Many CAD vendors seem to speak at a whisper -- what's what? I can't quite make out what they're saying. Some, like PTC, speak their mind. Here are a few paraphrased quotes about competitors from PTC's recent Q&A with members of the financial community:
Q: Your reaction to Dassault's announcement of highly integrated software by 2007?
PTC: Vendors can say what they want, and I don't buy that. There's VPM, Enovia, SmartTeam. Those are three different products with three different databases on three different architectures. So maybe they have a plan to start over and create another new one in a few years, but I wouldn't give them credit for having a highly integrated solution.
If you look at UGS and TeamCenter, we sometimes joke that there is no "team" in TeamCenter because there is no "center" in TeamCenter. In its broadest configuration, this system could have up to a dozen different databases and IT architectures. There's a lot of capability there, but I think people are concerned about the cost to deploy it, cost to get it integrated, the total cost of ownership over time, and so forth.
Our solution compared to that looks lean and mean and clean, and on a pure single architecture. [Later in the conference call, PTC admits that users of their older PLM software are having to switch over to the new but different database.]
Q: We're seeing a lot of growth coming out of you, Dassault, and Autodesk. Where is this growth coming from, if it isn't competitive [getting customers from competitors]. Where are these new seats coming from?
PTC: I think most of the new seat opportunities are coming from companies that have been using 2D, and are now upgrading to real 3D CAD/CAM/CAE systems. Many of those 2D seats are AutoCAD. As they upgrade, we manage to poach a lot of them, because we are the only vendor who can provide a scalable growth path: a system that can be packaged with a low-end price point, but can scale all the way up to our Flex3C configuration, and it's part of a product development system.
Some of those companies say, 'When I upgrade, I want to upgrade to something with legs. If I upgrade to SolidWorks, I can never get to Catia. If I am with UGS, I start with one product [Solid Edge], and wish later I was with another one [NX], with a difficult time switching.' Only Pro/E offers that level of scalability.
Q: Can you provide an update to the product release schedule?
PTC: WindChill 8 is delayed by six weeks to June 6. WildFire 3 is due late summer, early fall. PartsLink used to have a separate database, and will be relaunched with WindChill 8 with a common database. Some new modules accompany WindChill 8: AML/AVL [approved manufacturer/vendor list], ECAD [electronic CAD], and software source code management tools.
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