I spent much of this week with Siemens PLM at their annual analyst meeting. My head is reeling from talk of ships, Mars laboratories, cars, furniture, NX, Teamcenter, Solid Edge, Synchronous Technology and much more. While I figure out how to explain it all to you, here are a couple of quick notes on other important things that happened this week.
Autodesk released Revit LT, a BIM product for $1,200 aimed at single users. As the “LT” tag implies, it’s not a full-up version of Revit. People who played with it in Autodesk Labs (when it was Project Spark) report that it’s not set up complex projects involving work-sharing. BIM (Building Information Modeling) is usually seen as a big deal, something architects and engineering firms must “move up to” and that requires process changes that are intimidating to many. A less expensive entry point is very desirable and a great way to let firms try it without committing to too much change all at once.
SolidWorks 2013 was previewed at a media event yesterday. Since I was with Siemens, I followed the event on Twitter. It appears that plastics modeling and other new features are what were teased at SolidWorks World earlier this year — but the big news is that a CGM-based conceptual modeling tool coming to SolidWorks World 2013. I’m looking forward to learning more about both over the next few weeks.
Exa Corp. announced results for its first quarter as a public company. More about this when I’ve had a chance to listen to the earnings replay, but revenue was up 9% (as expected) to $11.8 million. License revenue was up 7% and Exa’s all-important project revenue, which is an indication of engagement with prospects, was up 28% to $1.6 million.
I need to think about this some more, but perhaps the biggest takeaway from Siemens PLM wasn’t about any particular product or the vertical approach they adopted last year. Siemens PLM has finally figured out how to work with the giant industrial mega-conglomerate that is its parent company. The PLM team has access to people who make power supplies, control systems, medical devices, sensors, wind turbines — almost you name it — and that gives them a powerful advantage when designing PLMish technology for those specific markets. They can understand, from the inside, what those users need and have them help test and refine the solutions. The users, of course, get first access and an early adopter advantage. Win-win for Siemens overall. Interesting –more soon.
