In 2006, Dassault Systèmes embarked on an adventure that has lead to today’s strategic partnership announcement with Enterprise Social Software company blueKiwi.

I can’t help but think of Neil Armstrong’s famous phrase :

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Now just for fun, try replacing the word ‘man’ with ‘PLM’ and ‘mankind’ with ‘Industry’. Are you with me?

The business of designing, engineering, simulating, manufacturing, recycling, etc. etc. products first virtually so that you get them right the first real-world time is called Product Lifecycle Management. Like so many things in the IT world, PLM has traditionally been segmented by companies, industries and user groups. Yet with PLM 2.0 technologies and enterprise social media solutions like blueKiwi, this is changing.

Why does PLM need an enterprise social software solution? According to Bernard Charlès in today’s press conference, “PLM needs blueKiwi to capture memory and provide the freedom to exchange ideas.” Bernard also talked a lot about how the partnership is about “connecting people.”

His quote in today’s announcement says it best:

The current business environment reveals a growing disconnect between consumer requirements and available products, between employees and their companies. The new consumer buying behavior, as well as different employee working experiences, create new needs and require businesses to adapt. Social Innovation is about connecting individuals, ideas and virtual experiences, and leveraging social networking capabilities. We have imagined online services in order to connect both worlds, thus enabling people to become participants in the innovation processes, either in their role as a consumer or as an employee.

What I liked hearing about best today is that blueKiwi isn’t monogamous to one platform, it is platform polygamous. I’ll let you consider the possibilities.

If this news interests you, you’ll probably enjoy Timo Elliott’s blog article Enterprise 2.0 Must be Aligned with Business Process

You may also like to see what people are saying about this on Twitter. Just search Twitter with #dassaultsystemes and #bluekiwi.

Stay tuned for live blogging from DevCon starting tomorrow. Meanwhile, have you tried Tianamo?

Best,

Kate