So here we are, just a few days from June. Where does the time go? It’s full-on user conference season so there’s more to cover than ever — let’s get right to it.

It’s the Economy …

… And it continues to send and receive mixed signals. One report out last week says that predictions that US consumer spending and business investment would rise in the second half of the year might not materialize. Q2 is expected to show a gain (a catching up after the harsh winter) but the summer may not continue the ramp. One of the big problems: the proportion of the US labor force that’s actually employed is at a 35-year low (though we’ve discussed before how those numbers may or may be comparable from data that long ago, depending on definitions and methodology).

Also not inducing confidence is how the automotive companies, especially GM, continue to take hits. GM now has recalls out on more than 18 million vehicles but Toyota, Chrysler, Ford, BMW, VW and more are all affected. A couple of readers have emailed to chat about the PLM implications of it all; this sums up many of the comments:

I cringe reading the growing list of recalls. Who needs better proof of the need to simulate more & often?!

Simulation would certainly help — but as I understand many of the issues prompting the recalls, supplier management, data management (and provenance tracking) and other enterprise-scale problem solvers are also needed. But it’s not just technology. The major auto makers (not singling out GM) have all been early adopters and proponents of these solutions. The problems seem to be bigger than technology.

PLMish Deals, Earnings and Other News

You know all about Autodesk buying NEi Software, though there hasn’t been much new news in a couple of weeks. I was hoping that Autodesk would say more during its Q1 results call later that same week, but they didn’t mention the deal. What did make news was Autodesk’s announcement that the company is launching an open platform for 3D printing called Spark which, wrote Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, “will make it more reliable yet simpler to print 3D models, and easier to control how that model is actually printed.” Mr. Bass also announced that the company would enter the 3D printer hardware wars, with a 3D printer that will “serve as a reference implementation for Spark … and set a new benchmark for the 3D printing user experience.” So that didn’t ripple in the news world at all — of course it did, drove investors crazy. But Autodesk also reported a good Q1, with total revenue of $593 million, up 4% as reported and up 5% in constant currency. The AEC business was the standout of the quarter, with revenue up 14%; manufacturing was up 6%. [More detail on the earnings later this week. Trying to catch up.]

We also learned last week that Kalypso has merged with Integware. Together, the firms have implementation experience with all the leading PLM and product innovation software suites, including Autodesk, Aras, Dassault Systèmes, Oracle, PTC and Siemens PLM.

Dassault Systèmes closed the Accelrys acquisition a couple of weeks ago and last week unveiled how it would be positioned within the DS compass. As you know, the company seems to have a thing for “IA” — ENOVIA, CATIA, SIMULIA and so on. Add in the fact that Accelrys was brought into the fold because of its life sciences aka biology modeling capabilities and you get …. tada… BIOVIA. The new brand combines DS’ own activities in biological modeling with the life sciences and material sciences applications from Accelrys. DS also announced that it has renamed as 3DEXCITE the recently acquired Realtime Technology (RTT) to capture the new brand’s “ambition: to enable a 3DEXPERIENCE strategy that … encompasses a customer’s entire business cycle across all communication channels with powerful, streamlined and efficient storytelling.” And, presumably, exciting storytelling at that.

Last but not least, Bentley Systems told the media and analysts about its progress in 2013 in April (read the Hot Topics post here). The company just followed up with a press release and you can now download your very own copy of its Annual Report. A quick recap: Revenue was up 8% in 2013 to $593 million, with strong growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the U.K. In total, 63% of revenue now comes from outside the U.S. Check out Keith Bentley’s article in the Annual Report — worth a read.

Links of the Week

We all want to use technology to help people. Check out DS’ Living Heart Project for a glimpse into how technologists, doctors, researchers and regulators can work together to do amazing things.

In addition to the world inside us, there’s the world around us. The Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) gathers snowpack data from the Tuolumne and Uncompahgre River Basins in the US Northwest using a airborne LIDAR and other tech. They can measure the snow depth to within 10 cm (from 20,000 feet, that’s incredible) to predict snowmelt and its impact on the fresh water supply. [Shoutout to LiDAR News for the link.]

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That’s it for now. Look for recaps from the recent Solid Edge University and the SIMULIA Community Conference later this week, in addition to the Autodesk earnings write-up. I also want to cover some of the cool stuff that came up at COFES 2014, but we’ll see if I get to that.

Next week, I’m off to HxGN LIVE, the Hexagon user conference, in Las Vegas. If you’ll be there, get in touch — let’s meet in person and end this digital madness.