UGS Encourages Mid-size Manufacturers to Get on the “Fast Track to PLM”

New UGS Seminar Series and Business Center Show Mid-Size Manufacturers How to Leverage PLM Technology to Accelerate their Process of Innovation

PLANO, Texas – UGS Corp., a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, today announced a new global seminar series – “The Fast Track to PLM” – and a Web-based, small-to-mid-size business (SMB) center to help mid-size manufacturers understand how implementing a PLM strategy can grow their business by accelerating their process of innovation with a low total cost of ownership.

The need for mid-size companies to improve performance with PLM is highlighted in a new report, Product Lifecycle Management for Mid-sized Companies, issued by management consulting company Cambashi Limited. The report states that large global companies are pushing more responsibility to mid-size companies and expecting these companies to be key participants in innovation networks.

"The new priority is innovation, and the tools that encourage and support innovation have become the tools for survival and success,” said Peter Thorne, director of consulting, Cambashi Limited. “Mid-size companies face the same external market conditions and business issues as their larger counterparts, yet operate at a complex cross-over point in the manufacturing value network. Preconfigured applications and affordable pricing is increasing the availability of PLM tools to mid-size companies and improving their ability to survive and succeed in this environment.”

The report emphasizes that the use of pre-configured workflows based on industry best practices to get up and running fast is the way to “Fast Track” a PLM strategy for mid-size companies.

The Importance of Innovation to Profitable Growth
In a separate new report, The PLM for Small to Medium-Size Manufacturers Benchmark Report, issued by AberdeenGroup, the leading provider of fact-based research and advice for the global technology-driven value chain, finds that “challenges such as time-to-market pressures, globalization, managing outsourced design and demand for increasingly complex products cause many smaller companies to miss product revenue, product launch, product cost, product development cost, and quality targets.”

“The report found that small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are addressing these challenges and significantly improving product development performance using PLM software, and as a result have realized increased revenues, reduced product cost and decreased product development cost,” said Jim Brown, vice president Global Product Innovation and Engineering, AberdeenGroup. “Additionally, the benefits are equivalent to what larger companies have achieved, despite SMEs’ limited resources for implementing PLM.”

Seminar Series Focuses on PLM and Four Priority Initiatives for Mid-Size Manufacturers
PLM is gaining significant interest and focus by today’s leading companies because it provides a way to drive innovation throughout the product lifecycle.

The “Fast Track to PLM” seminar series addresses this need for mid-size companies to understand and participate in innovation. The seminar series being announced today will address four business initiatives important to mid-size companies that can be addressed with PLM technology:

* New Product Development: Integrate people and processes to link key customer requirements with the functional execution and management of programs to design, simulate, validate and manufacture innovative products.
* Value Chain Synchronization: Optimize the exchange of knowledge and information about any element from idea to product to optimize global response to demand and effectiveness in the supply chain.
* Enterprise Data Management: Organize and provide secure access to critical product and process information throughout the product lifecycle to leverage a corporation’s physical and intellectual assets.
* Commonization and Reuse: Maximize the re-use of existing parts, assemblies, equipment and processes and develop new, parts, equipment and processes that support common best practices for multiple contexts.

“The need to drive innovation applies to every participant in the value chain. Mid-size companies need PLM to be an effective player in the process. Where PLM was once the domain of only large enterprises, now PLM is accessible to companies of all sizes and resource levels,” said Bruce Boes, vice president of UGS Velocity Series Marketing, UGS. “’The Fast Track to PLM’ program helps companies understand how PLM helps transform the process of innovation and how UGS can help companies to get up and running in minimum time.”

New SMB Center Helps Companies Take the Fast Track to PLM
UGS has created a Web-based SMB Center at http://www.ugs.com/smb to help smaller companies understand how PLM can improve their performance. The center helps companies learn more about PLM, how it can be applied to improve innovation and how templates and other industry-specific functionality can help ease implementation and get companies on the Fast Track to PLM. Initially, the center features the impact of PLM on the four business initiatives discussed above, white papers, case studies and product background. UGS will expand the site over time to include a PLM self-assessment tool and additional related topical information.

Cambashi Limited’s report, Product Lifecycle Management for Mid-sized Companies, can be downloaded at no charge from https://www.ugs.com/forms/register_cambashi.shtml.

AberdeenGroup’s report, The PLM for Small to Medium-Size Manufacturers Benchmark Report, can be downloaded at no charge from www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410277&cid=2861

About UGS Velocity Series
The UGS Velocity Series™ portfolio is a comprehensive family of modular, yet integrated solutions addressing the product lifecycle management (PLM) needs of the mid-market. Consisting of a preconfigured family of digital product design, analysis and data management software offerings, UGS Velocity Series leverages the industry’s best practices to provide significant breakthroughs in ease-of-use and deployment. Mid-size manufacturers can leverage the power of UGS Velocity Series™ to transform their process of innovation while maintaining a low total cost of ownership; and all UGS Velocity Series™ products are completely scalable to the full range of UGS’ industry leading, enterprise-level PLM portfolio.

About UGS
UGS is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with nearly 4 million licensed seats and 46,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, UGS’ vision is to enable a world where organizations and their partners collaborate through global innovation networks to deliver world-class products and services while leveraging UGS’ open enterprise solutions, fulfilling the mission of enabling them to transform their process of innovation.

Note: UGS, Velocity Series and Transforming the process of innovation are trademarks or registered trademarks of UGS Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders.

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Jim Phelan

UGS Corp.

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