An Overview of Vuuch


Vuuch is the first example of a new category of social networking software. Vuuch is an Enterprise Social System. ESSs are based on social networking technology, but instead of being for personal networking, they are specifically designed for business use.


ESSs preserve all the ease-of-use of a traditional social network (that is, everyone knows how to use an ESS without training) but they go beyond simply connecting people to each other. ESSs bind people and their work products together to produce that enterprise's products and/or services.


A crucial difference from consumer-based social networks is that ESSs are domain-specific. Domain specificity means the ESS has the ability to understand that industry's basic concepts, deliverables and workflows. A consumer-oriented social network understands "pictures" and how to share them. But a health care ESS would know that X-rays are not just images, but part of a medical process that might include radiologists, primary care physicians, nurses, insurance companies and patients. 


Vuuch is an ESS for manufacturers. This means that Vuuch natively understands concepts like "product," "project," "CAD file" and "PLM system." Click here to see Vuuch working in a SolidWorks model. Because Vuuch is an ESS designed and built specifically for manufacturing, it knows how to link people to each other through deliverables (like a CAD model) that are a fundamental part of a product development project team's workflow.


In addition to domain-specific deliverables, Vuuch knows that people need to work with "tasks" and "issues" and "discussions" related to deliverables.  So Vuuch understands both the deliverables and what needs to be done with them by the team. And Vuuch knows that people will insist on working in their preferred tools. So, Vuuch ESS does something that has been very rare until now: it dynamically links people together to work on deliverables without making anyone "go to" a site (like a SharePoint site) or change their way of working. If you spend your time in SolidWorks, you work with the team in SolidWorks. If you are primarily an Outlook user, you interact with the team from Outlook. This means Vuuch is easy to learn, easy to adopt and adapt to a company's specific workflow.


Because Vuuch is designed for manufacturers, it delivers real change in the way product development teams work and is the natural next step for users who have already deployed PLM and CAD tools.


 


Getting Started with Vuuch


Two simple concepts are all you need to learn how to use Vuuch:



  • Vuuch pages: A Vuuch page represents something the team is delivering. This can be a product, a part, a specific CAD model or any Microsoft Office document. General pages can be created that are not linked to a specific deliverable. A Vuuch page collects together information about the item it represents inclusive of notes, the status of the deliverable, issues, tasks and discussions.

  • Vuuch activities: Vuuch activities are threaded discussions that appear on Vuuch pages and are associated with the item named on a Vuuch page. Vuuch activities are classified as discussions, tasks or issues and have a status of red, yellow, green or on hold. Activities can also be dynamically assigned to new team members and assigned due dates. Vuuch activities represent the workflow associated with any item that has its own Vuuch page.

Vuuch is incredibly easy to start using. Most teams simply import the Excel spreadsheet they have been using at status meetings using Vuuch's import capabilities. It's just that easy to get started.


 


Benefits of Using Vuuch for Manufacturers


For Product Development Teams



  • Track part-specific information in a single location

  • Manage projects in real-time

  • Improve quality

  • Reduce time-to-market

  • Dynamically interact with partners, suppliers and consultants

For Project Managers



  • Stop wasting time with lists that are always out of date

  • Manage using real-time information

  • Access Vuuch through the applications already in use

  • Keep everyone up to date with real-time awareness and notification

  • Track part-specific information in a single location

  • Access part-specific information through design tools

  • Involve only those people who are needed to work on a task or issue 

For the Enterprise



  • Compliance – Gain a full understanding of who was involved and why

  • Security – Control the flow of IP

  • Design History – Capture a complete history of how teams get things done

  • Distribute – Convert business deliverables to a portal