Atos to Strengthen Its Digital Manufacturing and PLM Capabilities with the Acquisition of Processia

Founded in 2000, Processia is to join the Manufacturing Industry vertical of Atos by June 2021 and, as Vincent Frazer, CEO and co-founder of Processia, put it: to “become Atos’s business unit specializing in Product Lifecycle Management for all Dassault Systèmes solutions” (Image courtesy of Processia.)

As Atos highlights: “through Processia, Atos will reinforce its PLM and Engineering Solutions franchise, complementing its current offerings of Siemens, PTC and Dassault Systèmes services, and expand the Group’s footprint in North America and Europe, especially in Belgium, Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.” The transaction will add 250+ PLM professionals to the manufacturing industry vertical led by Pierre Barnabé, head of manufacturing industry at Atos. It is expected to “enhance its capabilities to support manufacturing companies on their transformation journey and adoption of industry 4.0 technologies”.

Atos will certainly open a world of opportunities for Processia to significantly grow its offering portfolio and widen its industry reach within the group operating markets. Additionally, it will certainly be of interest to Dassault Systèmes in furthering its relationship with Processia and Atos, with the potential to engage in broader and more strategic 3DEXPERIENCE implementations.

Nowadays, digitalization, business transformation and connecting the dots across the digital thread is on every executive’s agenda—from manufacturing organizations, software developers to services and solutions providers. PLM is recognized as one of the cornerstones of manufacturing, alongside ERP, MES and CRM platforms and processes, and the “product data backbone for the extended organization” as Atos describes it.

Atos is operating across six major industry segments: manufacturing, financial services & insurance, public sector and defense, telecom, media and technology, resources and services, healthcare and life sciences. (Image courtesy of Atos.)

Over the years, Atos has significantly grown through mergers and acquisitions—counting at least 20 acquisitions from 2016 to date, plus three acquisitions alone announced this month: from Processia in PLM to Cryptovision in cybersecurity and Ipsotek in video analytics capabilities. The group’s biggest acquisition to date was of US-based IT services provider Syntel in a $3.4b cash deal in 2018, bringing a highly complementary portfolio, customer base and geographic footprint.

Per their 2019 registration document: “for over a century Atos (…) has grown and developed through a series of strategic mergers and acquisitions making it a global leader in digital transformation”; the Processia acquisition is one step further towards digital transformation and more business capacity within PLM and the Dassault Systèmes portfolio. (Image courtesy of Atos.)

Leveraging access to a vast portfolio in technology, digital integration, business consulting and transformation with Atos, the Processia acquisition will certainly benefit from the group experience in smart integration and continuous go-to-market alignment. PLM is quite a niche in the context of the IT world, but a significant enabler to competitive advantage, collaboration, data continuity and operational efficiency in the manufacturing world. Product complexity is rapidly rising towards more cross-functional collaboration, more embedded software, more integrated digital twins, and the need to leverage model-based systems engineering (MBSE) as the glue across the other practices. There is no doubt that, in acquiring an existing strong PLM player like Processia, Atos will be able to rapidly consolidate and enhance their existing Dassault Systèmes related footprint.

“We are delighted to welcome the Processia experts and to strengthen the digital manufacturing capabilities of Atos. Processia has impressive capabilities and an excellent reputation. They will complement the PLM and Engineering Services portfolio of the Atos Manufacturing practice extremely well. The two companies are also very complementary in terms of global footprint and customer base”, said Pierre Barnabé, head of manufacturing and head of big data and cybersecurity. (Image courtesy of Atos.)

In discussions with Processia CEO and Co-Founder Vincent Fraser, he explained that he welcomed the Atos acquisition as “it promised to maintain Processia’s core DNA identity while opening the door to new markets, technologies, industries and ultimately, new growth for Processia and Atos”

Fraser also highlighted numerous opportunities in terms of:

Widening and strengthening Processia’s services offering and solutions portfolio, beyond PLM and into ERP and MES domains as already covered by Dassault Systèmes’ associated brands under the 3DEXPERIENCE platform umbrella.
Delivering broader digital integration and data migration solutions, especially when it comes to replacing or expanding legacy PLM solutions, or even integrating 3DEXPERIENCE with other enterprise platforms.
Leveraging consulting expertise, industry knowledge, engineering and technical practices, tapping into Atos talent pool, but also collaborating with an established business development force and established client base.

“I am very proud to start a new chapter in the history of Processia with our acquisition by Atos [which] has placed its trust in our growing company. Its international scope and vision are in line with Processia's identity and ambitions. We intend to leverage its international reach as a tool for growth and development. This acquisition is a testament to our reputation and the quality of the services we provide in PLM” said Fraser. (Image courtesy of Processia.)

Going forward under the Atos ownership, Processia will be the one global PLM partner to watch when it comes to 3DEXPERIENCE-enabled transformations, especially as the company accelerates its growth plans. Fraser is to remain in the driver’s seat once the Processia acquisition completes in Q2 of 2021—with the ambition to significantly increase its PLM professional workforce in the next years.

Beyond the Processia acquisition, Atos and Dassault Systèmes recently made the news as founding members of the European technology initiative “Software République”, together with Renault, STMicroelectronics and Thales. This industry cooperation is set with ambitious goals to leverage new open ecosystems for innovation in intelligent and sustainable mobility, connecting technology, vehicle and people, leveraging the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab Startup Accelerator.

How will engineering, cybersecurity, and ultimately 3DEXPERIENCE capabilities of Atos combine and contribute to such (and other) wider industry initiatives? The question remains open; PLM has surely been an important role to play in enabling product and process innovation, implementing MBSE practices and associated data continuity solutions with global PLM, engineering and digital transformation partners such as Processia and Atos.

What are your thoughts?

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