New Arbortext BU [was Upcoming online Arbotext TC meeting]

[lfraley]

PTC hasn't made a formal announcement.


Here's the official PTC language:

Bill Berutti has been named the new DVP and General Manager of the new
Abortext Business Unit. Berutti led the acquisitions of Arbortext, ITEDO and
LBS. The Business Unit was formed to establish PTC as the unambiguous
market leader in the delivery of technical and services information
solutions, leveraging not only Arbortext technologies but all PTC software
including Windchill and Pro/ENGINEER. PTC's solution and vision create
unmatched strategic and financial value for customers and will provide PTC
with unique competitive advantage for years to come.

The Arbortext business unit has an extremely talented group of individuals
dedicated to growing the business. The direct management team includes David
Reeves, SVP of Sales; David Reiling, VP of Client Services ; Mike Campbell,
SVP Product Development; Jon Levine, VP of Strategy and Operations; and
Cindy Elliott, Director of Marketing. Although it will also include over 200
direct resources, the business unit will remain integrated with all PTC
corporate functions


Here's the inside scoop on Campbell:

There was a lot of commotion at the PTC meetings in early October when they
announced Mike Campbell was moving away from Pro/E and to Arbortext. He is
well respected, admired, and genuinely liked by customers and users alike
across the product lines. Indeed, I hear the same things from inside
Arbortext engineering -- they're looking forward to his presence. He's
interested in the products, enthusiastic at growing their capabilities, and
he brings an outsider's perspective: The products are going to see change,
but good change. Arbortext will be moving into the future not just doing
things the same old way. I think it's going to be really good for all of
us.

Campbell has already reached out to the Arbortext community and he's looking
for ways to improve the conference. It's not a new thing for him: He's been
an active part of PTC/User for as long as anyone can remember.

[ptc-953343]

This sounds like a positive change. Liz you might not be able to answer this but I'm going to throw the question out there.

How will this affect PTC's business strategy? One of the big changes that occured when PTC bought Arbortext is the lack of interest in dealing with the gneeral publishing world (legal, software, etc). If PTC couldn't sell you all the Windchill/ProE stuff they left you to fend for yourself. I'm in a company now that is a big PTC user of Windchill and ProE so I don't see much difference to the service and attention I used to get. but I was with a software vendor prior to that and getting help (sales and demonstrations) was impossible. We were given to a VAR that didn't really understand the product.

Also, even in my current manufacturing/defense company I've been dealing with ProE/CAD sales people trying to figure out what all this Arbortext stuff is. So I still see issues even when I get access to the sales person.

Arbortext used to be the obvious recommendation, in the last few years it has become increasingly difficult becasue of this new approach.

Another area where things seem to have eroded and I don't know that htis can change is in 3rd party integrations. Where Arbortext was the vendor of choice to ingetrate with, it is now second or third choice. I've been told that the application develiopers have not been able to get the information from PTC that they need to be able to integrate. In some cases they are now competetors becasue of the CMS application (Windchill) is being pushed rather than being an agnostic product. This last issue might be impossible to fix becasue competitors are competitors, but this is also contributing to the errosion.

So now, not only as an end user/purchaser of the software am I having difficulties in selecting Arbortext, but I've also don't have any push or leverage to make that selection when I go to a 3rd party application; Arbrotext is not one of the integrated applications. Instead they use Serna or Oxygen becasue it was easier. They say they are willing to integrate Arbortext when you ask, but it is very shacky. So instead of Arbortext being the primary/first integration that the application builder makes, I have to beg and plead (pay extra) to get them to do what used to be the integration of choice.

Will this attitude be changing with the creation of the new BU?

..dan

[lfraley]

Hi Dan,

I believe the forming of the dedicated BU will go a long way to addressing
these issues. It is exactly why PTC formed a dedicated Arbortext business
unit and why they are working with partners like us to help.

From what I've seen so far, the new BU is already showing a strong interest
in reaching out to the Arbortext community. I'll forward your comments to
the BU and follow up with you off list.

Liz