Patents play a crucial role in protecting intellectual property (IP) and providing the owner with exclusive and legal rights to their invention. This also applies to software, provided that the invention solves a technical problem.
It's important to note that patents are typically filed in specific countries or geographical regions, and therefore may have different rules and scope. Specialized IP registration agencies, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), can help protect IP rights across different countries. In addition to providing legal protection, granted patents can also be used as valuable marketing and communication tools, and investors often recognize the value of a company’s IP protection. Having a large number of patents can signify a company's commitment to investment in research and development, as well as their commitment to innovation and growth.
However, it is difficult to determine the value of a company’s patents or how they are being used, as the number of patents granted can vary greatly depending on the company, its size and the focus of its research and development efforts. Some of the well-known companies in the PLM industry that have been granted numerous patents include Dassault Systèmes, Siemens PLM Software, PTC and Autodesk.
PLM patents might relate to various aspects of product design, collaboration, data management, simulation and visualization. Either way, they demonstrate a company’s commitment to innovation and the development of cutting-edge PLM technologies. Though patents are public knowledge, they are rarely advertised when being filed or granted to avoid unnecessary attention from competitors and to protect their competitive advantages.
In a recent press release, however, OpenBOM announced that it has been granted its second patent in the United States. In this article, I report on a conversation with Oleg Shilovitsky, CEO and co-founder of OpenBOM, regarding the scope of his patents and implications towards real-time cross-organization collaboration.
OpenBOM's PLM Patents
OpenBOM offers a cloud-based bill of materials (BOM) management solution, mainly targeting small and medium enterprises. Simply put by Shilovitsky, “a bill of materials, or product structure, is a list of the assemblies, items and the quantities needed of each to get a finished product.” OpenBOM has recently been granted two patents in the U.S., covering the areas of multi-member collaboration and data management as well as collaborative BOM management:
- US Patent 11,315,080: Multi-Member Collaboration and Data Management System and Method (granted April 26, 2022).
- US Patent 11,037,103: System and Method for Collaborative Bill of Materials Management (granted June 15, 2021).
Shilovitsky highlighted that “the uniqueness of OpenBOM is in multi-tenant data model and collaborative [mechanisms] that [allow] changes of product structure [which are] done simultaneously.” He also expanded on three key focus areas being addressed through these patents:
- Multi-tenant network architecture
- Flexible data models
- Real-time collaboration
OpenBOM's patents highlight its focus on improving cross-organization collaboration through its BOM data model, enabling effective data sharing and collaboration among multiple stakeholders in the product development process. They also demonstrate the company’s commitment to innovation and its efforts to address the challenges faced by organizations in managing their BOM data effectively.
Multi-tenant Network Architecture
Multi-tenant network architecture is a design principle used in cloud computing to provide efficient and secure network services to multiple tenants or customers, each of whom can have its own virtual network environment. The architecture allows for multiple tenants to share the same physical infrastructure, but with separate logical network components that are isolated from each other. This allows for each tenant to have its own virtual network environment with its own custom settings, configurations and security policies.
In a multi-tenant network architecture, each tenant's data is isolated from the data of other tenants, which helps to ensure that one tenant's activities do not affect another tenant's network performance or security. In addition, the architecture enables service providers to efficiently manage and monitor their network resources, which can lead to reduced operational costs and improved network performance.
“Existing platforms are all single tenant, which is [a] gap that creates a huge difference for OpenBOM [and its] usage to create networked communication between multiple manufacturing companies and suppliers.” claimed Shilovitsky.
According to Shilovitsky, OpenBOM's multi-tenancy is a defining feature that sets it apart from other PLM solutions. Multi-tenancy is the number one unique selling point (USP) that is highlighted in most posts published on Shilovitsky’s blog Beyond PLM. Mainstream PLM options tend to focus on single tenancy SAAS and cloud offerings, often reserving detailed architecture to confidential pre-sales discussions with their customers.
Technically speaking, the multi-tenancy capability is made possible through the integration of advanced web-based network infrastructure and multi-database technologies. This allows for horizontal scaling using a "polyglot persistence" approach, utilizing various languages for web programming, databases, servers and applications, each chosen for its specific strengths to ultimately achieve the desired outcome.
Flexible Data Model
A flexible data model is an important concept in PLM as it allows organizations to store and manage product data in a way that can adapt and change to meet their evolving needs. A flexible data model refers to a system or structure for storing and organizing product data that can accommodate a variety of data types and formats, as well as changing business requirements. This allows for the addition, deletion or modification of product data elements without disrupting the overall PLM system—typically a task orchestrated by business data stewards.
In contrast to rigid data models, which have strict definitions for product data types and relationships, flexible data models allow for the creation of custom product data elements and relationships, as well as the ability to store unstructured product data such as images and text. This makes flexible data models ideal for organizations that need to store a variety of product data types or formats and need the ability to quickly adapt to changing business requirements.
Flexible data models are commonly used in PLM applications that need to store and manage large amounts of dynamic or unstructured product data, such as product designs, specifications and BOMs. By providing the ability to store and organize product data in a way that can adapt and change over time, flexible data models can help organizations better manage and understand their product data, and make more informed decisions based on that data throughout the entire product lifecycle.
OpenBOM is bringing this to the next level in combination with multi-tenancy based on a common data model with data segregation at object and attribute level across organizations. Shilovitsky explained that organizations are in full control of custom data model extensions and what data can be exposed to other organizations using OpenBOM.
Shilovitsky explained that “companies can use OpenBOM [to] share data in a very granular form while accessing only fragments of the data.” In other words, it combines pre-built business rules with controlled propagation of data visibility to drive effective collaboration, towards a “truly connected” world across tenants of the same platform. This supports the idea of a single platform across organizations, which is only realistic without heavy customization or complex external integration.
Real-time Collaboration
The idea of a flexible data model is not new and is mentioned by every enterprise platform vendor. It refers to real-time (or near real-time) collaboration in PLM by enabling teams to concurrently access and share product data, regardless of their location or device. With a flexible data model, PLM vendors claim that business teams can make updates to product data in real-time, and those updates are immediately reflected across the PLM system. The marketing catch-phrase is that it enables teams to collaborate more efficiently, share information more easily and make better-informed decisions based on the most up-to-date product data.
For example, in a PLM system with a rigid data model, making updates to product data can be a slow and laborious process, as changes often require complex programming and IT support. With a flexible data model, however, teams can make updates to product data on their own by leveraging low-code, no-code or other technologies, without having to rely on in-depth technical support. In theory, this can lead to faster and more agile product development, as teams can quickly make updates and respond to changes in real-time.
According to Shilovitsky, a flexible data model supports real-time collaboration by allowing teams to access and share product data across tenants of the same platform. Clearly, having all users on the same platform will make it easier for teams to collaborate, regardless of their location or device, as they can access and update product data from the same source. Furthermore, Shilovitsky refers to “BOM-as-a-service” with the ability to concurrently share and edit BOMs and/or associated components—in a similar way that Google Docs allow for multi-user document update.
The phrase “concurrent engineering” typically refers to suppliers working in their customers’ PLM platform, following common product development processes and data standards. The need for “real-time” is perhaps subjective, based on the business scenarios and commercial implications. Real-time analytics are valuable within a given organization, yet are potentially more difficult to achieve across organizations. Tracking changes and providing the ability to experiment, baselining ideas, performing impact analyses and giving visibility to others at the right time sit at the core of this PLM value proposition.