same as adopting SaaS?

A cloud-hosted server can still leave application maintenance with your organization. SaaS is a defined application service, so compare responsibilities rather than server location alone.

What happens to our existing customizations?

Review each customization individually. Moving to SaaS does not by itself establish that it can be carried over unchanged.

Where should a migration discussion begin?

Begin before setting a go-live date: agree the starting environment, intended scope and people who can accept the result.

Is every module and AI capability included?

Inclusion is confirmed in the proposed subscription and configuration; a feature appearing in this guide is not an entitlement statement.

Make the operating model concrete

Bring your environment.
Define the next step.

Talk through the business priority that will determine whether the next step is worth taking.

Talk to TriStar