PTC Announces New Interoperability Strategy Critical to ProductFirst Success

Connectivity Between Product Development And Other Enterprise Applications Provides "Missing Link" for Manufacturers Focused on Revenue Growth and Shareholder Value

NEEDHAM, Mass., March 18, 2002 - PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the product development company, today outlined its efforts to deliver interoperability with other enterprise applications in support of Product First, its recently announced comprehensive business strategy to spur growth in the manufacturing sector. Today's interoperability announcement includes a strategic partnership with another leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) vendor, the announcement of a new partner program, and a review of PTC's direct data integration solutions. (See related release on agreement with EDS.)

"The ability to strategically leverage data created during the product development process is a key advantage for manufacturing companies," said Jim Heppelmann, PTC's executive vice president, software solutions, and chief technical officer. "Product development is the process that drives downstream enterprise systems such as ERP, CRM and SCM, and the ability to operate seamlessly across geographic and corporate borders. Only through an integrated process, where product development drives other enterprise applications can manufacturers reap the full rewards made possible by a Product First imperative."

Heppelmann continued, "The manufacturing industry is becoming more and more focused on products as the key to reinvigorating revenue growth and profitability. Efficiency and savings may affect the bottom line but new products drive top-line revenue growth. And, with enterprise application vendors increasingly focused on how all these applications work together, not only do manufacturers see bottom line results but the whole product lifecycle management (PLM) industry will continue to grow."

"PTC has been aggressively partnering with other leading companies to fulfill our interoperability plan for Product First," stated Heppelmann. "Our customers require connectivity to the rest of the enterprise. They recognize PLM is a major enterprise application and that an integrated enterprise application strategy is key to their long term business success."

"Engineering change and product data creation is worth very little without broad linkages to other enterprise applications," said Kevin O'Marah, Research Fellow, Product Lifecycle Management, AMR Research, in the February 8, 2002 AMR Research Alert. "Executives from Sun, EMC, Motorola, Dell and others agreed that new product development is the heart of competitiveness for high tech manufacturers. Time to market - the key to success on this dimension - cannot be driven by PDM alone. It calls for connections to ERP, CRM, sourcing and other systems."

Today's announcement underscores PTC's on-going commitment to support "Product First" companies. Product First companies succeed in the marketplace by recognizing the strategic importance of the product development process and investing in systems that drive this process. PTC has previously announced interoperability agreements with Tibco and Siebel, and is today announcing a relationship with EDS. PTC also expects to announce future arrangements with Enterprise Application Integration Partners that will provide PTC customers with certified access to additional enterprise applications.

The interoperability strategy includes:

A technology exchange agreement, announced today, between PTC and EDS that is intended to remove obstacles for providing interoperability between their respective product development software. The companies are both striving to make it possible to develop, implement, maintain and support interoperable computer-aided design (CAD), data management and visualization solutions between each company's respective product line.

A strategic partnership, announced February 11, 2002, between PTC and TIBCO Software Inc. (Nasdaq: TIBX), in which TIBCO's products will serve as an integration platform to link PTC's solutions with business systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM).

A strategic alliance, announced January 14, 2002, between PTC and Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEBL), the world's leading provider of eBusiness applications software, to integrate Siebel eBusiness Applications with PTC product development solutions. Siebel eBusiness Applications users will be able to view rich digital product data within PTC solutions, dramatically enhancing the customer experience, sales and marketing effectiveness and service operations across all customer touch points. 

PTC's Info*Engine continues to deliver data integration from various information systems for Web-based collaboration; MCAD and ECAD data management, both directly and through work group managers; and integration with popular desktop tools for document management.

PTC's support for increased interoperability between PLM applications and other popular enterprise applications is an important component of its Product First strategy, announced on February 12, 2002. PTC is using this strategy to encourage its customers to adopt a Product First orientation for long-term business success.

The Basic Tenets of Product First

A Product First company: 

understands business success stems from an overarching commitment to superior products. This orientation starts at the top and is ingrained in company culture. 

places product development at the intersection of customer satisfaction, operational efficiency and the business goals of the company, establishing the unifying framework for all business process systems to contribute to corporate growth. 

provides a systematic and repeatable approach to translating innovative ideas into business results, the key to driving predictable and consistent revenue.

The underpinnings of the PTC vision are three fundamental concepts: create, collaborate and control. A complete product development process will allow manufacturers to create the product, collaborate with participants throughout the value chain, and control the process.

About PTC 

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) develops, markets, and supports software solutions that help manufacturers win with superior products. PTC is the world's largest software company with a total commitment to product development. The company services more than 33,000 customers worldwide. 

www.ptc.com

 

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