Firstly, I have to say that I was impressed at the levels of attendance and enthusiasm shown by attendees at Dassault Systèmes recent developer conference. Being a leader in the market has obvious advantages. People want to work with you. In no small part this is because they want to work with your customers. But more interestingly, at this particular event it was apparent that Dassault's CAA programme adds value for developers by providing lots of functionality in addition to large customer coverage.

Key to the theme at this year's event was the concept of "openness". An interesting theme, bearing in mind the "we'll do everything" perception that Dassault has, perhaps unwittingly, developed. The cause of this perception is partly simply the cut and thrust of competitive lambasting. The sheer breadth and volume of in-house developed solutions in the CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and SMARTEAM application families reinforces the perception.

However, no supplier does everything. They rely on third party specialists to complete customer solutions. The fact is that Dassault has an array of integrated partner solutions within their CAA V5 program to make their own SolidWorks sibling look up and take note.

Dassault differentiates SolidWorks by defining its addressable market as "Design Centric" as opposed to their PLM solutions as "Process Centric". But the world isn't black and white. In the end, it's what customers believe that counts. There is more overlap in Dassault's offerings than they would like customers to believe - specifically outside the larger OEM's. Customers, especially in mid-sized businesses, find it difficult to differentiate these offerings.

If one looks at the two Dassault product families, there is a difference that becomes apparent when one looks at their developer programs. This difference is reflected by the depth, scale and sophistication of the third party programs. In essence, the "Process Centric" solutions rely on intimate integration. Here, the two products being integrated have to invest in understanding each other's capabilities. The "Design Centric" solutions provide standard interfaces that all comers can use to exchange geometry.

Sometimes one, sometimes the other of these approaches would best suit a particular organisation. No clearly defined advantage of one over the other applies to all cases. It's all about the business initiatives that require addressing. In the end, it's whether the chosen complete solution, including the extended set of applications, their quality and their support, will deliver a practical working solution.

This was endorsed by some of the attendees at this event, where their own CAA V5 integrated application developments were defined as being "high quality" and "comprehensive", at the expense of increased complexity.

Allan Behrens

Also in this issue . . . .

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