Arena and Octopart Collaborate to help OEMs using Supplier Item Lookup

With Arena’s Supplier Item Lookup (SIL) for Octopart, OEMs can look up component availability and compliance within Arena PLM, the industry-leading product lifecycle management solution (PLM). No one wants to look down the barrel of a ‘snub-nosed-EOL’.

Octopart is one of the leading search engines for electronic components and powers the part lookup functionality in Arena PLM’s Supplier Item Lookup found in Arena. One can even get a feel for recent pricing trends.

We recently met with Janine Yoong, Head of Marketing and Distribution at Octopart, to discuss how Arena’s increasingly robust relationship with Octopart has enabled manufacturers to find parts faster and easier.

Interviewer: What is the value each company offers the other?

Janine: Octopart values Arena as a partner because of its distribution reach as well as how it illustrates the power of the cloud in manufacturing. Arena values Octopart’s powerful search technology and growing part database.

Interviewer: Why should Arena PLM customers care?

Janine: Everyone in the design, sourcing, and manufacturing process stumbles upon data problems, whether it’s non-transparent pricing or hard-to-get technical information. This integration puts available data at the customers’ fingertips.

Interviewer: Describe the benefits to OEMs.

Janine: OEMs save time by being able to quickly lookup part information, a tedious and arduous process of going through different supplier websites. They also save money by having better access to the best prices and managing lead times.

Interviewer: What challenges does Octopart and Arena help solve?

Janine: Part data today is unstructured, difficult to access, and exorbitantly expensive. We are working together to open up access to part data in design, sourcing, and manufacturing.

Interviewer: How do you see it evolving moving forward?

Janine: As Octopart’s database grows, we expect to see more part information exposed to the user. We also would support Arena in implementing more sophisticated features, e.g. historical pricing, alerts, and much more.

Interviewer: How do different functions in a manufacturing organization benefit from this relationship?

Janine: Design engineers are able to find parts based on technical specs, compliance status, and more. Sourcing professionals and project managers are able to optimize the supply chain with information on better pricing and availability information.

Interviewer: What do you like about Arena?

Janine: Arena’s team is extremely collaborative and open to trying new things. They also “get” the cloud and share our passion to make it easier for people to develop innovative products.

We agree and are proud to integrate with Octopart and provide our users with an efficient tool to make making products much easier.

If you are an OEM interested in learning how you can use Arena’s Supplier Item Lookup to find components faster to accelerate time to market and maximize business results, please contact an Arena Account Executive for more info on Supplier Item Lookup.