One short week after Siemens PLM Software’s announcement that its CAD software was replacing that of a competitor, the vendor positioning has begun. (No big surprise here.)
The incumbent, Dassault Systèmes, issued a press release putting its own spin on the news:
“This decision came as a surprise to Dassault Systèmes as no CATIA V6 evaluation has been performed by Daimler A.G.” This claim appears to be in direct conflict with Siemens PLM press release, which said that Daimler AG conducted an 18-month review of the leading CAD packages, including its own NX and Dassault’s CATIA.
In the oddly-worded release, officials at Dassault Systèmes went on to say, “we were informed by Daimler A.G. that, as CAD application portfolio was not its priority, its decision was based upon CAD integration in its home grown PDM system “Smaragd”. Does that mean that Daimler’s decision was predicated on the idea that NX is more open than CATIA? Dassault went on to counter that its latest version of PLM, V6R2011x goes on to address openness to other PDM systems, and that on Sept. 20, Daimler A.G. renewed its CATIA contract for another five years. That sure is confusing.
While Dassault Systèmes officials say they have “no information as to which CATIA specialized applications would be replaced and which ones will have to remain in use,” industry insiders still herald the decision as an impressive win for Siemens PLM Software.
PTC, the other major player in the PLM space, jumped in to do a little spin control of its own. PTC officials said that Daimler was not the first company to make a major shift in CAD nor the “first vertical to exhibit change.” The release went on to say that PTC had announced 11 new “domino” account wins representing “every major vertical,” which chose to move from their legacy systems to PTC.
I guess only time will tell if the floodgates for major shifts in CAD platforms will open.
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