SAN MATEO, Calif. — Bom.com, a provider of browser-based lifecycle management tools, has changed its name to Arena Solutions Inc. to reflect its broadening product portfolio.
The company has expanded beyond its online bill-of-materials (BOM) service and has changed its name accordingly, said chief executive officer Michael Topolovac.
"We really outgrew what we were," said Topolovac, who cofounded the company in 2000. "People have known us for online BOM management, but we also do supply chain management, cost analysis, collaboration and change workflow. So we changed our name to reflect the depth and breadth of our product offerings."
Arena Solutions initially offered a browser-based bill of materials for which a customer paid a yearly subscription fee plus an access fee. The BOM software ran on hardware servers at a secure location and was maintained by Bom.com engineers.
Arena has also changed the name of its main product line, to Arena PLM. Users can customize the software to meet their specific needs, Topolovac said.
Arena has been successful since launching its first product a year ago, Topolovac said. It has seen four quarters of sequential growth and is on its way to becoming profitable, he said. It would likely have been profitable today if not for the slumping economy, Topolovac said.
Customers do not need to invest in hardware to get Arena's software product running. And unlike companies offering similar capabilities via an applications service provider, Arena does not require users to access an ASP and does not charge a fee to keep its software running, Topolovac said.
Arena offers a range of add-on modules that allow its software to be customized by a user company to fit its needs, and new modules are released roughly every three weeks, Topolovac said. The company also uses standard Internet transaction protocols and data formats, which facilitates the integration of the modules into Arena's base product.
Arena is now working with other companies to ensure that their systems work with Arena PLM. "We are introducing a much more expansive integration strategy," said Topolovac. "The tool now has the ability to interact with other enterprise applications that have information relative to that product."
The company is working with Cadence Design Systems, QAD and SolidWorks to ensure that Arena PLM reads relevant data in the same manner.
One-year subscriptions to Arena PLM start at $5,000, plus an additional $1,000, the company said.
