Hello Doug,
I can echo others comments about Windchill support calls versus Creo. I would definitely recommend maintenance on going. If you have the Creo license level that comes bundled with Windchill as you said, you may want to consider only having as many Windchill users as you have Creo users. If you need extra non-Creo users in Windchill, you'll have to buy more Windchill only licenses. Note they come in different usage levels: Heavy, Light, View and Print. Though I have also seen the descriptors Author, Consumer, and View and Print. There are predefined ratios required of Heavy to Light. (Author to Consumer)
Another option is to consider PTC's cloud offering? It seems really cost competitive, especially when you factor in the cost of paying:
- A PTC Partner or PTC Global Services to help set it up and configure it.
- PTC University Windchill training license(s). Or more expensive: One time class room training (I wouldn't go that way.)
- At least 0.5 Full time employee for Admin and patching.
- MS SQL or Oracle database License fees.
- MS SQL or Oracle database administration: You may find an on demand provider, unless you have Oracle database or MS SQL database admins on staff already.
- Racks, Servers (Production, and development as a minimum, more if your needs are greater.)
- Data backup systems.
- Disaster recovery data location (off site.)
- Other costs I may have missed.
We are planning on moving to PTC Cloud at some point. It is very cost competitive to the build your own solution on Amazon. I did an intensive investigation on the subject and talked with the admin of a company that uses PTC Cloud with great success.
Best Regards,
- Jim