PLM’s platform play
Platforms are hot right now, but they’re hardly a new idea. I learned a few weeks ago from Dr. Marshall Van Alstyne (whose research is accessible here) that newspapers, which connect advertisers to consumers, are platforms. HMOs connect physicians and patients....
LiveWorx 2016 celebrates the physical+digital world
What happens when you mix a lot of old-time CAD super-users with new, edgy technology? Some cross mojonation* but also quite a bit of resistance. It's interesting; people who are excellent at their jobs are the most resistant to change because it will make them less...
AVEVA + Schneider a no-go
In a very brief statement even by UK standards AVEVA just said, "Following the termination of the preliminary discussions between AVEVA Group Plc ("AVEVA") and Schneider Electric SE, AVEVA has applied to the UKLA for the suspension of its shares to be lifted. As a...
Deal and … maybe deal
What happens when I spend the day on a plane? News! Briefly, AVEVA and Schneider Electric have resumed their tango. AVEVA today addressed press speculation by issuing an announcement that it was again in talks with Schneider Electric about a deal that would combine...
ESI seeks to reinvent PLM by moving to PPL
ESI hopes to move manufacturing beyond PLM, and into what it calls PPL, Product Performance Lifecycle. The company defines traditional PLM as "product development until commercial launch" while PPL addresses the product's "whole 'post-development' lifecycle, i.e. the...
“One word: Plastics”
That's a paraphrase of the wonderful scene in The Graduate, where Mr. Maguire tells a young and confused Benjamin (played by Dustin Hoffman) that plastics are the future. In many ways, he was right. If your job is plastics, you know that that little phrase hides a...
AspenTech acquires Fidelis for asset optimization
You may remember that Aspen Technology was rebuffed earlier this year when it tried to acquire KBC and its refinery optimization expertise. Well, that didn't slow them down much: Today, AspenTech announced that it has acquired FidelisGroup, maker of Titan 2, FAST 3...
Autodesk subs momentum builds in FQ1
I continue to try to catch up -- and today we take a look at Autodesk's calendar Q1 results, for the three months ended April 30. Autodesk reported these back on May 19, so this isn't new news. What it is, however, is a great pointer to what Autodesk's customers think...
3DX Science aims to take users from atoms to systems
What happens when you put a lot of chemists and biologists in a room with engineers? Actually, more fun than you might think. And a lot of geeking out. But that's to be expected. Last week, Dassault Systèmes threw the first-ever combined user group meeting for its...
Quickie: DS acquires Ortems for production scheduling
Dassault Systèmes just announced that it has acquired Ortems, a provider of on-premise and on the cloud capacity constraint-based production scheduling and dispatching software. Ortems’ solutions, Agile Manufacturing and PlannerOne, manage manufacturing operations...
Exa’s Q1 shows some customers, at least, favoring cloud
Earnings keep coming and the news is increasingly positive -- in our PLMish world, at least, customers are buying and using technology to continue to innovate. One recent announcement comes from Exa, the CFD maker. Exa reported that first quarter fiscal 2017, which...
ESTECO modeFRONTIER UM shows how CAE fosters creativity & innovation
I had the great fortune to spend some of last week in Trieste, Italy, with an amazing group of modeFRONTIER users. We’ll get to them, and what they had to say, in a second but, first, you need to know that Trieste is gorgeous and ESTECO knows how to throw a party that...
AVEVA’s FY16 was OK, despite end-market turmoil
Most of the questions I am asked these days revolve around three things: the cloud, licensing models and how does the situation in end-market X affect vendor Y. Lately, X = oil and Y = AVEVA because of the massive uncertainty in the oil and gas world due to...
Vela Software acquires Tecplot
Tecplot, Inc., a leading provider of visual data analysis software for engineers and scientists in the aerospace and oil & gas vertical markets, today announced that it has been acquired by Vela Software, an operating group of Constellation Software, Inc. If...
AEC earnings recap: CQ1 was middling to strong
I've been writing about a lot of the PLMish companies that focus on the automotive, aerospace and other discreet manufacturing industries and not devoting enough "ink" to AECish vendors -- many of whom are doing incredibly cool things. So here's a recap of recent...
Openness — will you know it when you see it?
I like transparency (but not in clothing. Leave something to the imagination, people!). If you're a merchant and don't accept returns after a certain period, tell the buyer and make the sign BIG. If you advertise that a plane ticket costs $100, make sure that includes...
Altair acquires CEDRAT to continue build-out of emag capabs
Altair announced this week that is has acquired French CEDRAT S.A. and its New York-based subsidiary, Magsoft Corporation. CEDRAT makes technology that simulates low frequency electromagnetics for motor design. Its Flux, GOT-It & InCa3D enable designers to...
Fort McMurray wildfires highlight our fragile infrastructure
The news coming out of Alberta, the center of Canada's oil sands production, is horrible. A entire town of nearly 90,000 evacuated as wildfires threaten homes, businesses and the fragile Arctic tundra that surrounds the city. The fires are still going, although as I...
Hexagon’s Q1 shows industry and geo pockets, both good & bad
Sometimes, being a conglomerate is a good thing and sometimes ... not so much. It's good when a diverse offering lets a company balance out slow industries with ones that are still growing, or hot geos with cold ones. Hexagon today reported Q1 revenues of €724...
ANSYS Q1 was a combo of platforms & headwinds
ANSYS just reported financial results for the first quarter of 2016. It wasn't a bad quarter, overall, but it certainly wasn't one that beat expectations. Tough comparable, the continued slowdown in the semiconductor industry, new sales heads that are yet to be...
