It was a Tech product launch event of PTC’s new product concept: Creo®. It was hybrid product launch event. Hybrid because the physical event was taking place in Boston, whereas PTC has facilitated viewers like me sitting in India through a virtual web event i.e. the live video streaming or a webcast. I can say that there were hitches in viewing the web event. Later on PTC admitted that there was heavy traffic hitting this virtual event which led to section of online viewers the event inaccessible.
The launch of the product Creo® which was earlier touted in a name of Project Lightening®; kicked off with a typical catchy head start. Only in the beginning the head start drama of event was able to generate curiosity among the participants and viewers. The head start drama portrayed four prisoners being brought behind bars (jail). The quick replay of the event is available here. The idea was about to imbibe in viewers’, users’ mind that with this product customers’ CReativity, EffiCiency, ValuE, teamwOrk (CREO) will be unlocked.
To me, the drama where prisoners represented Creativity, Efficiency, Value and Teamwork being constrained in a jail and projecting the analogy of this design software to unlock these propositions to customers' gain by releasing the prisoners, did not click well, rather it was a kiddish attempt.
But I must say, after this planned drama, with the entry of Mr. Jim Heppelmann, CEO of PTC the event was set to rock the viewers. He every aptly described the background of how the current CAD market stagnated & product interoperability, varied user expectations (simple vs. sophisticated users) etc are bigger issues in product design space. The solution to these design issues by PTC is projected as Creo®. It Mr. Jim shared the deep thoughts given in
(a) identifying problem areas & solutions to those,
(b) selecting the product name as Creo® which as he said means I Create in Latin, and in some European language it also means I saw, I create. The product design process is about creating new product so this name seems very appropriate.
Later on the other presentation covered the demonstrations of the product concept. It was amazing to see how different breed of product user can use it in different ways. The 3-D modeling, Direct Modeling, etc will touted to become so much adaptive and easy to use with this solutions.
There are four technologies as a part of Creo® product are unveiled, these are include:
- AnyRole AppsTM – different set of apps for different set of people/roles.
- AnyMode ModelingTM – to help users do designing in modeling mode such as 2D, 3D direct, or 3D parametric
- AnyData AdoptionTM – Interoperability by allowing data generated from different CAD tools
- AnyBOM AssemblyTM – This is to integrate with PLM software addressing serial number generation issues.
With Creo® PTC is trying to rebrand its existing products such as Pro/ENGINEER®, CoCreate® and ProductView® as
- Pro/ENGINEER as Creo Elements/Pro
- CoCreate as Creo Elements/Direct
- ProductView as Creo Elements/View
This new product containing new architecture based on Common Data Model, various Apps, modeling tools is scheduled to be made available in Mid-2011.
To me, things which had a great appeal in this event were
1. The live demos, showing gamut of Direct Modeling, 3D Modeling were eye catching
2. The problem areas discussed by customers, users themselves were highlighted through videos (which even criticized Pro/E® for being not-so-easy-to-use, etc and these customers were present in the event made it realistic) and the it has been a good attempt to project how Creo® is being developed after understanding customer, consulting them to solve their problem and it will add Value to their system.
3. A vision: PTC created 3D modeling software twenty years ago. Pro/E® was pioneer in this space and is a leader as well till today. With Creo®, PTC wants to introduce a product which will share similar vision of serving customers with a product which will change market dynamics henceforth and will give PTC a leading edge for years to come
No comments:
Post a Comment