PLM functionality now available on a desktop near you

Product life-cycle management (PLM) software today is all about packaging product information for immediate use in many business activities, especially those outside engineering and design departments.

UGS is the largest CAD/PLM vendor, and it has a coherent message based on its understanding of the evolving role of PLM, and a story about its own market success and commitment to open systems.

On the one hand, PLM evolution means imposing a system solution much earlier in the "product ideation" process, so as to acknowledge and capture the marketing department's considerable responsibilities and contribution.

On the other, it means the ability to simulate on a computer the process by which a product is built, to determine manufacturing feasibility or even scheduling. This kind of capability came to UGS by its purchase of Tecnomatix.

Teamcenter, its flagship PLM product, says UGS Executive VP Chuck Grindstaff, integrates idea management and requirements planning with digital product development, manufacturing, and life-cycle management in a single software portfolio "suitable for 10,000-user implementations."

UGS sees Teamcenter deployment driven by issues related to new product introduction, globalization, and regulatory compliance, in use with competitors' design tools or UGS' own NX, Solid Edge, and Tecnomatix platforms.

Most recently, UGS and Microsoft announced a partnership that could lead to unfettered sharing of product-related information, right on the casual user's desktop. The parallel to Duet, which allows access to SAP enterprise system information through Microsoft Office, and other such initiatives, is obvious.

UGS will be putting Teamcenter on the Microsoft .NET platform and enabling the use of Microsoft Office as a client for Teamcenter in some specific instances. This will broaden UGS' footprint beyond its current four million licensed seats and 46,000 customers worldwide.

In some cases, says Chris Kelly, UGS VP of partner and platform marketing, "workers will be using PLM functionality without even realizing it. They will be in Outlook, Excel, or Word—accessing data and contributing to the PLM system without ever leaving that familiar environment."

In general, life has been good at UGS: 2005 revenues grew 18 percent—to more than $1 billion—and it has enjoyed a string of 11 consecutive quarters of revenue growth.