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Introduction
At Kamstrup, Aras Innovator® evolved from a platform for change management and product structures into a broader system for governance, compliance, and connected product data. Today, it supports managing parts, bills of materials (BOM), configuration structures, and change processes. Over time, additional workflows, such as part verification, part requests, and commercial lifecycle management, have also been integrated. As the company continues to focus on cleaner, more connected, secure, and scalable product data, PLM is taking on a more strategic role within the organization.
About Kamstrup
Kamstrup, founded in Denmark in 1946, is a leading provider of intelligent metering solutions, product data, and digital utility infrastructure for water and energy utilities. With revenue of DKK 3.5 billion in 2025 (approximately €470 million) and operations in 22 countries, their solutions help utilities collect and use consumption data more efficiently, supporting smarter infrastructure and resource management.
Given the highly configurable nature of Kamstrup products, managing product structures, configurations, and engineering data consistently is critical. Additionally, growing regulatory demands regarding compliance and material transparency are creating new challenges for product lifecycle management.
Pain Points
Kamstrup has relied on Aras Innovator for many years, initially using it as a foundation for change management and product structures. However, it was not used with significant strategic focus for a long time. Eventually, the platform became heavily customized to support the company’s specific processes. While this flexibility had its benefits, it also introduced growing technical complexity. System upgrades became lengthy and resource-intensive.
At the same time, regulatory pressure was increasing, and new requirements on substances of very high concern (SVHCs) made controlling material and chemical data even more urgent. Supply chain disruptions in recent years brought new challenges. As component shortages reduced availability, Kamstrup increased its focus on dual sourcing strategies. Managing approved manufacturer lists (AMLs) within PLM became an important tool for improving supply chain resilience.
Some collaboration processes, particularly with suppliers, however, still relied on manual document exchange via email. Connections within the PLM environment remained underdeveloped across requirements management, variant management, and component engineering. Today, this is changing. PLM is taking on a more strategic role within Kamstrup, and the focus has shifted from managing complexity to building a cleaner, more connected foundation for the future.
PLM Requirements
As Kamstrup continued to refine its PLM strategy, the company shifted its focus to reducing fragmentation and establishing dedicated platforms across its application landscape. This required a PLM platform that could support configurable product structures, improve lifecycle governance, and minimize reliance on custom code. Kamstrup also wanted to connect product-related data more effectively across systems and teams while supporting long-term scalability. This necessitated a growing focus on data quality, security, and connected processes.
What’s important to us is: We’re implementing a strategy based on clean, connected, secure, and scalable solutions.
Kristian Nørgaard, head of business applications, Kamstrup
Kamstrup also started looking into how PLM could support future initiatives, such as digital product passports (DPP) and easier access to product documentation and data.
Successes with Aras Innovator
Today, Aras Innovator serves as a stable and increasingly strategic platform for Kamstrup. A key focus has been to reduce unnecessary customization and align with the platform’s standard capabilities. Internal development teams have considerably simplified the environment.
We wanted to move away from all this customization. Over time, PLM has become a strategic platform within the organization.
Freja Holm Betak, direct platform owner, Kamstrup
Kamstrup has expanded the role of PLM beyond traditional engineering change management. Currently, the company is working with Aras on a major chemical compliance initiative to improve the management of material-related data and regulatory requirements. Other initiatives include CAD connector projects designed to automate engineering workflows and improve access to engineering data.
Kamstrup is also evaluating broader lifecycle processes within PLM, including requirements engineering and supplier, program, and variant management.
Results
Kamstrup’s transformation is well underway, and several meaningful improvements are already visible. The company has significantly reduced the technical complexity of its PLM environment, improving its ability to maintain and upgrade the system efficiently. Aras Innovator has become a stronger and more strategic foundation for:
- Connected product data
- Lifecycle governance
- Compliance management
- Standardized product documentation
- More scalable processes
The platform supports Kamstrup’s ongoing transition to a more connected application landscape. The current focus is on building this foundation by gradually expanding the role of PLM and connecting more processes and teams over time.
Looking Ahead
Kamstrup continues to expand its PLM roadmap and sees additional opportunities to strengthen connected product governance across the organization. Future focus areas may include improved supplier collaboration, expanded variant management, and stronger integration of compliance-related processes. Greater market approval and certification management remain active priorities. Gaining better visibility into product approvals across markets could allow Kamstrup to enter new markets faster and more efficiently.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also on Kamstrup’s agenda. The company is exploring how Aras InnovatorEdge could support new use cases. One example being investigated is integrating QR code generation for product documentation into the PLM platform to replace the current third-party solution. While internal alignment is still in progress, these initial explorations suggest a broader ambition: using PLM as a consolidating platform for an increasingly connected digital product experience.
The company also sees long-term potential in enabling easier access to product documentation and product data through future Digital Product Passport (DPP) initiatives.
We see the Digital Product Passport as a guiding star for where we want to go.
Freja Holm Betak
Conclusion
Kamstrup’s journey illustrates how the role of PLM can evolve over time. What started as a highly customized engineering environment has gradually transformed into a more connected platform for governance, compliance, and product data management. The company is building a cleaner and more scalable foundation for future product lifecycle initiatives, including future Digital Product Passport capabilities, by reducing complexity, strengthening standardization, and expanding the role of PLM across the organization.