Maybe Dassault Isn’t Crazy

Written by Jonathan Scott

With Dassault recently announcing the spin-off of SmarTeam V5 development to Artizone, a lot of people have opinions (and concerns) about what Dassault Systemes (DS) is doing with the ENOVIA brand these days.  I can’t offer definitive answers since I don’t work for DS, but I know enough people at the ENOVIA brand that I think I have some insight to offer.  The net of my thinking: Dassault is positioning itself to accelerate ENOVIA V6 development while ensuring that V5 support is strong – and that means they are not killing SmarTeam.  I suspect this is a big lesson-learned from the V4 to V5 transition (that has become infamous in CATIA circles).

Rather than foisting my own opinions on you directly and then arguing why I think I am right, let’s try out some hypothetical thoughts and let you draw your own conclusions.  In particular, I want to cover: why did ENOVIA SmarTeam V5 development get spun off to a separate company, is ENOVIA SmarTeam V5 a dead product, and does SmarTeam go away in ENOVIA V6?

Hypothetically Speaking

Let’s say you work for Dassault and you have a group of great products, SmarTeam, VPLM, and LCA.  These products are doing well, but through the acquisition of MatrixOne, you get some great new technology in-house.  So everything is great, and the SmarTeam people start leveraging some MatrixOne concepts (have you seen the new http vaults in V5R19?), the M1 folks learn some things from the ST, VPLM, and LCA people, and generally the acquisition is helping everybody.  The product strategy team has determined that it will be possible to merge all three products into one for the next generation product, ENOVIA V6.  To incorporate the DNA of each product into V6, each brand starts work on their contributions to V6. But before long, corporate realizes that for ENOVIA V6 to make it to market faster, it needs to be developed in fewer places with a more focused team, so they relocate people, reassign teams, and generally shuffle product development all around.

The tough part is that there has to be a loser in all of this, and not everyone gets to contribute to V6 – some teams have to focus exclusively on SmarTeam, MatrixOne, VPLM, and LCA.  Knowing that V6 is the future of the company, what do you do if you’re on the V5 teams?  If you’re a nine-to-fiver, you don’t think much of it.  You keep plugging away and keep your eye on the end-of-support plans for V5 so you can know when to dust off your resume.  But if you’re a go-getter, you start looking immediately – if you’re not on the flagship, you’ll find another boat to row for.

But what if you and a handful of your fellow SmarTeam-ers got an interesting offer from Dassault?  What if DS offered to A) set you up as a new company, B) give you a long-term contract for continuing to develop SmarTeam, and C) let you start developing your own new products?  So you won’t be part of V6, but they’ll pay you to keep V5 going strong until long after you’re done building your own product.  Mind you, you have to keep SmarTeam in tip-top shape because it is still a key part of their business (PDM brand with the largest number of customers), and V6 isn’t ready for everyone yet.

So Why Did ENOVIA SmarTeam Development Get Spun Off?

Obviously, I’m looking from the outside in, but it all adds up to me.  If you’re Dassault and you learned a lesson from the CATIA V4 to V5 transition, I think you’re looking for ways to continue to fully support customers as you transition to your next generation products.

So does it make sense that Artizone would be born?  In my opinion, if Dassault Systemes wanted to hold on to its best/brightest ENOVIA SmarTeam V5 thinkers, they had to do a spin-off and give these developers a path to the future.  This way, everybody wins.  The V6 team gets consolidated and is allowed to focus (rather than thinking about V5 one minute and V6 the next), and the V5 team gets incented to continue doing their best work (if Artizone wants its new product(s) to succeed, they should keep their #1 customer – Dassault – happy with the work they’re doing on V5).

Is ENOVIA SmarTeam Dead?  Does SmarTeam Go Away in V6?

As for the other questions, I’m going to save those for another time.  I’ll explain further why I think the “death of SmarTeam” isn’t imminent and why all of the Dassault PDM products (that we know today) “go away” in V6.

So there you have it, my take on why Artizone makes a lot of sense and why Dassault Systemes isn’t as crazy as the rumor mills make them out to be.  I’m not trying to defend DS’s actions or anything, I think Dassault is just one of the most misunderstood software companies in PLM.  Perhaps that’s the nature of leaders in any industry, or maybe it’s just one of Dassault’s quirks.  Who knows?  Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment to weigh-in with your opinions on this subject.

Tags: Artizone, Dassault Systemes, ENOVIA SmarTeam, ENOVIA V6