2017 was another busy year here at Dassault Systèmes.  As we look forward to all the exciting things we’ve got planned for 2018 – starting with our pavilion at CES in Las Vegas, January 9-12 – we wanted to reflect on a few highlights from 2017.

It’s all about Platforms

In addition to the special section in the spring issue of Compass, many of our regional 3DEXPERIENCE Forums focused on the importance of platforms.  Watch our Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Monica Menghini, dispel the three biggest myths about business platforms:

In the News

We made a number of significant announcements this year, from new customers to new products to acquisitions.  Among the highlights:

• Boeing extending its use of Dassault Systèmes solutions to include the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform for Manufacturing Operations Management and Product Lifecycle Management. (More about this as well in a position paper from our EVP and Chief Strategy Officer about how this news signals the importance of value chains.)
• Acquisition of Exa Corporation, to strengthen our simulation portfolio with next-generation fluid dynamics capabilities, expanding the power of digital engineering throughout the value chain
• Taking a majority stake in Outscale, a global leader in enterprise-class cloud services to strengthen our cloud offerings with enterprise-class cloud computing infrastructure services
• Multiple milestones in our Living Heart Project that aims to drive the creation and use of simulated 3D personalized hearts in the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of heart diseases.
• The top three academic teams in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition – Technical University of Delft, Technical University of Munich, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology – used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design and develop award-winning pods having the potential to impact the future of high-speed travel.

Compass magazine

We released two issues of our thought-leadership magazine, Compass.  The spring issue was focused on Platform Business in the Age of Experience, where our fall issue covered The Cloud Imperative in the Age of Experience.  If you missed any of our top articles from these issues – no worries: click below for immediate access!

• 8 reasons to move to the cloud
• How digital networks are changing competition
• Visionary companies leverage operational data and virtual models in “digital twins”
• For future growth, CEOs increasingly look to experts outside their companies
• Female educators are inspiring women to study for and succeed in engineering careers

 Age of Experience Events

We hosted three events in 2017 in support of our ‘megetrends’: Design in the Age of Experience in Milan in April, Science in the Age of Experience in Chicago in May and Manufacturing in the Age of Experience in Shanghai in November.  We had thousands of customers, prospects and industry experts join us for multiple days of inspiring keynotes, breakout sessions and networking.  Each even also featured our 3DEXPERIENCE Playground where participants had the opportunity for hands-on exploration of solutions that can help transform their businesses to be more forward-thinking about putting innovation first to provide their customers with the experiences they demand.

Extending Programs

• Our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab opened its second site at our Boston Campus! Set up in collaboration with MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms, the lab is connected to over 1000 other maker spaces through the Fab Foundation network. One of the key focus areas of the lab is to work with MIT on future hardware-software interfaces, so as to reduce the gap between the digital (bits) and the physical (atoms) to almost zero.  (Compass also looked at the overall rise of Fab Labs – read that story here.)
• La Fondation Dassault Systemes – whose mission is to transform the future of education and research by harnessing the powerful learning and discovery capabilities of 3D technology and virtual universes – extended from being exclusively opened to European applicants to being offered within the United States. Watch a video that shows was some of the recipients are doing!
• 3DEXPERIENCE Centers are popping up all over the world!  In addition to a location at our headquarters  in Velizy, two more of these new type of laboratories to nurture and empower disruptive projects opened this year in Wichita and Hamburg.

Sharing Our Customers’ Success

Our customers continue to do amazing things with the power of 3DEXPERIENCE. Here are just a sample of some of their stories. You can find more here.

• Leading commercial and executive jet manufacturer Embraer adopted the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to provide engineering and manufacturing planning stakeholders with cross-site digital continuity and real-time access to accurate product and product-build information, accelerating development time and improving quality and design innovation.
• Japanese architects Kengo Kuma & Associates have streamlined the design creation and change process resulting in revisions being stored in a single database for future reference and improvements in design quality and efficiency.
• Intermarché and Savencia are working together to transform the way self-service cheese is merchandised; through cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE, key decisions are able to be made very quickly and planograms are richer due to a collective experience.
• The 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s integrated business framework helps South Korean dental medical device manufacturer Osstem Implant eliminate traditionally disconnected processes and data and increase the efficiency and accuracy of its product quality control.
• 3DEXPERIENCE provides Kreisel Electric engineers with a single source of trusted information that promotes real-time collaboration, state-of-the-art design and simulation applications to engineer, test and manufacture components and systems for electric vehicles.

Out and About

We regularly host and attend events, and 2017 was no exception.  A few highlights were:

• CES – We were excited once again start the year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  A full highlights video can be seen here, and we were particularly proud to have HTC Vive in our booth to demonstrate the power of virtual reality to create cutting-edge consumer experiences.
• SolidWorks World 2017 – Over 5000 attendees joined us in San Antonio for this annual event – with even more watching via webcast. The week is all about learning what’s new, next and never before from not only technological perspectives in over 200 sessions, but also from connecting with peers. Missed it?  Check out the highlights video and be sure to mark you calendar for the 20th annual SolidWorks World 2018, February 4-7 in LA.
• Hannover Messe – Our theme during this March event was Digital Factory.  Along with WestRock, we presented how companies can practically implement Industry 4.0. Visitors to our booth gained a deeper understanding about how intelligent integration is more than just automated production within a smart factory.  Check out related content!
• Paris Air Show – Dassault Systèmes is a regular presence at the bi-annual event at Le Bourget. Visitors to our booth and chalet learned more about the ways the digital transformation supports product development and advanced manufacturing. Lines formed as attendees sought to experience augmented virtual reality to interact with true to life virtual 3D models. Watch a recap!

As you can see, it’s been a very busy year for Dassault Systèmes!  We wish you and yours the best for 2018, and we look forward to sharing more experiences with you in the new year!