Propel Launches Supplier Community Solution for Manufacturers

Powered by Salesforce Experience Cloud, new offering extends Product 360 with modern approach for secure and frictionless supplier collaboration

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Propel, developer of the only unified quality management (QMS) and product lifecycle management (PLM) solution built on Salesforce, today announced the Propel Supplier Community, a new solution to improve supply chain collaboration. It will allow manufacturers to more effectively manage dynamic supply networks within a modern, secure environment optimized for rapid onboarding, continuous performance monitoring, and immersive collaboration.

Manufacturers are adjusting to massive supply chain disruptions across the entire value chain and at every stage of the product life cycle: design, engineering, offshore production and beyond. On premise solutions require workarounds - such as third-party file sharing, VPNs, and external firewall access - which increase risk and overhead. This hinders collaboration, reducing the number of suppliers that manufacturers can productively engage -- an outcome they cannot afford in the current environment.

“As manufacturers are constantly challenged to balance risk mitigation, design innovation and cost management, Propel’s Supplier Community enables our customers to extend the value of Product 360 to their strategic and operational suppliers,” said Ray Hein, co-founder and CEO, Propel. “By removing the friction that external users typically confront, this new solution will help manufacturers to easily onboard and collaborate with suppliers anywhere in the world.”

The Propel Supplier Community will be available in calendar Q1 2022 and enables:

• A secure environment for collaboration between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and authenticated suppliers to safeguard intellectual property
• An intuitive and configurable role-based user experience to facilitate broad supplier adoption
• Embedded communication associated with the product definition to capture knowledge in context and improve decision-making
• Supplier-initiated change requests to reduce design and change cycle times
• Flexible pricing for OEMs featuring user-based licensing for strategic suppliers and usage-based licensing for operational suppliers to reduce cost of ownership
• Access for contract manufacturers (CMs) and support for a range of business models: Build-to-stock (BTS), engineer-to-order (ETO), and configure-to-order (CTO)
• Closed loop quality management through continuous feedback to improve product quality, reduce warranty expense, and speed issue resolution cycle time

“Just like the focus on the customer experience is driving improved engagement between businesses and consumers, the field of supplier collaboration holds strategic importance for many companies. Every day brings news of new supply chain disruptions,” said Peter Bilello, CEO & President, CIMdata, Inc. “More than ever, product companies need efficient and effective ways to identify, qualify, onboard, and collaborate with suppliers to ensure product quality and business continuity. Propel Supplier Community has the potential to redefine OEM-supplier collaboration with its innovative approach to improving insight and reducing friction within supply networks,” he further added.

Attendees of Propulsion 2021, Propel’s second annual virtual conference, will get a first look at the new Supplier Community. The event will be held October 12-13, 2021 and will include keynotes from top experts, including the acclaimed author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win, Geoffrey Moore; political pundit and lobbyist Bruce Mehlman; and Salesforce’s SVP Manufacturing, Automotive, Energy, Travel, Transportation, & Hospitality, Manufacturing Evangelist Cindy Bolt; and more.

For more information about Propel, visit propelplm.com and to register for Propulsion 2021, visit propelplm.com/propulsion2021.

About Propel

Propel enables Product 360, the modern way to take products from concept to customer. Born in the cloud and built on Salesforce, Propel helps manufacturers collaborate across the entire value chain to get the right products to market faster and at higher margins. Companies of all types trust Propel to achieve product success, from hyper-growth startups like Desktop Metal, Imperative Care, and Inari Medical, to established innovators like Traeger, Simplisafe, and Vizio, to Fortune 500 companies like Shell and Zoetis. For more information, visit propelplm.com and follow us on LinkedIn.