April 3, 2019
If you visit OpenBOM website for the first time, you might be curious – who is OpenBOM for? The best way to explore OpenBOM is to get to our subscription model, which can give you an idea of how to start using OpenBOM.
Let me start by telling our vision: “OpenBOM is for everyone who design, engineer, manufacturer, or even sell products.”
The way we look on this came from Bill of Materials data excellence. OpenBOM data model is a simple yet powerful design to support very simple use cases of simple part lists done by hobbyist designers, as well as complex product structures designed by manufacturing companies. Of course, we are real – there is a sweet spot where OpenBOM is excellent today. And there is also a place where we’re still working on OpenBOM improvements to provide a more sophisticated way to handle information.
Let me go with more detailed explanations of OpenBOM subscription levels.
User Subscription
A user subscription is an entry-level to OpenBOM for everyone. Using this subscription, OpenBOM gives you basic data management features for Bill of Materials, catalogs, calculations, and rollups. It also gives you a set of out-of-the-box popular CAD integrations (eg., Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Fusion 360, Onshape, Solidworks, Solid Edge, and others).
Professional User Subscription
The one that gives you a solid set of business features to manage parts, BOMs, vendors, as well as do planning of production and purchasing. It is mostly focusing on batch planning. Can be very useful in small batches and pre-production activities.
Team Subscription
Extends OpenBOM to support the management of team activities including administration role to manage subscriptions, as well as role-based data sharing (Team Views). So, you can share a specific set of data to each person in your team, contractors, and suppliers.
Enterprise
Custom subscription to support our growing group of special users demanding more sophisticated integrations, security levels, and hosting provisions.
Conclusion
What is the right subscription for you? User subscription is always the best way to start with OpenBOM and explore the way OpenBOM manages information about parts and data structure. If you are an engineer or contractor working on a design to produce BOMs for purchases or contract manufacturing work.
You should go to a Professional version to manage parts, vendors, and purchases. If you plan using OpenBOM as a team, you can start from the Team version. And for all other situations, please contact us to discuss how Enterprise subscription can help you.
Best, Oleg
