Press Releases

Arena PLM Supports Topspin Communications’ Successful
OEM Business

Arena PLM helps Topspin reduce time-to-market by more than 50%

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 11, 2003 — Arena Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of online product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, today announced that Topspin Communications, the leader in switched computing, has employed Arena PLM in support of its business operations. Over the past six months, Arena PLM helped Topspin design, develop and deliver innovative production-quality products, reducing its time-to-market by more than 50%. This efficiency gain has already helped Topspin win several significant OEM deals for its products. Topspin was also recently selected by Network World as one of its Top Ten Startups to Watch.

“Arena PLM has substantially improved Topspin’s design and manufacturing operations by enabling much more effective concurrent engineering and materials planning,” said Gary Mueller, Topspin’s Vice President of Operations. “Using Arena PLM, we reduced the design-release-to-prototype cycle from an average of three weeks to just six days and the ’concept-to-cash’ new product introduction cycle to four months. Combined with Topspin’s industry-leading products, these efficiency improvements helped us demonstrate superior execution capabilities that were critical to winning several major deals with large systems vendors.”

By centralizing Topspin’s product data, Arena PLM lets Topspin engineers work concurrently from the same engineering bill of materials (BOM), reducing mistakes and lost time due to rework. In addition, materials planners, accessing the same product data in Arena PLM, can source parts and evaluate their availability in parallel with engineering, thus providing real-time feedback to engineering before a part is integrated into a design. With improved concurrent engineering and collaborative materials planning, Topspin can bring manufacturable products to market very efficiently.

Arena PLM also provides Topspin with a central online location for controlled sharing of product information with its supply chain. This gives Topspin’s global suppliers real-time, 24x7 access to complete and accurate product records and significantly reduces supplier errors.

“Managing our product data, enabling real-time visibility throughout our entire supply chain, and keeping tight change control are critical to Topspin’s operational success,” noted Gary Mueller of Topspin. “Spreadsheets and email are not scalable and could never provide all the intelligence of a PLM solution. Without Arena PLM, Topspin would not be able to efficiently manage its most critical competitive capability: introducing innovative products faster and better than its competition. The results with Arena PLM speak for themselves.”

About Topspin
Topspin is a systems company that provides the foundation for switched computing, a new computing model enabling industry-standard computing resources to be rapidly deployed to match the dynamic needs of business applications. Topspin delivers a compelling return on investment by improving server and network utilization, promoting resource flexibility, and dramatically reducing equipment and management costs. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Topspin has assembled a first-rate management team and world-class investors, blending together a wealth of experience in the four key technology areas that converge on the enterprise data center-server, storage, networking, and applications. Additional information is available at www.topspin.com or by calling 1-866-TOPSPIN.

About Arena Solutions
Arena Solutions is the leading provider of on–demand (SaaS) product lifecycle management solutions for manufacturing companies of all sizes. As the only true on–demand, secure Internet–based PLM service, Arena PLM provides a superior alternative to complicated, lengthy and expensive traditional PLM software deployments. Through its award–winning service, Arena enables product manufacturers and their global supply chains to streamline outsourcing, improve operational efficiencies, and speed time–to–market. Arena PLM has been adopted by more than 15,000 users across companies at all stages of development, including industry leaders Foundry Networks, Color Kinetics, Intuit, Sierra Wireless, Align Technology and more.

Arena Solutions’ market–changing approach to PLM has received significant recognition in the industry, including Manufacturing Business Technology’s Top 40 Emerging Vendors, the Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100, Industry Week’s “Technology of the Year – Notable Innovators” and Start Magazine’s “Hottest” Companies.

Founded in February 2000, Arena Solutions is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.arenasolutions.com.

Contact:
Cindi Goodsell
cgoodsell@arenasolutions.com
1.510.479.9015

Arena PLM is a trademark of Arena Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders.