Black Diamond Keeps PLM Costs Down with Centric's Agile Deployment

Black Diamond, Inc. has selected Centric Software, Inc. as its product lifecycle management (PLM) system provider.

Black Diamond will implement Centric 8 PLM software for all product lines, including Black Diamond Equipment hardgoods and apparel, Gregory Mountain Products packs, and POC protective gear, over time. "The Centric PLM system will help Black Diamond improve its materials management functions and provide visibility of materials usage across all product lines," says Walter Wilhelm, vice president of business process at Black Diamond. "In a company whose technically sophisticated products incorporate innovative materials, the Centric PLM suite will help assure the most cost-effective purchasing of these top-quality materials." Those materials are critical to Black Diamond's product quality, product performance and customer satisfaction.

"Black Diamond conducted an extensive PLM system evaluation process before choosing Centric," says Wilhelm. "We selected Centric for its out-of-the-box, best-in-class functionality, its intuitive user experience, and the overall cost of ownership of the system," he explains. The expertise of the Centric team was another factor in Black Diamond's decision. "Both Black Diamond and Centric focus on product innovation-a shared focus that provides a foundation for a solid relationship."

Colin Israel, managing director of Asia operations at Black Diamond, agrees. "Centric clearly represented the best value," he concludes. He cites Black Diamond's analysis of total cost of ownership, which evaluated system costs for the major PLM system vendors over a five-year period. Centric excelled in system ease of use, which impacts cost of training and user adoption. Israel also points out the reduced costs of implementation associated with Centric's Agile Deployment methodology, and the low costs of upgrades for the Centric system.