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Alliances between software and services suppliers seem like natural business arrangements, and most of these companies at least try to foster them. Yet good alliances that really pay off for both parties are very rare. The pre-requisites for success fall into two categories: leadership commitment and a sound operational framework. Each of these has key elements, which are critical to success and will be discussed later. But first let’s consider the relative importance of these two main categories. The examples that follow are composite dramatizations drawn from research and life experience and are not...

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A recent visit to PTCʼs new Blaine, Minnesota software development center proved to be enlightening and refreshing—no trivial task considering this is coming from someone who has a degree in Computer Science and who in the past worked on some of the largest software systems ever coded. The visit proved that software development practices, processes, and facilities continue, at least in the case of PTC, to evolve to meet the needs of ever-increasing market demands. For the most part, you will not find anyone following the traditional waterfall software development approach here, but you...

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PTC today (28 October 2010) unveiled its new next generation computer-aided design focused product suite embodying advanced flexible design capabilities developed under the code name Project Lightning. The new suite, conceived and developed as an improvement on traditional CAD product design techniques, is named Creo™. Given today’s preview, CIMdata feels that PTC has made a significant step forward in providing flexibility in how designs can be created and modified. Creo eliminates some of the problems that currently inhibit shared design activities by providing:

• Support for both parametric and direct modeling paradigms that can be used...

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In today’s competitive business environment, companies must deliver more innovative products and services, reduce costs, improve quality, and shorten time to market, while achieving their targeted return on investment (ROI). To reach these goals, businesses must continually improve how they operate in order to become more efficient and productive. Innovation must occur in all dimensions—product, process, and organization to allow companies to present the right products to the right markets, at the right time, for the right cost (the money spent to develop the product) and right price (what the customer pays).

Lack of innovation...

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Two main product realization business models are in common use today: Make-to-Stock and Engineer-to-Order (ETO). While each of these supports a viable business model and some companies use both, this commentary will concentrate on ETO. However, to set the stage, both models are outlined here. Make-to-Stock supports volume-based manufacturing of products based on standard designs. This type of product model works well for commodities such as fasteners, household tools and appliances, consumer goods, and many other products. ETO is the most flexible from the customer's perspective. Products in this model are designed in whole...

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Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is a special domain where only the most seasoned Electrical Computer-Aided Design (ECAD) experts reside—at least that’s what many electrical engineers would say. Perhaps there is some truth to this statement. An electrical engineer’s need for vast libraries of components, specialized systems analysis functionality, and the inherent complexities related to the combination of electrical, software, and hardware components have all made their job increasingly complex and challenging. For many of today’s ECAD experts these challenges represent a fact of their day-to-day work life. The rapid emergence of products that are...

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Companies are striving to design innovative products while reducing the cost of product development and time-to-market. The pace of product innovation has also increased dramatically and is a primary contributor to companies’ overall profits and market share. Factors companies must address include increasing product complexity, the time and cost to create physical prototypes, and a lack of resources that can perform required analyses and simulations. More and more companies are recognizing the importance of using embedded simulation and analysis tools within their main product development processes and tools to better design their products. Computational...

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Industrial machinery (IM) is one of the broadest and most diverse industry segments in the PLM industry. IM is both a market unto itself and a major component of other industry sectors. Industrial machines have a strong presence within many other industries, i.e., process industries. Some of the other industry sectors are built using industrial machinery. Examples of industrial machinery include:

• Specialty process equipment (e.g., food handling or material handling equipment)
• Mechanical drives and power transmission, engines and turbines
• Industrial heating, cooling and environment controls
• Machine tools and high tech machinery and equipment
• Industrial electrical and electronic equipment
• Mining, agricultural...

This CIMdata Brief looks at some of the issues impacting health insurance companies’ ability to meet their customers’ needs. The Brief describes how Product Lifecycle Management is being applied to enable those companies develop and maintain portfolios of innovative, personalized products in today’s highly competitive health care industry while meeting state and federal mandates.

The health insurance industry continues to see an increase in the number and types of products being introduced in today’s highly-competitive health care market. In order to compete effectively, insurers must be able to respond quickly to the demands of their clients who seek products...

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ANN ARBOR, Michigan, October 27, 2009—Dassault Systèmes (DS) has announced their intent to acquire IBM’s PLM sales and client support operations responsible for DS’ Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software application portfolio, as well as DS product-related customer contracts and related assets for US $600 million. The transition is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010, subject to the execution of local agreements and completion of regulatory processes and applicable labor relations requirements in various countries.

PLM is a mission-critical, extended enterprise business platform that helps companies innovate and grow by enabling them...