When I was getting ready to attend Dassault Systèmes 2014 Value Solutions Sales Kickoff meeting last week in San Diego I felt very excited. I was looking forward to this meeting because I have missed it three years in a row and I was eager to know more about all the new products and features.
After a couple of morning sessions I noticed the speakers kept referring to “apps.” In the back of mind I started saying, “Oh no! More apps? Is that what we really need?” I kept listening to other speakers and presentations.
To my surprise the idea of apps started making sense. If you think about it in the context of what we are used to today: ENOVIA for data management and CATIA for CAD authoring, there are tasks that each one of us in the engineering or manufacturing world performs. For example, a designer has the task of designing his or her product in CATIA and managing it within its assembly context in ENOVIA. All what I’d want from the tool is to give me the capability to do my tasks.
Dassault Systèmes’ response to this was to create processes that mimic the daily routines that users experience every day. From there, they mapped these processes to a set of apps that allow users to do each particular process. Users, managers and admins can now breathe a big sigh of relief, no more complex users to TRIGRAMS matrices, no need any more for complex packaging of licenses to make sure companies don’t duplicate or over purchase licenses. Simple process to users mapping! That’s it!
Software release V6R2014X is scheduled to GA on 2/24/2014. In this release the client for the first time in Dassault Systèmes’ history will be able to select a Cloud version of the V6 solution (public cloud only at this time). On-premise solution will still be available. But with this Cloud Version the client could purchase whatever process they need to perform their job, in turn, the cloud solution will figure out what apps you need to perform that process and make them available to you with your login, some processes might require download and install but it’s all straightforward. Very simple! No more complex installations, media handling, databases, hardware setups and compatibilities concerns, software patches and updates. All is taken care of for you. A total of 147 processes (maybe a little more, I kept hearing different numbers throughout the week) replace the 457 TRIGRAMS that we have to choose from in today’s setup. The Cloud version will only have 47 of those processes in 2014X, maybe more maybe less by the time it’s released.
I’m very excited about the changes that are coming and I’m sure our clients will see and realize the benefits from this simplified approach.
Authored by Sam Abu-Hamdan of Adaptive Corporation