Five Reasons GSC Should Upgrade Your PDM 

Upgrading SOLIDWORKS PDM, at least annually, should not be considered optional. Nevertheless, there are a few reasons that compel people to defer the undertaking to the future. One reason, saving money, is actually a myth. Since 2016, renewing lapsed subscriptions includes the cost of all “skipped” major releases of the software. The overall cost is the same as upgrading annually but comes due all at once in the Nth year. 

Another reason is that you may feel it’s not worth the effort because you don’t “need” the new features rolled out with the release. Both admins and users will, however, benefit from the improvements to performance and reliability that are rolled out with them (and probably the new features too). 

If not for those reasons, the time and complexity involved in the upgrade itself is usually blamed for putting the upgrade off. Veteran PDM administrators are familiar with arduous off-hours upgrades, accompanied by the angst of fearing a misstep that can push downtime into valuable production hours. 

We grade ourselves on our customer’s success, so we absolutely want you to be running the latest and greatest version of SOLIDWORKS PDM at all times. We also want those upgrades to go smoothly. So, if you are considering postponing your upgrade for any of the reasons cited above, or if you’re leery of performing the red-eye work by yourself, please lean on us to take on the task instead. For every reason not to upgrade, or to go it alone with doubts or reservations, there are several better reasons to have us lead the effort. Here are five of those reasons. 

1. Expertise

If you’re like me, doing something once per year is like starting afresh each time regardless of what rep you’re on. For those of you with many reps and a better memory than mine, we still caution against the false assumption that every upgrade is identical. The installation guide is about 180 pages and is updated with each release. How many of those pages apply to your PDM upgrade can vary from one PDM environment to another and from year to year. Our team of experts do this all the time so we’re well-acquainted with the current process. You can expect more speed and accuracy from a GSC-led upgrade than from DIY efforts and admins can concentrate on what they do best knowing that we will iron out any wrinkles prior to your users returning to their desks. 

2. Best Practices

The SOLIDWORKS PDM Installation Guide is fairly unambiguous but there are multiple ways to navigate the process. It’s not exactly written in a choose-your-own-adventure format but there are some variables involved like: Which parts are optional in your environment? Which housekeeping measures should take place before getting started? What’s the preferred order of operations? Because of our familiarity with all the facets, nuance, and minutia in play, you can rest assured that GSC will follow best practice at each juncture of the upgrade process and that any potential troubleshooting can start with ruling out any misinterpretations of the standard operating procedure. 

3. Troubleshooting

The best way to ensure troubleshooting won’t be a part of your upgrade is to let GSC’s technical team do the work. As unlikely as it is, with the multitude of moving parts, there is a nonzero chance a hiccup may temporarily halt the upgrade progress. Just about all potential hiccups are easily recognized and rectified by our experts but, in the extremely rare event an anomaly isn’t easily triaged, we have a direct line to SOLIDWORKS for additional support. 

4. Efficiency

There is a nexus between doing things right and doing things quickly that we will call efficiency. Ensuring no essential backend data is left behind in the upgrade process is critical to the success of the end state but that doesn’t mean that it needs to take forever. We have many pro-tips to help with that but, unfortunately, by the time the need for one is recognized it’s often too late. This is especially important when upgrading large datasets and/or multiple vaults at once. Time is of the essence in those situations, and no one wants to be the culprit of extended downtime. 

5. Prerequisites

Upgrades happen as a response to technological evolution and SOLIDWORKS PDM relies on ancillary systems that are evolving alongside it. Each upgrade is, in part, required to support that evolution. Machine hardware, server hardware, operating systems, database software, VPN connections, etc., are all variables in this equation. To solve this equation, each new release of the software may require some reconfiguration of these variables. This is the most technical component of the upgrade and the PDM Admin/IT overlap at many organizations is not conducive to solving this equation on its own. GSC’s team of experts has the PDM administration and IT skillsets to work both sides of the equation and broker communication to all parties involved. 

In the end, there really is no “good” reason not to upgrade when a new release becomes available and GSC can, and will, have your back every year when the release hits.