It was by no means surprising that Dassault Systèmes’ CEO, Bernard Charles, addressed health and life sciences issues in his opening speech at the premiere of TECHNIA’s digital PLM Innovation Forum 2020. In a short presentation, Dassault’s charismatic leader claimed that the Coronavirus crisis has made it clear, now more than ever, that innovation is at the heart of what we must do to cope with the future.

“On the other hand, this has been clear for a long time as we have established PLM at the center of sustainable innovation. This becomes clear today as we can connect all elements to draw the right conclusions. We have the tools and must act in the light of the health crisis,” Charles said. “The quest to harmonize products, nature and life by using a collaborative platform can help us to expose the invisible, to plan and imagine the future. This is the core of what we offer our customers.”

This is typical of how Dassault’s leader often formulates himself; with beautiful words, holistic descriptions and garnished with a gaze directed toward the horizon of the future. The detail work with Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE PLM platform he leaves to his developers, implementers, partners such as TECHNIA and the customers/users. One doesn’t need to drill very deep into the rich content of the PLMIF 2020 agenda to realize that his ideas around a platform that covers most aspects of product development has become a nutritious environment for innovation. This all manifests in Dassault’s strong customer base, which contains more than 200,000 companies, according to its own information.

AT THE HEART OF WHAT WE MUST DO. “More than ever, the (Coronavirus) crisis has made it clear that innovation is at the heart of what we must do to cope with the future. On the other hand, this has been clear for a long time, since we placed PLM at the center of sustainable innovation,” said Dassault Systèmes CEO and president, Bernard Charles, during a presentation at TECHNIA's digital PLM event, PLMIF 2020. With 2,000-plus participants, it is one of the most successful advanced PLM events so far.

Undoubtedly, Charles’ participation in the event was one of several attractive names and presentations that enabled the premiere event to develop into a success. Arranging for TECHNIA’s event to be online seems to have reached significantly more participants than the previous physical variant. More than 2,000 participants registered, compared to the previous physical event’s attendance of between 400 and 500.

TECHNIA’s CEO, Jonas Gejer, was pleased with the outcome, of course, but points out that the event is not over yet—it is ongoing and available on demand through a full 30 days on the site.

“We’re very impressed with the interest and feedback from customers. TECHNIA is the first player in the PLM area to conduct a virtual PLM seminar with this breadth and depth, with around 80 sessions over 30 days, and more than 2,000 participants,” Gejer commented.

Furthermore, he added that despite the tough times with the Coronavirus and COVID-19, the company, together with its customers, has managed to maintain their deliveries and commitments during months that have been characterized by a large number of paused industrial operations and extensive work-from-home and remote work measures for employees.

TECHNIA’s CEO and co-founder, Jonas Gejer, during his presentation at the digital PLMIF 2020 premiere. TECHNIA is Dassault’s largest global partner in the Customer Process Experience (CPE) channel, formerly called the Value Solution channel. In terms of revenues, Cenit is larger, around $170 million compared to TECHNIA’s $130; however, large portions of Cenit’s revenues come from areas such as SAP (ERP) and IBM document management solutions, while TECHNIA’s revenue is more purely PLM related.

Extremely Rich Speaker List

As noted above, Gejer and his co-workers brought together a rich list of speakers for the two opening days of last week’s live agenda, and it's no less impressive for the 30 days the event is running on-demand. PLMIF 2020’s lineup includes 80 speakers and 30 special digital "booths" populated by various stakeholders and which participants can virtually visit.

TECHNIA also attracted several top speakers from Dassault, with both EMEAR VP and chief, Olivier Ribet, as well as SOLIDWORKS’ CEO Gian Paolo Bassi. Ribet spoke about sustainability and how to empower all stakeholders in the companies with digital tools–preferably Dassault’s–which can substantiate and coordinate their environmental work, and avoid greenwashing.

Additionally, the event includes a large number of guest speakers, such as analyst CIMdata's manager, Peter Bilello, as well as presenters from TECHNIA's customers. In the latter case, for example, B. Braun's Fabian Hoffer and Philip Haller presented as guests. During 2020, B. Braun will complete one of this year’s largest PLM installations in the world (13,000 users) of Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE.

SOLIDWORKS CEO, Gian Paolo Bassi, was one of the distinguished Dassault-related speakers during PLMIF 2020. “We are all interconnected and we have a common mission in improving society with science and technology,” Bassi said, and added that the time has come for the SOLIDWORKS user community to step up to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. “The platform brings new opportunities for the SOLIDWORKS community,” Bassi asserted, pointing at “generative design, enterprise PLM, advanced simulation and digital manufacturing. These opportunities contribute to a transition from product-centric organizations to platform and human-centric ones.”

Undoubtedly the event is a success for the man behind the idea of the digital conference: TECHNIA's CMO, Ghassan Sultan. Sixteen months ago, Sultan came to Gejer, presented the idea, and got the TECHNIA boss on board.

“This year's theme is to enable digitalization to develop more sustainable products and services,” says Jonas Gejer, stating that this is fully in line with TECHNIA's mission and purpose of the business: to enable customers and users to make the most of their 3DEXPERIENCE investment through smart utilization, something he asserts the problems introduced by COVID-19 have shown the need for.

I asked Gejer about which presentations are the most interesting in this event.

“Hard to choose, but if I have to choose: Number 1 is B. Braun, it was very interesting to hear about their strategic projects and how they are implementing it in close partnership with TECHNIA and Dassault Systems. Number 2 is Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of SOLIDWORKS, this was very inspiring and exciting for us as it is a new offering for TECHNIA. Number 3 is the Starling project, which is about implementation of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in Scania, with Anders Malmberg as a very good speaker.

CASE: Scania's Implementation Work with 3DEXPERIENCE

Engineering.com has previously written about the Starling Project.

The background is that there are a number of discussions in engineering circles and among analysts, as well as related press about PLM and its theoretical possibilities to make life easier for people in product development and realization. But what does it look like in real life in connection with a major change of PLM systems in an OEM environment?

This is the starting point for my earlier article about what is happening at truck manufacturer Scania, which is now in the concept phase for the introduction of Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

I spoke to Scania's then-PLM chief, Anders Malmberg–he currently works at the telecom giant Ericsson. Malmberg talks about how to attack the problem of rolling out this CATIA V6/ENOVIA solution, the Starling Project, and how to get it to work together with the older CATIA V5 version as well as their own configuration and rules data platform, OAS, etc.

This is a steep challenge given that there are 16,000 employees and partners involved in the development work. How do they bring this together at Scania after the 2017 decision to invest in Dassault's 3DEXPERIENCE/CATIA V6? It is a challenging journey, and one which will not be less challenging in the light of the consequences of the Coronavirus crisis—well worth a closer look.

Don't miss out on reading the full article: A Phased Roll Out with BIG BANG Elements: Opportunities and Challenges in SCANIA’s Large 3DEXPERIENCE Implementation.

TECHNIA Cloud, SOLIDWORKS and BIOVIA

Working remotely—with the availability of relevant data and a wide range of software support via cloud platforms—has proven its value during the Coronavirus crisis. Jonas Gejer says that 3DEXPERIENCE over the TECHNIA Cloud is an excellent example of what can be attained in terms of accessibility, software variety and geographical flexibility.

The background is, Gejer explained, that throughout the years TECHNIA has made many implementations and knows what the operation of the system requires. This is also manifested on their own Cloud platform, which among other things contains the consultant's own solutions. A good example is TECHNIA Value Components (TVC), a suite of modules that have been so good that even Dassault itself is a reseller of them.

Finally, Gejer concluded by announcing the company's results during 2019-2020, when it expanded its SOLIDWORKS commitment and became a certified distributor of the commercial mainstream 3D desktop CAD program. TECHNIA has also introduced the BIOVIA solution, which is Dassault's software environment to help companies create biological, chemical and material innovations.

“It is possible, for example, in lab environments to introduce virtual tests instead of physical ones, which can save a lot of time and rationalize a business that has so far often been characterized by manual handling,” Gejer said.

He added that they have also organized themselves and their 700-plus coworkers into three "Centers of Excellence": Engineering, Manufacturing and Simulation.

TECHNIA's CTO, Johannes Storvik speaks at PLMIF 2020 under the heading, “Value driven implementation: How to choose the right problems to solve.”

In the coming days, PLM & ERP News will publish the most interesting cases included in PLMIF 2020.