PTC reinforces commitment to SMBs

BOSTON: Inside the headquarters of PTC (formerly Parametric Technology Corporation), unlikely products -- like a yacht -- will welcome you.

If you travel a bit more (yes, you need to travel to cover the entire campus) you will notice a lot of images of a tractor, to heavy machineries to earthmovers to aircraft. PTC has showcased these products, which was designed by PTC’s products, in its entire campus.

In its media and analyst conference held in mid-January, PTC showcased its product enhancements and casestudies from different parts of the world from different companies. This year’s conference was targeted at the SMEs, as the company presented its PLM solution suite and re-structured channel strategy.

In his opening remarks, president and CEO Dick Harrison gave an overall perspective about PTC’s SME strategy and said that the company would focus SMBs through channels globally. He was confident that PTC will hit its target of $1 billion in revenue by 2008 through organic growth.

PTC is focusing on integrating many of its acquired products with its core engineering applications, and also looks at acquiring some more to fill in the gaps.

“We have over 12 offerings for the manufacturing space in the PLM, we need another 12 to complete the offerings,” says PTC's chief product officer, Jim Heppelmann, said.

“The PTC solution for content and process management continues to gain momentum as the PLM solution of choice for small and medium businesses (SMB). Windchill helps companies control product development data and enable internal and external product development collaboration, solving key challenges for growing businesses,” he said.

In fiscal 2006, total revenue from the PTC reseller channel grew 24 per cent to $171.5 million compared to the same period last year. The growth reflects continued success in selling PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER, as well as increased sales of Windchill solutions in the SMB market.

“Because of their size, SMB customers experience some unique challenges including resource and infrastructure constraints that can hinder the success of their product development initiatives. Windchill provides an optimal solution for overcoming these obstacles with an enterprise class tool that offers powerful capabilities for content management and collaboration with the scalability needed to support their ongoing growth,” asserted Heppelmann.

One of the participating customer in the event RollEase, that designs and manufactures patented manual window covering systems for residential and commercial applications, informed that the company selected Windchill PDMlink to help manage all forms of product data – including mechanical, electrical, and software.

“Windchill provides us with a closed loop change management system that enables us to easily track and manage revisions. Moreover, it increased our ability to efficiently use library parts for data reuse, lowering development costs and increasing speed to market”, said the company’s spokesperson, Joseph Cannaverde and project manager, RollEase.

The two-day conference saw several case studies presented by some of PTC’s SMB customers. According to Happelmann, PTC’s approach is to offer an integrated suite of applications that enable SMB to move on the value chain through the innovation process of product development.

“Most of today’s SMBs will become larger companies and they need product development solutions that can scale up as they grow. Our product offering makes it easy for SMBs to go for module-based approach. As and when SMBs need more features, they can go on adding to the existing set of PTC products,” he said.

During the conference, the company released the new version of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0, which is an upgrade to the flagship product of PTC. The new version has seen many enhancements that make Pro/E much more user friendly and easier to use, says PTC.

More than 300 resellers with over 1,000 individual representatives and application engineers sell PTC software to the SMB market. This indirect channel complements PTC’s direct sales effort in larger accounts. PTC resellers span the globe, providing PTC products and value-added services to small manufacturing companies in 41 countries.

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(The correspondent was in Boston on PTC’s invitation)