What is Dassault Systemes up to?
November 12th, 2009
With two major organizational press releases in three weeks, I’m starting to wonder what Dassault Systems is up to. There’s something brewing. Their most recent press release announces that they are subcontracting development and support of its ENOVIA SmarTeam V5 technology to a new and independent company called artizone. (SmarTeam V5 is a scalable PDM/PLM application for use with a variety of CAD and other applications.) It appears (though not stated) that artizone is a spin-off from Dassault Systemes. artizone is carrying over ENOVIA SmarTeam professionals and leadership, including its new CEO, Alex Zeltcer.
The underlying message from Dassault Systems seems to be that ENOVIA SmarTeam V5 will have continued support and development in the same way it always has, just under a new name. However, there may be another underlying suggestion. Is it possible that Dassault Systemes wants to put a positive spin on dropping SmarTeam V5 from its menu of products? It is possible that without the backing and resources of the large mother corporation, SmarTeam V5 has entered retirement and will be living off its pension (its current customers). Will new customers show interest in a product that’s been pushed off to a third-party? Would Dassault Systemes prefer new customers to pick ENOVIA SmarTeam V5 or ENOVIA V6?
Take a look at the ENOVIA site. The press release about this switch over to aritzone hasn’t been posted on the Dassault Systemes website yet. For that matter, try finding the website for artizone.
Meanwhile, in another press release, Dassault Systemes announced that it is buying all “IBM sales and client support operations encompassing DS’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software application portfolio, as well as customer contracts and related assets, for approximately $600 million in cash.” The press release speaks as though IBM and Dassault Systemes are working together to offer the best outlet for their customers. Just beneath the surface, this may have the fingerprints of a finalized divorce between two companies that haven’t got along for some time.
One statement noticeably missing from the press release regards staff. Is IBM transferring personnel to Dassault Systemes as part of this deal? If staff is transferring, are they going to join artizone with its familiar V5 technology? Bernard Charles, president and CEO of Dassault Systemes, hints at something else in his statement, “we are putting our customers and partners first, creating a globally efficient sales organization to bring the value of V6 PLM applications to every enterprise in every industry.”
With all of this shuffling going on by Dassault Systemes, SolidWorks customers are left scratching our heads. If Dassault Systemes can so easily move around applications and their support, what is in store SolidWorks’ PDM solutions, Workgroups PDM and Enterprise PDM? I know I’ve asked this question before. I believe it is fair to ask the question again in the context of Dassault Systemes’ new press releases.
EPDM
Categories: News, PDM, PLM | Tags: Dassault Systemes, enovia, ENOVIA V6, EPDM, SmarTeam V5, V6
Matt,
DS has publicly stated that the (nearly) 700 IBM employees will become DS employees. These are sales and customer support staff, who have (until now) been responsible for selling CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and SIMULIA.
What this does is put the responsibility for selling software in the hands of DS, not IBM.For most customers, the transition should be seemless. To paraphrase Bernard, the only real change for most customers who currently buy products through IBM is that the sign on the door will change to say Dassault Systemes.
I think what you can gather from all of this is that Dassault payed IBM a large premium in the early days to get Dassault into as many accounts as possible. Dassault likely payed higher margins that they would have to normal resellers due to IBMs ability to take Dassault places they couldn’t have gone without IBM. Now that Dassault has saturated the PLM and CAD market, it doesn’t make sense to continue the relationship with IBM. That is my take.
Regarding the Artizone thing, you could be right or it could be a simple accounting shenanigan that has no bearing on the future development plans of Dassault. I don’t think there is any reason to fear the black helicopters yet.
Regarding Workgroup PDM and Enterprise PDM, I think Dassault has been extremely hands off with SolidWorks and as long as SolidWorks is profitable, why would that change?
Hello Matthew West-
My concern is that there is more and more disparity between what is said by Dassault/SolidWorks and what is actually done.
Thanks,
Devon Sowell
Matthew West,
The strategy I’ve seen so far regarding SmarTeam V5 is that it is being treated as a separate program, but with the spin that it is seemlessly upgradable to V6 (which is not really true from what I’ve seen so far). It does not seem as though the IBM staff will be selling SmarTeam V5, though they may continue support for it. It does seem as though they will be re-reselling their customers on V6 and M1 tech.
I don’t really have any insight into the SmarTeam changes. Hopefully someone smarter than me can comment on that. All I know is that some people who used to be in sales at IBM are now in sales at DS, selling the same products they were selling before.
As A Smarteam customer looking to upgrade early next year, this makes my stomache not feel very good. I’m not sure what we got ourselves in to. Solidworks and Smarteam already don’t talk amoungst themselves enough because the release of SW2010 and the compatible release of Smarteam is 4 months (at least) apart.
Steve
[pingback] Devon Sowell’s Blog (SmarTeam, SolidWorks, & Dassault…What’s Going On?) http://designsmarter.typepad.com/devonsowell/2009/11/smarteam-solidworks-dassaultwhats-going-on.html#comments
I just can’t help but wonder why a company would keep a product alive when another version is already working. V5 vs. V6 I know the two are different but…
Steve
From my perspective, the IBM purchase and the changes Artizone spin-off by Dassault are unrelated.
I don’t think SmarTeam is dead (or even close), and the Artizone move is actually evidence of that. Check out my detailed thoughts here:
http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/11/dassault-not-crazy/
On the other front, I think the IBM move is about recapturing margin and streamlining operations (Dasssault was managing the IBM part of the “channel” anyway, now they are just paying a smaller percentage to do it, and the sales reps. work directly for them instead of for IBM).
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