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ANN ARBOR, Michigan, August 5, 2003—The PLM industry took another step along the path of consolidation today as Agile Software Corporation announced their acquisition of Eigner, Inc. This acquisition brings together two significant players in the PLM industry, and two firms with widely differing backgrounds. We are optimistic about this action, even though there are some clear issues that must be resolved for the new Agile to be successful. The resulting firm should provide a much broader mark on the industry than either of them could have produced individually. Eigner has been addressing the PLM industry since their founding in Germany in the mid-1980’s. They have been known for their focus on situations involving complex product configurations and sophisticated integrations with multiple MCAD and ECAD design environments. Eigner has traditionally been strong in Europe, primarily in central Europe, and have concentrated in the last few years in broadening their limited presence

 PDF Position As companies seek to improve their ability to bring innovative products to market effectively, they must utilize comprehensive collaborative Product Definition management (cPDm) solutions. But full cPDm solutions must include capabilities to define the product process plans, not just product components, as an integral part of the product definition. Forward thinking companies are making these moves, and suppliers are beginning to offer solutions. Companies that don't recognize the importance of this evolution and expand their vision sufficiently will fall far behind their competitors. Background The global market and fierce competition simply wo n't let companies operate as they have in the past, creating product designs in isolation and then "throwing them over the wall" to manufacturing. Why? Because manufacturing often encounters difficulties when transforming designs from engineering into a finished product on the production floor: components might be unnecessarily difficult to assemble, tolerances might be unrealistic, capabilities available in machines may not

 PDF Position Collaborative Product Definition Management (cPDm) enables enterprises to bring innovative and profitable products to market more effectively, especially in the evolving e-business environment. cPDm enables enterprises to harness their innovation process through effective management of the full product definition lifecycle in their extended enterprise. It is provided through a combination of best-practices processes and technologies such as product data management, collaboration, visualization, collaborative product commerce, enterprise applications integration, components supplier management, etc. cPDm is rapidly transitioning from a competitive advantage to a competitive necessity, and is an essential element for companies to successfully compete in the evolving new world of e-business. Discussion Collaborative management of the product definition lifecycle throughout the extended enterprise (i.e., enterprise wide and throughout the supply chain) is the next step in enterprise computing for industrial organizations seeking to improve their competitiveness. Manufacturers know full well the tremendous power of delivering innovative products to market more quickly and