Industry Summary Articles

“Dassault Systèmes Bets Big on a Product Innovation Platform” by John Hayes

All of the large PLM vendors have, to some degree, been building platforms for product development. "Building," in many cases, meant buying up smaller companies who had developed niche products. These were then offered as additional features to the PLM vendor's solution, with varying degrees of integration.

The idea of a platform for product development was originally presented as a way to bundle all of the software a team would need into a tightly integrated package.  Every aspect of product development, from conceptual design through detailed modeling, from data management to simulation and even manufacturing was to be available through a common interface.

The term “platform” has evolved, according to John MacKrell, chairman of analyst firm CIMdata, “A platform strategy used to mean simply having an agglomeration of tools that were loosely integrated. A current platform strategy now requires that a vendor provide a way that data can flow unencumbered from process to process, tool to tool, and from user to user.”

To hear what else John has to say, click here.