Live from SolidWorks 2012 Media Event

by Oleg on August 31, 2011 · View Comments

I’ve been attending SolidWorks Media day in Dassault SolidWorks campus in Concord, MA. Actually, I noted- this is probably the last time event happens in the current SolidWorks building. SolidWorks is moving to the new Dassault campus in Waltham, MA. While the information about SolidWorks 2012 is under embargo, you can have a feeling of the event and some interesting information about SolidWorks install base, revenue growth, eco-system. I twitted most of these photos during the event. Nevertheless, I thought most of you can benefit from them combined in a single blog. Not everybody came to come to Boston because of Hurricane Irene a day before. However, you can see an impressive crowd in the meeting room.

Bertrand Sicot kicking off the event. The important message: SolidWorks is about evolution and not revolution.

SolidWorks is continued to develop the 3D professional market.

Nothing specially new, but this is how SolidWorks presented as part of all Dassault Systems’ brands

Key facts, revenues and install base.

Revenues

Install base

The average selling price (interesting – I haven’t seen this information before)

It was interesting to see the level of non-CAD product growth in SolidWorks portfolio. Today the numbers here mostly represents Simulation, Data management and documentation products.

Fielder Hiss, VP Product Management presents historical retrospective of SolidWorks releases for the last 20 years.

SolidWorks community numbers are impressive – 436 VARs and 750 partners.

The agenda afternoon included some very entertaining engineering experiments such as magnets, motor assembly and the hit of the day – vibration driven mouse robot.

Furthermore, afternoon agenda included SolidWorks 2012 Beta customers panel and a deep dive into SolidWorks 2012 features. However, this is where embargo starts.

In addition to that, SolidWorks was innovating in organizing new activities with SolidWorks execs (speed dating). 7 minutes round-table talk with exec. You can ask questions. After 7 minutes – rotation, execs are moving to the next table.

What is my take? It is hard to make a real comment and not to talk about the product. However, I think SolidWorks can play a significant role in the future transformation of Dassault Systems. How it will happen? Time will show.
Best, Oleg

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  • Christine

    Well, thanks to Irene I wasn’t there and I can speculate unencumbered by any embargo.  Granted, that also means my speculation is not based on product details which I haven’t seen yet.  Darn it…
    I’m not sure if the right question is if SolidWorks will play a role in the transformation of Dassault, but rather can Dassault leverage the SolidWorks install base to penetrate the SMB market?  You may remember the old marketing line “Bringing the power of 3D to every engineer’s desktop”, which seemed like a giant leap ten years ago.  Now that that is done, what is the next frontier?  Simulation, collaboration, and rapid product design?  Can the mighty Dassault respond to the market’s needs in a nimble and renegade fashion like the founders of SolidWorks did?
    I think the success of SolidWorks can be attributed to a perfect combination of a hungry and young VAR channel, a customer focused development team, and some brilliant UI folks leveraging on a technology that had not reached maturity (the power of personal computing). 
    Just my thoughts,
    -Christine

  • beyondplm

    Christine, I'm sorry you didn't make SolidWorks media day. Analyzing SolidWorks financial disclosure about the channel, customers and revenues you can see the status of SolidWorks brand is very strong. However, you are absolutely right- VAR channel is an important component in this business. -Oleg

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