UGS REPORTS GAINS, EXPANDS TEAMCENTER CAPABILITIES

18 Jul, 2004

UGS made a number of announcements at a press event last week in New York City. We'll cover some highlights here and in upcoming weeks. Besides making it clear that they are very happy to be an independent company, UGS previewed upcoming releases of NX and Workcenter, announced several customer wins, and presented an upbeat financial picture in anticipation of an initial public offering in the next 12-24 months. CEO Tony Affuso says that the UGS customer base reached 42,000 in 2004, up from 39,500 in 2003. Installed seats of all products reached 3 million.

He noted strong interest in PLM, which is making inroads in new markets, including consumer goods, retail, apparel, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical. A strength of the UGS Teamcenter suite is its ability to support multiple CAD platforms, including CATIA V4 and V5, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and Inventor. To further that advantage the company has partnered with consulting firm INCAT to develop a Teamcenter-based engineering process management solution, INCAT Multi-CAD Express.

Through another agreement with another consulting firm, A.T. Kearney procurement Solutions will sell UGS' Teamcenter Sourcing solution. Teamcenter Sourcing is based on Kearney's eBreviate technology, supply-chain collaboration software that UGS is now developing. The solution features new functionality in the form of Web-based RFx and survey capability. Teamcenter Sourcing's contract management and sourcing team tools now integrate with Teamcenter's lifecycle collaboration capabilities.