Trending at CIMdata

ANN ARBOR, Michigan, March 15th , 2004 — EDS today announced that it has reached an agreement to sell 100% of its UGS PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) Solutions business unit for $2.05B. The acquiring entity is comprised of a three-company team: Bain Capital, Silver Lake Partners, and Warburg Pincus Private Equity Group. The sale is expected to be completed within the next 90 days. This sale completes a process initiated by EDS last October, and that has been followed closely by the industry since that time. According to EDS, sale of the UGS PLM Solutions business unit, one of the premier providers of PLM solutions to industry, is a divestiture of a non-core, non-strategic unit while enabling UGS PLM Solutions to further enhance its future growth. Commenting on this, Ken Amann, Director of Research at CIMdata said, “ Establishing UGS PLM Solutions as an independent company is a very positive move for

 PDF Over the last several years, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has emerged as the common term used to describe the creation, management, and use of product and plant related information and processes (i.e., an enterprise's intellectual assets or complete product or plant definition) throughout the entire lifecycle and across the extended enterprise. Historically, Product Data Management (PDM) and now PLM solutions were practical primarily for large, distributed enterprises that had the extensive resources required to deploy and maintain them. Today's PLM solutions are designed not only for large companies, but also for mid-sized enterprises in multiple industrial sectors. Increasingly companies of all sizes are recognizing the need for PLM solutions. At the same time, the capabilities of the solutions being offered have improved significantly. PLM's ability to enable enterprises to better create and manage their product or plant related information and processes has been proven for some time now. However, until recently

EMC's acquisition of Documentum should strengthen both its software and hardware sales and market position. EMC's strategy aims at becoming a provider of Information Lifecycle Management technology. Their acquisition of Documentum fits this strategy and will improve EMC's position as a major player in the content and information lifecycle management space. Content and information lifecycle management continue to grow in importance to companies in all industries and as the size and type of content to be managed grows, is a driver for storage related hardware and software sales. The integration of EMC storage management solutions with the new acquired Legato and Documentum product suites will enable EMC to offer a comprehensive information management lifecycle solution. From a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) perspective, this acquisition positions EMC as a potential player in that market also. Within PLM, content creation and management - as part of the overall product information lifecycle - has

ANN ARBOR, Michigan, October 16, 2003 — EDS today announced it is considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) or private offering of a minority stake in its PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) Solutions subsidiary as a strategic alternative for the business. EDS expects to complete any actions that arise from its review of strategic alternatives for PLM Solutions in the first half of 2004. The new company would retain its strong ties with EDS and be able to leverage that relationship to deliver comprehensive solutions to its clients; however they will have less access to EDS' financial resources. According to CIMdata, this announcement will help reduce some uncertainty that had been associated with EDS' PLM Solutions Group since EDS' public financial issues became highly visible a year ago. Many rumors have circulated concerning EDS' intentions concerning their PLM Solutions Group, and this announcement provides a clear "next step" for their intentions. Ken Amann,

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