From product design to customer experience
The strategy broadened the company's focus on 3D design, digital mock-ups and product lifecycle management (PLM). Dassault Systèmes described a "social enterprise" in which people across and outside a business could participate in innovation, with the aim of creating value for consumers.
President and CEO Bernard Charlès said the platform grew out of several years of work with customers on V6. It combined information-search technology, social innovation tools and realistic virtual 3D experiences. "We must provide businesses and people with holistic 3D experiences to imagine sustainable innovations capable of harmonizing products, nature and life," he said.
Monica Menghini, the newly appointed executive vice president for industry, marketing and corporate communications, said the platform would use 3D as a common language and the Web as its user interface. She argued that customers wanted more than PDM, CAD or process-management tools: They wanted to develop safer, greener and smarter vehicles while delivering experiences suited to each market. "We want to help them move from vehicle attributes to vehicle experience," she said.
Charlès linked the announcement to the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 results, attributing much of its strong performance to the 3D experiences it already supported. He cited years of work with Ford, Boeing, BMW, Guess, Honda, Airbus, Carrefour, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Benetton and GE.
Netvibes and the software acquisition push
Netvibes was part of the effort to strengthen the platform's Social Business Apps, alongside the launch of the 3DSwYM brand and the earlier acquisition of Exalead. Charlès said virtual stores, 3D logistics applications and connected, real-time business dashboards were already changing how companies operated.
Dassault Systèmes' half-year financial report for the period ended June 30, 2012, later confirmed that it had bought all of Netvibes Ltd on February 9 for approximately €21.2 million in cash.
Founded in Paris in 2005, Netvibes had offices in New York and San Francisco when it was acquired, according to PCWorld. Its dashboard interface supported 48 languages, and its library contained about 200,000 widgets or web applications. Netvibes CEO Freddy Mini said the staff would keep working on the product, with new features planned for the following weeks.
PCWorld identified Netvibes as Dassault Systèmes' fourth acquisition in two years. The earlier deals included enterprise search engine Exalead, purchased in June 2010 for about €135 million (US$160 million), and production validation software vendor Intercim, bought in 2011 for US$36.5 million. The company subsequently acquired Enginuity PLM, which made software for pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The first year after launch
By the February 7, 2013, conference call on fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 results, Dassault Systèmes had introduced its first 12 Industry Solution Experiences. Charlès said the 3DEXPERIENCE strategy addressed a market that should be roughly twice the size of the market the company had previously served.
On that call, Dassault Systèmes reported record results for 2012. Revenue passed €2 billion, having doubled over six years. Earnings per share increased 15% to €3.37, while the operating margin rose 120 basis points to 31.6%.
