Engineers RULE: Righting the Costa Concordia
Were you glued to the TV/Interwebs the day the Costa Concordia was righted? I definitely was. The cruise ship ran aground and capsized off the Italian island of Giglio nearly two years ago, where it has lain as engineers, regulators and environmental activists tried...
Quickies: Bentley Day 1, some catch-up and more sheep!
A lot happened while I was walking around Yorkshire and we need to cover Bentley's Year in Infrastructure Day 1, too, so let's get right to it: ESI Group announced that it has acquired 75% of the equity of CyDesign Labs, a Silicon Valley company that many of you may...
Totally OT: Yorkshire, sheep & weather
I'm in the UK for Bentley Systems' annual media/analyst event but need to tell you about my recent vacation: walking what might be the UK's least-known National Trail, the Yorkshire Wolds Way. The Wolds Way runs 80 miles, from Hessle (near Hull on the Humber River) at...
Autodesk’s Dynamo changes conceptual design
Have you ever sat though a 4+ hour meeting? You get kinda dozey, right? That happened to me a few weeks ago as I was listening to Autodesk's investor day presentations. It was long, there were interesting bits, but .... Then SVP Amar Hanspal showed a little video of...
The ups & downs of license model choice
We learned earlier this week what can happen when customers are offered a choice and pick something unexpected: Dassault Systèmes announced that it failed to meet its third quarter 2013 revenue goals, in part, because more customers opted for rentals/subscription than...
PI Congress wrap-up: lots of PLM
Last week, I attended the Product Innovation Congress (PI Congress, for short), put on by MarketKey in a rather ...unusual... hotel outside Chicago. This was the 2013 edition of last year's PLM Innovation Americas conference, which focused a lot on PLM implementations...
Quickies: DS preannounces Q3 miss, Hexagon acquires
It's a holiday for some here in the US, but the PLMish world hardly slows down! First up, Dassault Systèmes announced that it had missed its Q3 targets, with preliminary data showing non-IFRS revenue of €496 million, €24 million short of the company's forecast of €520...
Hexagon’s snaps up AHAB for surveying
It's only Tuesday and Hexagon has already announced two acquisition this week! Yesterday, it was mining and Devex; today it's GIS and Airborne Hydrography AB (AHAB), which develops and markets airborne laser survey systems for hydrographic (seabed) and topographic...
Hexagon expands mining footprint with acquisition of Devex
A new week, another acquisition. This time it's Hexagon, which announced that it has acquired Devex, a Brazilian company that makes mine management and automation solutions. Hexagon says that Devex had revenue of 35 million Brazilian Real, about $16 million or €12...
Bentley expands offshore offering with MOSES
Lately I've been doing a lot of work on how the offshore industry does design and analysis (more about that soon, I hope) and have a deep appreciation for what goes into the design, fabrication, transportation and installation of these mammoth structures. Bentley...
PTC levels up its global support offering
At PTC Live in June I had the chance to sit down with PTC execs to learn more about the company's revamped services offering. I was impressed by what PTC is trying to do to grow its relationship with customers beyond a software sales transaction with some maintenance...
Autodesk acquires Graitec’s steel/concrete detailing products
It's going to be an Autodesk kind of day, as the company hosts its annual investor event for much of the day. We should get more details about the restructuring announced earlier this week and about the company's plans and expectations for its subscription offering --...
Autodesk says it plans relatively minor restructuring
Autodesk just filed a form 8-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that says that the company is restructuring to reduce both staff and facilities -- although it's not saying how many people, from which parts of the business, or which facilities will be...
Rand divests, focuses for fiscal 2014
Rand Worldwide, the Autodesk reseller and provider of proprietary solutions, just announced that revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30 was up slightly, but the accounting effect of the sale of its international operations led to a sharp decline in net income. The...
TRIPLAN update: main shareholder sells
Last month, I caught up with TRIPLAN, the German provider of engineering services and software for the construction industry. If you remember, CROSS Informatik GmbH has been TRIPLAN's majority shareholder since 2011 and, over the summer, announced a takeover bid for...
Siemens PLM may be taking share — but we’re not sure
It's been a busy couple of weeks and I've been remiss. One of the highlights of September was the Siemens PLM analyst event held here in Boston about 10 days ago. I wasn't, unfortunately, able to attend the whole thing but here's what stood out to me: Siemens PLM is...
ESI Q2: strong BRIC, Europe can’t offset Asia & Americas
ESI Group reported second quarter results yesterday that highlight some of what we heard from other vendors as the summer progressed: currency movements continue to wreak havoc on year/year (y/y) comparisons and mixed global markets -- with pockets of strength and...
Software dilemma: pricing vs delivery
I've been talking to a lot of people lately about the various models in play for selling/buying software. There's a lot of attention on this since major vendors started playing with the choices they offer their customers, starting with Adobe. Earlier this year, Adobe...
Quickies: A sweet acquisition & more
A couple of quickies to start your day -- and lovely pictures that will make you want to eat dessert first! 3D Systems announced yesterday that it has acquired a start-up that prints customized, multi-dimensional, edible confections from real sugar. The Sugar Lab came...
Quickies: PTC & Accelrys acquire; you, too, can become an FEA master
Hi team, A week of travel and jury duty have kept me from posting as much as normal, but here are a couple of things to know about while I work on more substantial write-ups of the Siemens PLM analyst event, Autodesk's new subscriptions and other big happenings. Last...
