Continuing on our world tour of PLM sites our next destination is the Dassault Systemes site which contains PLM information for Enovia. Much like the blog reviews for Oracle, PTC and Siemens we will discuss the pro's and cons for this site. One thing to note right off the bat is that Dassault's definition of Product Lifecycle Management differs somewhat from the other three vendors I have reviewed. This difference affects the content and the way it is organized on this site. From an organizational and execution perspective I think this is a very well done site. The navigation is clear and both PLM and social media and community information is featured prominently on the Dassault homepage. Where the site falls short is in the depth of information about PLM especially in comparison to some information available from other PLM vendors and their products. Dassault's PLM solutions are tied very closely to their CAD and automation tools. This fact is highlighted at the top of their page where they offer a hyperlink for PLM and explain how PLM alongside their simulation and CAD empower users to create, share and experience products in 3D. This blog will highlight the consistent structure that Dassault offers through their site which makes finding information very straightforward. Unfortunately I suspect that most, like me will wish for a bit more depth. I also wanted to commend Siemens on their response to my review of their site. Chris Kelly from Siemens brought up some good points about why their site is organized the way it is. They wanted to organize the demos in the context of the product they are associated with and wanted to offer navigation options to different types of users by offering the four different vectors on the front page. He also agreed that they will feature their blog more prominently and expose video content more readily on the product landing pages. I think these are great moves for the site and I am very impressed that Siemens closely monitors the user community.
As with all of the major PLM vendors Dassault casts a wide net from a product perspective. If you judge their emphasis on PLM as an indicator of how much of their business is derived from it then I would come away with the impression that PLM for Dassault is more of a spoke than a cog. For example on their prominently featured blog 3D Perspectives PLM is not mentioned at all. What is interesting is that they do have a link on the page called PLM Twine which takes you to Oleg Shilovitsky's Daily PLM Think Tank page. I realize Oleg has a history with Dassault via SmarTeam but his blog while definitely about PLM rarely mentions anything about Dassault products. I think it would be worthwhile for Dassault to have a blog dedicated to PLM that communicates their vision. One of the things I came away with from Dassault's site is that PLM is just another tool working alongside their CAD and simulation tools. If that is how they wish to portray it then so be it but I tend to think of PLM as more of a stand-alone business productivity solution. I suspect Dassault does too so they need ways to convey their philosophy and vision that is more singular and less blended with the rest of their offerings. PTC, Oracle, and Siemens have dedicated blogs for PLM and when you go their sites you come away with a fairly clear understanding of their PLM solution set. Dassault's is less clear. I know they own SmarTeam and EMatrix but I am not clear on how these are incorporated into Enovia. Do all of Dassault's PLM offering communicate to each other? Overall there needs to be more specific messaging about PLM for Dassault. There are numerous places where the term PLM is used but when you click on the links you don't get a lot of specific information on how Enovia works.
As I mentioned before PLM is mentioned prominently at the top of the home page. Clicking on the link takes you to a page titled "Product Lifecycle Management". The page is mostly text with some graphics and links and emphasizes their 3D approach to PLM. I am not sure what this really means. I get 3D CAD but not 3D PLM, maybe something is getting lost in the translation. Clicking on the "more on V6" link takes you to a page touting a PLM Online for all with V6. I assume V6 refers to Catia V6 and again this messaging emphasizes a turnkey Catia product stack. The video is a little creepy. It uses Catia's 3Dlive technology and really doesn't have a lot of hard information. The background music made me crave clove cigarettes and black turtlenecks. It would be nice if they used less animation and actually showed some live product in these demos. The site has lots of video and has them placed in logical locations but the content is too shallow. I realize this specific video is more about vision but I do not come away with any specifics about what differentiates this PLM from any other. 3D visualization is available in all PLM solutions so this is not revolutionary. I suspect there are some aspects of how they incorporate their simulation technology that could be unique but this video doesn't provide me with any specifics.
I really like the menu structure at the top of the pages. It is always available and it is relatively flat. Dassault has the most concise "products" tab I have seen to date and I prefer this to listing every single module of every single product. I also like the fact that this menu is accessible from most of the pages on the site. One interesting note that further supports my theory about PLM being completely tied to their other solutions is that in the "products" menu they call all of their main product offerings their "PLM Brands". If you select the Enovia pick from the menu it takes you to a page featuring a rotating graphics box with information on V6 and V5, a customer story, and a whitepaper. There is also a RSS bar featuring general Dassault news. On the right side they have an upcoming events box and one for webcasts. Below this they have a box that highlights blog articles from their main site about Enovia. The most recent post is from June. If you click on the "more about V6" it takes you to a nice video on the new features in Enovia V6 narrated by an executive responsible for the product. This is one of the better and more informative videos on the site. They almost demo product. There is no place on this page where you can access product demos or gain any understanding about what Enovia really does or how it does it. If you click on the "discover Enovia V6" it puts you into a page that does feature some brief screen shots but spends as much time highlighting Catia's animation abilities than it does on actual PLM functionality. There is a link to a V6 fact sheet which provides the substance I was looking for on the site. This content should be captured and conveyed in a more effective manner using the web site instead of burying it in a pdf. One other minor annoyance is that on a lot of these pages the back button for the browser does not work. I will qualify this with the fact that I use IE so maybe it works better with Firefox.
Overall, I really like the structure of the Dassault site. There are some pages where you have to go pretty deep to find any useful information but for the most part navigation on the site is fairly intuitive and things are where you would expect them to be. Looking at this site from a PLM perspective I think there needs to be more specific information about their products on the site and access to product demos. Most users are willing to trade contact information for access to demos so this is a really good way for Dassault to understand who is interested in their products and if they segment their demos they can find out what aspects of PLM are more popular in the user base. In trying to blend PLM in with the rest of their solutions it waters down the message about the benefits of PLM. Many companies choose PLM solutions independent from their design tools and looking at this site I would have a tough time discerning what Enovia offers as a standalone PLM solution. Hopefully Dassault can see the value of providing an identity and a web presence for PLM and provide more specific in-depth content. If they say as one famous French monarch did, "let them eat cake" then it might prove problematic in the market. Au revoir.