Centric Software has issued a number of new-product announcements in recent weeks. The company has devised a major upgrade, dubbed Release 3, of its Centric 8 Suite for product lifecycle management (PLM) and sourcing. The tool is aimed at fashion and consumer goods companies. The new release introduces Product Profitability Planning and Enterprise Search modules, major updates to the Product Specification module, and a Centric Connector for Adobe Creative Suite. Release 3 also includes an updated look and feel, along with performance improvements. The Product Profitability Planning module offers information on channel margins, product cost and gross margins, including royalties, shipping costs and gross margin return on investment, early in the product-development process. It factors all aspects of contribution margin into planning, allowing for the management of product profitability across development, sales channels and suppliers. The new Enterprise Search module extends search and discovery to information outside the Centric 8 suite. Product-specification enhancements include improved material management, storyboard and capabilities for construction details and packaging libraries. The new connector for Adobe Creative Suite integrates design sketches and files, at all stages of development, with every other piece of product design, supplier and manufacturing information. Designers can connect product-design files from any Adobe Creative Suite application, by saving their work and publishing it to the Centric 8 suite. Centric also announced the introduction of a connector that directly links Gerber Technology WebPDM, legacy product data management (PDM) software, with the Centric 8 PLM and sourcing suite. The integration allows data that is currently siloed within WebPDM to be used by others in the organization, including merchandising, product management and sourcing managers. Centric Software Centric 8 Upgrade Centric Software Product Profitability Planning Centric Software Adobe Creative Suite Centric Software Web PDM Link
