Siemens Closes Acquisition of UGS; Introduces Business as UGS PLM Software
UGS PLM Software to Operate as a Global Division of Siemens Automation and Drives Affuso Named Chairman and CEO; Brandis President; Bichara CFO of Leading Provider of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software and Services
Anton S. Huber: We intensively listened to our customers. Siemens is committed to sustained profitability and growth, both for our company and for our customers. To provide this, we work to anticipate global trends in industrial production and plan our strategies and investments to help our customers stay at the forefront. As a trendsetter in automation systems Siemens A&D saw the growing importance of software tools for the digital factory as an opportunity for significant innovation. This is backed by a lot of feedback of our customers during the last years telling us how hard it is for them to manage the interfaces of their software and hardware systems. By combining UGS’ excellent product lifecycle management capabilities with our leading know-how in industrial automation, we can establish the next major innovation in manufacturing -- a unified portfolio for uniting the virtual and physical domains into a lifecycle that extends from ideation to physical delivery. As a result, our customers’ product development and production processes can become faster, better and more cost-efficient. This made UGS extremely attractive to us even though the full convergence is still some years away.
Tony Affuso: The trends that have driven Siemens’ automation strategy reflect the same business requirements that are escalating the value of PLM as an enterprise application. There is demand for greater manufacturing capacity, for getting the right products to market sooner, for meeting expanding compliance requirements and increased complexity in products and production, for optimizing resources and for global innovation networks that enable collaboration in developing and producing products. Siemens A&D and UGS together will be in a position to address these needs in a very innovative way through Siemens A&D’s Totally Integrated Automation business strategy. It’s not only a compelling vision, but one our two companies shared independently and now can work on together.
Tony Affuso: Essentially it changes the game and creates new opportunities for manufacturers. Adoption of at least some form of PLM technology has become a mission-critical strategy for manufacturers to remain competitive in the global environment that we see. Now, we will be able to take the value of PLM to a new level, by providing a single product data model that digitally links product development from its earliest stages to the manufacturing process in truly unifying the engineering and automation domain.
Anton S. Huber: This is, in fact, a breakthrough that manufacturers have tried to resolve for many years. It unlocks what has been an expensive barrier to improved manufacturing planning and performance. We will be the first company able to unify the product and production lifecycles in order to help customers meet their highest efficiency goals and increase their confidence that they can bring the right products to market faster than their competitors.
Anton S. Huber: Unparalleled technology know-how and outstanding innovations are the lifeblood of Siemens. We saw those same characteristics in UGS. This company has excellent products and its strengths perfectly fit into our core verticals. As you know, Siemens and UGS have worked together as partners for years, and additionally, Siemens is an experienced user of UGS offerings. Looking at the players in the market, they clearly have the most comprehensive portfolio of PLM solutions and strength in every area of their domain. That, combined with their broad enterprise software expertise and depth of experience in engineering and manufacturing, brings great value to Siemens. It was a very thoughtful decision. We believe that together we have the best combination of technology, experience and knowledge to accelerate our vision of an end-to-end hardware and software portfolio encompassing the complete lifecycle of products to the customers’ highest benefit. If you take the two market places in which we have traditionally participated, then look at the new value points of integration we can develop together, it provides a nice growth opportunity.
Tony Affuso: In addition we share an unwavering commitment to our customers’ success that also manifests in our shared belief in the importance of open systems and interfaces. UGS is the most practiced PLM provider in open systems, which eases the integration with Siemens technology already in place. Siemens has been an active and influential member of JT Open – a program that promotes the benefits of open collaboration across the extended enterprise. Enabling customers to implement PLM and automation solutions while maintaining a full range of existing applications in a multi-vendor environment is at the core of our shared business strategy and the unique value proposition we offer our customers.
Anton S. Huber: Today’s manufacturing business environment is becoming increasingly complex. Globalization, personalization and faster technology lifecycles are making it harder for manufacturers to plan strategies for success. These challenges can best be met by enabling companies to move from product ideation to delivery in a seamless and continuous lifecycle that encompasses product development, production automation and manufacturing execution processes.
Together we are leading the industry in delivering integrated solutions across the full product lifecycle. We are:
Thus, we provide a unique combination of expertise in automation, hardware, software and infrastructure to serve the needs of our customers from end-to-end. This combined expertise enables customers to improve product development and production processes so they can be both fast to market and right to market despite the complexities they face.
Tony Affuso: I’d say openness again…but this time a different aspect of it. The dedication both companies have to open business models and technology standards, including providing components and tools to our respective competitors, will enable the delivery of a fully integrated product lifecycle solution to the market at an accelerated pace. Additionally, ongoing dedication to open standards will allow our business partners to continue to add value as the solution increases in breadth, depth and functionality. We are committed to the best integration of best in breed to meet our customers’ needs.
Customers can also feel confident that with the financial security of Siemens and the company’s long term strategic view, their investments in PLM and Totally Integrated Automation will be well protected.
Anton S. Huber: UGS is a very strategic investment for Siemens and it is a major division within the A&D group representing nearly 10 percent of revenue to start. We have very high regard for UGS’ management team and what they have accomplished and welcome them to Siemens A&D.
Tony Affuso: Our senior management teams are actively working on integration planning, always with a commitment to making our customers successful at the forefront. Our vision of helping our global customers transform their process of innovation will only be enhanced and accelerated.
Tony Affuso: UGS will continue to offer the full portfolio of digital design, analysis, manufacturing and cPDM collaboration solutions that has made it a leading PLM vendor in the industries it serves. In fact this year we are in the midst of three of the largest product introductions we’ve had in a while, with the launch of NX5, Teamcenter 2007 and Tecnomatix 8. Our intention is to expand our range of PLM solutions with new ways to integrate digital product and process models with the physical world of automation.
Anton S. Huber: Siemens has actually been a long-time customer of UGS, using a full range of its products in various groups throughout the company, so we understand the value they add to creating, building and managing products from both a vendor and customer perspective.
The success of Totally Integrated Automation and the ability to increase business speed and confidence depends on a complete product model. Design applications and collaborative tools are a core element in our initiative to align the links between product design, manufacturing processes and production and enable manufacturing information and features to be incorporated into the design process early in order to improve products.
Anton S. Huber: There is almost no overlap. The majority of the UGS portfolio adds new capability to Siemens’ offerings. Where there is overlap, we will make careful evaluations to be sure that we provide the very best solutions that will keep our customers successful and save the investments they already have taken.
Tony Affuso: UGS was the first company to bring complete PLM to the mid-market, and it is a very critical high-growth segment that we will continue to pursue aggressively. We’re seeing tremendous success with our UGS Velocity Series portfolio and as part of Siemens A&D will continue our pace of development for these solutions.
Anton S. Huber: Today Siemens also provides the range of solutions from low to high end that is necessary in today’s market. It is a strong shared view that the manufacturing supply chain and the global innovation network will always be an eclectic mixture of company sizes are working together collaboratively. We are pleased that UGS has offerings for the mid-range market and fully support future growth in this segment.
Tony Affuso: We remain committed to our partners, who bring valuable industry knowledge and expertise to our products, our services and our sales. It is an aspect of our open approach to business that we provide the best solutions available for our customers, and that would not be possible without strong partner relationships.
Anton S. Huber: Siemens A&D values UGS’ Channel strategy and itself sells 80 percent of its products through channels with more than 500 certified partners. Our partners have important domain expertise and value and we have no plan to eliminate or replace the partners UGS brings to our business. In fact we expect them to become an even more important part of delivering a total solution.
Anton S. Huber: Absolutely, yes. Our long term strategy is to build a unified software portfolio that spans product and production lifecycles, accelerates common processes and reduces their complexity. We are setting a new industry agenda for delivering unequalled value to customers of all sizes, enhancing their confidence that that they can outperform their competitors through their overall ability to achieve innovation, speed and confidence in their products and processes. No other company would be able to offer this level of value to its customers, which is why we are so excited about moving forward together.
5800 Granite Parkway
Suite 600
Plano, TX
75024
(v): +1 800 498 5351