On November 16, 2015, Dassault Systèmes conducted a 3DEXPERIENCE Forum in Boston, MA for a select audience of customers, partners, industry analysts, and media. Overall, CIMdata found the seven-hour event a welcome change from the typical industry marketing events of all-day meetings and breakout sessions. The theme of user experience was woven through the executive presentations, invited speakers presentations, and the staged industry theaters. This event further demonstrated Dassault Systèmes’ support for the PLM industry and its desire to support and progress towards enabling a robust product innovation platform.

PTC announced the release of Windchill 11—a solution that they state delivers “Smart, Connected PLM” to better support developing, delivering, and supporting products and solutions in today’s world of the Internet of Things (IoT) and systems of systems. CIMdata believes that Windchill 11 is an excellent step forward for PTC and we are pleased to see them making effective use of the technologies they have recently acquired.

Over the two days of Solid Edge University 2015, the Siemens PLM Software staff together with their third-party sponsors and partners showcased education about and new capabilities for Solid Edge users. CIMdata believes it provided an important learning and networking experience for users who invested their valuable time by attending. The Solid Edge team and their product, Solid Edge ST8, offer the marketplace a professional, competent solution to product design creation.

The Aras Component Engineering and IHS CAPS database partnership and the resulting connectivity are part of the Aras message to “rethink PLM” and the assumptions about how external data sources can be directly incorporated into the product lifecycle. CIMdata is excited to see this forward thinking approach to component management and looks forward to further developments from Aras. 

The AVEVA World Summit in Dubai showed how AVEVA is doing its part to support positive change in the industry, and working hard to create the future environment for their clients, anticipating their needs. The AVEVA presentations were often aspirational, identifying problems and describing potential solutions, hoping to inspire the delegates with their product offerings, on-going initiatives in cloud, work on standards and other important topics for both today and tomorrow. Next years Summit should be very interesting.

CIMdata attended SAPs Extended Supply Chain Management (eSCM) analyst event at SAP Headquarters in Walldorf, Germany on 29-30 September 2015. The SAP team put on a comprehensive program with most of the first day focused on updates from SAP on company strategy and specific products and initiatives. One-to-one sessions between SAP executives and analysts spanned the rest of the allotted time in which SAP asked for pointed feedback during each session. 

In their latest article on how technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) are changing products and business models, PTC President and CEO Jim Heppelmann and Dr. Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School discussed How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Companies. CIMdata is following this series of articles because we also believe that development of smart, connected products is changing how manufacturers need to think about and execute product design, development, and support as well as the essential nature of the products and solutions they develop and deliver to their customers, and the overall business model that they will follow.

PTC announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Vuforia business from Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), for $65 million. Vuforia is a mobile vision platform that enables applications (“apps”) to see and connect the physical world with digital experiences. Today, Vuforia is supported by a global ecosystem of developers in 130 countries and has more than 200 million apps installed worldwide. Under terms of the agreement, PTC will acquire the Vuforia business, including the developer ecosystem. PTC stated that they are committed to continued investment in the Vuforia platform and to the ongoing support and growth of the Vuforia ecosystem. The transaction is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2015, subject to customary closing conditions.

On September 22, 2015, Mr. Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO, SOLIDWORKS, opened the SOLIDWORKS 2016 Launch event at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Speaking from the front of the podium in the Institute’s full-scale reproduction of the U.S. Senate Chamber, Mr. Bassi reminded his audience of customers, analysts, and press sitting at the 100 replica Senator desks of SOLIDWORKS’ mission: who they are; where they want to go; and how they will get there. 

CIMdata recently attended Siemens PLM Software’s (Siemens) Analyst Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts September 8^th through 11^th. For the first time, the PLM event was linked with one of Siemens AG’s Building and Energy Management events, sharing a joint keynote address on the 8^th delivered by Dr. Horst J. Kayser, Siemens AG Chief Strategy Officer on “The digital change constant.”