From products to platform: Strategy and direction

By: Kathryn Gerardino-Elagio

The upside of a virtual event is that it provides opportunity to extend user connection globally – with no physical limits, remarked Gian Paolo Bassi, SOLIDWORKS CEO during an online press briefing on 3DExperience World 2021 organised by Dassault Systèmes for Asia Pacific.

Gian talked about the continuing transformation of product to platform. "This is the story behind the 3DEXPERIENCE® Works why it has had so many positive outcomes," he pointed.

In the past year humanity has faced the largest economic and health crisis in recent history. According to  a Mckinsey study in 2020, organisations were forced to adopt extraordinary measures to keep running amidst stranded employees supply chain disruption sudden changes in demand both up and down depending on the sector. The question the Mckinsey study wanted to answer was how did the digital transformation help those companies in their efforts.

Mckinsey analysis suggested three outcomes a win for the companies that had already started digital technologies, a reality check for those in the middle of the transformation, and a wake-up call for those that hadn't started the journey.

According to Gian, the same study found that agility and flexibility are now the top strategic priorities for enterprises of any size. In addition, the focus in the technology investment is in cloud-based the collaboration and technologies connecting end-to-end suppliers manufacturing logistics and customers for better visibility planning and control.

He mentioned, "This is what we have been saying all along. In fact, we promised to deliver a complete series of products natively built on our collaboration platform. We started with the game changing 3D Creator and 3D Sculptor and in the last few months, we have continuously delivered new applications for all design roles."

Having said that Gian emphasised the company's plan to constantly invest in communities. "In order to assure this content is rich and useful, we continuously add high-quality training material and invite star technologists to share engaging stories of their work. We have a team exclusively dedicated to ensure that these vibrant communities keep evolving and that everybody can benefit and contribute with free and easy access," he said.

SOLIDWORKS is everywhere

For Gian, SOLIDWORKS Community is the most valuable thing that they have. He shared, "SOLIDWORKS Community is composed of strong, passionate, incredibly diverse, amazing people from all over the world. This community includes everyone from elementary school kids to adults, who are generous and very much involved with local communities and all share a passion for using technology and science to improve everybody's lives. They continue to be a constant source of inspiration and motivation for all of us."

He added, “We also want to be part of the lives of these communities. We want to enable makers in all corners of the world to make anything they want, and for students to learn what they need to pursue their dreams. We want start-ups to grow and prosper, and we have even created a Marketplace for people and companies to trade their services.”

Gian shared, "This is all part of our vision for the SOLIDWORKS Community, and we are very much convinced that to realise our objective, the community must be fully integrated with everything else we do, literally one click away from a CAD model to a post."

Platform first

Gian revealed that its strategy is "From Products to Platform," from scattered products to a single place where all collaboration can happen.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a business experience platform that provides transparent data and lifecycle management. You can search, save, manage, and share files in collaborative spaces on the platform.

SOLIDWORKS Connected provides access to all the 3DEXPERIENCE services and apps that you are entitled to use based on your role.

This offering installs a full version of the SOLIDWORKS application on your computer from the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. It gives you extended capabilities on the platform and if you are online and connected, it gives you the flexibility to work anywhere and at any time.

When you install SOLIDWORKS Connected, you log on to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to use SOLIDWORKS and all the other services and apps available there. You can upload design content directly to the platform through a web browser to view, modify, manage, and share work. The platform automatically stores and updates all data.

"Get better insights from your data. Every product development company's most important asset is their data. A platform approach to product development enables that data to be safely shared and collaborated on in real-time with key stakeholders, both inside and outside of your company. With intuitive access to real-time data, you can manage its complexity and make better-informed decisions faster that lead to greater profitability," Gian declared.

By connecting SOLIDWORKS to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you can create seamless product development workflows and easily extend them with new tools as your business needs evolve. This connected design-to-manufacturing ecosystem in the cloud enables teams to collaborate on real-time data anywhere and at any time on any Internet-enabled device.

3DEXPERIENCE® Works

Gian also mentioned during the briefing that SOLIDWORKS helps to bring your ideas to market, providing the flexibility to work in any environment –desktop, cloud-connected, or pure cloud.

The 3DEXPERIENCE® Works portfolio of cloud solutions brings all your key stakeholders together on a single collaborative platform, allowing you to seamlessly move from ideation through delivery for continuous development. Connecting the people, applications, and real-time data from every aspect of your business helps you improve execution, increase productivity and accelerate innovation. Choose a job role and see what purpose-built solutions are available to you.

This suite of tools introduces efficiencies across simulation, design, service, conceptualising, manufacturing, and management to work as one, connected and integrated system. This means rapid design and engineering iterations can take place with less physical prototyping needed in order to finalise product development and manufacturing. This also means customers receive what they want quicker, resulting in higher satisfaction and lower overhead costs. As a result, your resources are freed to invest in what matters most to your organisation: innovation.

Towards the end of his speech, Gian gave three messages: 1) The SOLIDWORKS software you know and love, plus the 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud services that keep you more productive, collaborative, and mobile. 2) The future of design is now. 3) There are no barriers to knowledge and know how.