Software as a Service (SaaS): The On-Demand Advantage

1. Rapid start

All you need to start using Arena is an Internet connection and a standard web browser. With a library of pre-configured workspaces to set your company up for best practices in bill of materials (BOM), item and engineering change management, Arena can get you up and running in a matter of hours or days, not the months or years required for traditional client/server enterprise systems. Your company can get its BOMs under control quickly and begin seeing a positive ROI faster.

2. Reduced risk

As a subscription-based service, Arena requires no upfront capital investment and allows customers to pay as they go. We give you the flexibility to scale up or scale down as your business changes; you pay for only the licenses you need, when you need them.

3. Lowest total cost of ownership

With Arena, you avoid the hidden costs and hassles of traditional client/server enterprise systems. Arena is an on-demand (SaaS) solution, so there’s no software or hardware to buy, no expensive installations, no maintenance fees, no costly upgrades and no incremental IT resources required. Unlike traditional enterprise software, Arena offers subscription pricing that includes everything you need, so you won’t be surprised later by hidden technology or personnel costs that quickly surpass your original licensing fees.

4. Global access, anytime, anywhere

As a secure, Internet-based service, Arena provides 24/7 access to members of your team and extended supply chain anywhere in the world. Once you’ve granted them permission, any employee, supplier or partner can access up-to-date product data just by logging into Arena from a standard Web browser.

5. Seamless collaboration

Arena enables you and your design partners, suppliers and contract manufacturers to collaborate around the latest data using only a web browser and Internet connection. Arena ensures that all product team members see current product information by providing persistent access to a single, revision-controlled product record containing all parts, BOMs, files, costs, quotes, sourcing relationships (i.e., AVL/AML) and more.

6. Powerful data management

BOMs are complex collections of interlinked information, connecting the item master with assemblies, manufacturers, drawings and more. Without a tool like Arena, the only way to capture these relationships is with complicated formulas in individual Excel bills of materials and fragile links between spreadsheet BOMs. The quality of that data is only as good as each team member’s Excel skills, and even the most carefully crafted macros can break when just a single change is made. With Arena, all of your data is managed in a powerful relational database designed specifically to capture interconnected product information, and every member of your team is using a system that enforces best practices in revision control, engineering change management and other product development processes.

7. On-demand support tools

Arena gives customers the support they need, when they need it. Every page of Arena has a FastFeedback™ link—your direct line to our technical support team—where you can ask a question, report a problem or suggest an enhancement. You can attend a training course from your desk by watching an on-demand tutorial or logging into a live online class. And if you’re curious to hear from other customers, you can talk to them in the Arena Discussion Forums.

8. Built-in innovation

By constantly innovating the Arena service and automatically providing every single customer with multiple upgrades a year, Arena removes the headaches of managing software and frees companies to focus on innovating their own products. In contrast, with a client/server solution, you might get an update installed every two to three years…but only after tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of dollars in upgrade, maintenance and consulting fees. With Arena, you always have access to the latest features and functionality. Seamlessly. Effortlessly. Painlessly.

9. Performance guarantees and network availability

With a true multi-tenant, on-demand system, Arena has just a single shared infrastructure to maintain and can give customers a level of network uptime and availability far beyond what they could provide for themselves with a traditional client/server solution. Every Arena subscription comes with a service level agreement (SLA) guaranteeing a minimum planned uptime and availability of 99.5%. You can see for yourself how we’ve performed against this promise. Since 2001, Arena has had better than 99.98% uptime, exceeding our SLA and providing customers with unparalleled performance and availability.

10. World-class security

Best-in-class, financial-grade security infrastructure protects your critical intellectual property assets. Arena has invested millions of dollars in technology, people and processes to provide all of its customers with a level of ironclad security that would otherwise be available only to companies with the deepest pockets and savviest IT personnel. We take protection of your IP seriously, and we invest continuously to ensure we’re always on the leading edge.