Director of PLMSoftwareAI Adoption

Jacob West

I turn complex engineering data into systems manufacturers actually use.

Twenty years in technology, the last decade in product lifecycle management. Professionally, I lead the PLM practice at Cre8tive Technology & Design. Personally, I build software and research projects under the name West Technical Services. I keep the two separate, in practice and on this page.

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CareerDirector of PLM, Cre8tive PersonalProjects & research

Based in Central Texas

20yrs

in IT and software, since 2006

10+

years leading PRO.FILE PLM implementations

20+

tools and integrations built for PLM, ERP, and AI

150+

users supported as an IT help desk manager

Part one · Professional career

Twenty years in IT. A decade in PLM.

Everything in this part I did as an employee: today at Cre8tive Technology & Design, before that at Procad USA, and in IT roles going back to 2006.

This work, and the code behind it, belongs to my employers and their customers. I describe it here as experience, not as something I own, and none of it appears in my personal portfolio.

Career · Now

Leading the PLM practice at Cre8tive.

2022 – Present · Director since 2024

Director of PLM

Cre8tive Technology & Design

I lead the PLM practice at Cre8tive, an Epicor Platinum Partner and the exclusive North American partner for PRO.FILE PLM (Epicor PLM). Manufacturers in aerospace & defense, engineer-to-order, and industrial equipment count on us for implementation, custom development, and support.

ctnd.com

Leads PLM implementations, from revision-control headaches to messy multi-system integrations
Architects the practice's software: PLM extensions, ERP integrations, and migration tooling
Drives AI adoption across the services team: automated scoping, training, and video production
Presents Cre8tive's PLM webinars on document management, control, and CAD/ERP workflows

“Jacob’s expertise and dedication turned a complex transition into a smooth journey.”

Tornado Global Hydrovacs, on taking an engineering team with no prior PLM experience live on PRO.FILE

Career · Selected work

What I've built for PLM teams.

A PLM system is only as good as what it connects to. Most of what I build at work lives between systems: engineering and ERP, CAD and the vault, people and their data. Lately that includes the AI tooling that helps Cre8tive's services team move faster.

PLM implementations

PRO.FILE PLM rollouts for aerospace, engineering, and manufacturing teams: process mapping, core configuration, custom C# forms, SQL Server procedures and triggers, SSRS and Power BI reporting, and data migration.

PRO.FILE PLMC#SQL ServerSSRSPower BI

PRO.FILE PLM extension suite

An integration hub, a data-migration import utility, a browser-based document viewer, a problem-reporting portal, process-task automation, job webhooks, and a shared reports & extensions library. Each one is maintained for the 10.4 and 10.5 release lines, with single sign-on editions.

C# / .NETJavaScriptSQL ServerPRO.FILE APISSO

ERP & CAD integration

Epicor Kinetic extensions that connect engineering to the business: engineering change (ECO) group automation, MRO tooling, and Kinetic customizations, plus earlier integrations through Microsoft BizTalk and Epicor Service Connect. On the CAD side, an Autodesk Inventor iLogic processor.

C#Epicor KineticBizTalkAutodesk InventoriLogic

AI for professional services

AI tooling for Cre8tive's consulting services team: statement-of-work drafting, business-process review, and custom Claude skills that give AI agents working knowledge of PRO.FILE development. The same skills generate import-ready PLM demo data, down to BOMs, drawings, and CAD models.

PythonPowerShellClaudeAI agents

Training & video production

A SCORM tool that packages training as LMS-ready courses, and an AI-narrated video pipeline for product marketing and training videos. The pipeline pairs Gemini text-to-speech with automated ffmpeg assembly.

JavaScriptSCORMGemini TTSffmpeg

PLM webinars & web

Cre8tive's PLM webinar series on document management, document control, and CAD/ERP workflows, which I present, and the Cre8tive PLM website.

WebinarsHTML / CSSJavaScript

This is employer work. The code lives in private repositories owned by Cre8tive, Procad, and their customers, and it stays there. I'm glad to talk through the problems and the approach.

Career · Experience

From the server closet to the practice lead.

Two decades, one throughline: I've been the person who makes the technology work for the people using it, on the help desk, backstage, on the shop floor, and in the engineering vault.

2022 — PRESENT

Director of PLM

Cre8tive Technology & Design · Epicor Platinum Partner

2024 Director of PLM2022 Joined Cre8tive

Leads the PLM practice (implementation, custom development, and support) for manufacturers across North America. Built the practice's extension suite, ERP integrations, and AI-assisted services tooling.
2015 — 2022

PLM Consultant → Senior Consultant

Procad USA · Burnet, TX

Implemented PRO.FILE PLM for aerospace, engineering, and manufacturing customers across the US. The work covered process mapping, core configuration, custom C# form development, SQL Server procedures and triggers, SSRS and Power BI reporting, and ERP integrations through BizTalk and Epicor Service Connect. Also specified new features and add-ins for the development team. On the side, ran the company's internal IT: Windows Server and Hyper-V, Active Directory, Microsoft 365, Power Automate, and the consultants' billing system.
2011 — 2015

IT Help Desk Manager & Audio-Visual Director

Armando Montelongo Companies · San Antonio, TX

Owned technology for 150+ local and 25+ remote users, covering VPN, email, Active Directory, document storage, and web conferencing (Adobe Connect, WebEx, GoToMeeting). Also planned, shipped, and staged the projection, audio, and lighting for multi-day national events.
2009 — 2011

Contract IT Positions

Robert Half Technology · San Antonio, TX
2006 — 2009

Primary Computer Technician & Installer

Smart Technology Rentals · San Antonio, TX

Imaged and deployed 200+ workstations, 100+ laptops, and 12 servers for conventions, and built temporary wired and wireless networks inside event venues.
EDUCATION

Computer Information Systems

San Antonio College

CareerIndustries I've served professionally

Aerospace & defense
Engineer-to-order manufacturing
Industrial equipment
Machine shops
Audio-visual & live events
Real estate

Part two · Personal projects & research

West Technical Services: what I build on my own time.

West Technical Services is the name I put on my personal portfolio: software and research I take on independently, outside my job. It's a personal brand, not an employer and not a PLM practice.

Separate from my role at Cre8tive. Nothing in this part was built for Cre8tive or its customers.

Personal · Featured project · 2026

Hamilton Civic Theatre

Ticketing, box office, and management platform for a community theatre, plus its public website.

I designed and built the system the theatre runs on: the public site where patrons pick their seats and buy tickets, the tools volunteers use at the door on show night, and the back office where the board manages shows, people, sponsors, and reports.

6access levels, from patron to system admin

20+narrated how-to videos in the built-in help center

38automated test suites

Visit hamiltontxtheatre.org Private codebase. Walkthrough on request.

Box office seating mode: reservation list with check-in buttons beside a live seat map color-coded by open, reserved, and checked-in seats — Show night

Hamilton Civic Theatre homepage with a Buy Tickets button and the current show poster — Public site

For the audience

Season schedule and show pages with live seat availability
Seat selection and Square-hosted checkout (card data never touches the site), with QR tickets emailed after payment
Add-to-calendar, and shareable cast & crew bios with QR codes
Volunteer and sponsor sign-ups

For show night

Greeter check-in and QR ticket scanning
A live seat map of open, reserved, and checked-in seats
Walk-up seating and card payments at the door
Refunds, comp tickets, and box-office settlement

For the people running it

Show, showtime, and seating-layout editors
People, roles, volunteers, and sponsor management
Performance reports emailed automatically the next day
Audit log, SEO tools, and a help center with narrated training videos

AI where it saves volunteers time. Staff can generate show descriptions and matched poster-and-banner artwork with Gemini, then refine and share candidates in a common library. The training videos are narrated with Gemini text-to-speech over real screen captures.

React 19TypeScriptViteTailwind CSSFirebaseCloud FunctionsFirestoreSquareGeminiPlaywright

Personal · Projects & research

More of what I build on my own.

Applications for households and youth sports, and a research project that plots the world's public data live. Each one I designed, built, and run myself.

A West Technical Services application · 2026

FrugalVue

A private, self-hosted money hub for households. It imports a year of history straight from Rocket Money or any bank's CSV, OFX or QIF download, then keeps it current with a daily read-only bank sync. Budgets with room for giving, recurring-bill detection, monthly cash flow, and a morning email for everyone in the house; bring-your-own-key AI for questions and categories.

Next.js 16TypeScriptMySQLDrizzleAuth.jsSimpleFINGemini · Claude · OpenAI

frugalvue.com ↗On westtechapps.com →

Dugout

A team-management app for youth baseball, built by a coach for the coaches and families in the dugout.

TypeScriptWeb app

westtechapps.com: live public data

A research project in reading the world's public signals. A drag-to-spin 3D globe plots live aircraft, ships, earthquakes, ocean buoys, the International Space Station, and today's MLB games, served by a small Node.js app.

JavaScriptCanvasNode.jsExpressPublic APIs

westtechapps.com →

PersonalWho my personal projects serve

Church ministry
Civic theatre
Youth sports leagues
Households

Expertise · Across both

Where I go deep, and where I learned it.

Each area is marked by where I built it: Career for work as an employee, Personal for my own projects.

PLM & engineering data

Career

PRO.FILE PLM (Epicor PLM)
Implementation & data migration
Process design & task management
Change management (ECR / ECO)
CAD & Office integration
BOM & document control
PLM administration

ERP & integration

Career

Epicor Kinetic
Epicor Service Connect
Microsoft BizTalk
REST APIs & webhooks
Single sign-on
Business process mapping

Data & reporting

Career

SQL Server Reporting Services
Power BI
Reporting inside PLM
Stored procedures, functions & triggers

Infrastructure & IT

Career

Windows Server & Hyper-V
Active Directory
Microsoft 365
Networking: VLANs, DNS, firewalls
Audio-visual & live events

Software & AI at work

Career

C# / .NET
SQL Server & T-SQL
JavaScript
Python
PowerShell
HTML / CSS
AI adoption strategy
Claude skills & agents
Gemini TTS
Power Automate
Training (SCORM)

Software & AI on my own

Personal

TypeScript
React
Next.js
Node.js & Express
Firebase & Firestore
MySQL & Drizzle
Tailwind CSS
Gemini · Claude · OpenAI APIs
Square payments
Playwright & Vitest

Contact

Let's build something durable.

Email is the fastest way to reach me. So the right people are behind the work, PLM requests go through Cre8tive; personal projects come straight to me.

Email me Save contact LinkedIn

Career PLM implementation, extensions, or support Contact Cre8tive Technology & Design, so the whole team is behind the work. ctnd.com ↗ Personal Personal projects, collaboration, or hello Email me, or use the form on West Technical Services. westtechapps.com →

jacob.west@westtechapps.com

QR code linking to westtechapps.com/jacob

SCAN TO OPEN
ON YOUR PHONE

Twenty years in IT. A decade in PLM.

Leading the PLM practice at Cre8tive.

Director of PLM

What I've built for PLM teams.

PLM implementations

PRO.FILE PLM extension suite

ERP & CAD integration

AI for professional services

Training & video production

PLM webinars & web

From the server closet to the practice lead.

Director of PLM

PLM Consultant → Senior Consultant

IT Help Desk Manager & Audio-Visual Director

Contract IT Positions

Primary Computer Technician & Installer

Computer Information Systems

CareerIndustries I've served professionally

West Technical Services: what I build on my own time.

Hamilton Civic Theatre

For the audience

For show night

For the people running it

More of what I build on my own.

FrugalVue

Dugout

westtechapps.com: live public data

PersonalWho my personal projects serve

Where I go deep, and where I learned it.

PLM & engineering data

ERP & integration

Data & reporting

Infrastructure & IT

Software & AI at work

Software & AI on my own

Let's build something durable.