Well, regardless of whatever else you have to say about Dassault Systèmes, you have to admit that they have vision.

Last week, Dassault Systèmes invited their customers as well as many media and analyst folks down to Orlando for something called the 3DEXPERIENCE Forum. There are a few really well written summaries of the event and the message from DS, but in short, it was this: an experience is what occurs during the development of a product. And that experience needs to be supported across many different software systems and applications like ENOVIA, CATIA, SIMULIA and the like.

To date, much of the focus in the industry has been on those individual software systems and applications as opposed to the overarching experience. This forum is DS' first effort to change that focus for them. The video above, recorded by Verdi Ogewell the Editor-in-Chief at VerstadsForum ERP & PLM Magazine, shows Bernard Charles explaining the vision in his own words.

My Take

So what do I think?

Well, I'm a fan of this approach. Ultimately, I believe that manufacturing executives want their entire product development efforts to be successful. And probably more so than most software providers, they realize they need their entire product development IT ecosystem to work together. I like the focus at that level because it has more of the ultimate goal in mind. That's often gotten lost in all the details of a specific product or type of software application or system.

However, that's not to say there are no issues with the vision. As software applications and systems become entrenched in organizations, there are caretakers and champions that build their entire professional career on them. Manufacturing executives depend on those technical folks to make the software work. But to be honest, this vision of an experience overarching software applications and systems requires a new role to tend that responsibility. And there are all sorts of implications, good and bad, that result from that.

What the Blogosphere Had to Say

This was a 'big splash' kind of event. But interestingly, there hasn't been a ton written about it. Perhaps its not as easy to cover this kind of event where product updates take a back seat and vision steps forward. But there are a few very insightful posts worth reading.

Monica's best commentary, I believe, is captured in the third paragraph where she talks about the importance of setting 'audacious goals' and the fourth paragraph where she cites that there still was some confusion amongst customers, but that at least they were willing to investigate it more. I'd skip to those parts.

The 3DX Forum ExperienceDassault Systèmes invited several hundred of its best customers to Orlando last week, to learn about the company's latest efforts to vaul...

Very good recap overall by Jim at Tech Clarity. The 'Talking Strategy' section goes over things from DS' perspective. The 'Talking to Customers' section gives a frank, and accurate in my view, perspective on what they think about it. There's no one section to focus on here. If this is interesting to you, read it all.

Dassault Systemes' 3DExperience Forum was an Experience!I spoke with Dassault Systemes' execs and their customers earlier this week about everything from business strategies, the state of the m...

Roopinder Tara's years of experience in the industry comes out in these two posts, where he applies a healthy does of skepticism to the grand vision of DS. As was the case with Jim's post, there's not too much to skip here.

Dassault Conference, Pt 1: Bernard comes down from the mountain - WorldCAD Accessby Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com This morning, we heard Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault Systemes, reveal that he took a 2-3 month break f...

Dassault Conference, Pt 2: Dassault Plans World Domination - WorldCAD AccessDassault Systemes has identified so many industries it means to conquer that it seems to me like a plan for world domination. Here are so...

One of the best write ups about the event comes from Randall Newton's post. Skip on down to the 'What about PLM?' section for that. It's well worth the read.

GraphicSpeak " Dassault Systèmes unveils a grand strategy for the next 10 yearsPLM becomes one element in a larger plan to help enterprises compete in an experience economy. New Industry Solutions meld several Dassau...

Blow by Blow Activities

So that runs the gamut. But if you want to go into far more depth, take a look at the following two storify stories published by DS. It documents the event, physical and virtual, in great detail.

Live from 3DEXPERIENCE Forum North America 2012 - Day 1From Plenary Session Al Bunshaft, Managing Director, North America, welcomes attendees to 3DEXPERIENCE Forum North America 2012 Keynote s...

Live from 3DEXPERIENCE Forum North America 2012 - Day 2To learn more about Sustainability and REI, check out this video interview of Kevin Myette: 3DEXPERIENCE Platform for High Tech LIVE Demo...