Andersen Consulting and PTC Establish Strategic Alliance to Provide Powerful Collaborative Product Commerce Solutions for Manufacturers and Online Exchanges
WALTHAM, Mass. and NEW YORK, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Andersen Consulting and PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) today announced they have signed an agreement to offer manufacturers and online exchanges the ability to collaborate with key partners, suppliers and customers throughout all phases of a product's lifecycle -- from concept to production, service, maintenance, and retirement. Andersen Consulting is a leading global management and technology consultancy, and PTC -- through its Windchill software -- is a leading provider of B2B collaborative product commerce (CPC) solutions. Analysts estimate the emerging CPC solution market to be in excess of $20 billion.
As part of the alliance, Andersen Consulting and PTC will dedicate personnel, software, training, knowledge and financial resources to help develop new Windchill-based solutions and methodologies within the CPC arena. In addition, Andersen Consulting will establish a dedicated team of professionals to market, deliver and support PTC's Windchill solutions to individual clients, as well as exchanges and Net markets. These CPC solutions will be designed to enable members of a globally dispersed design chain -- customers, suppliers, partners and the internal product team -- to connect inside or outside corporate firewalls on a project-by-project basis, tapping key resources and product information in a scalable environment.
"PTC's Windchill solution has been recognized across the market as one of the most powerful collaboration applications available today," said Mike Wetzer, a partner at Andersen Consulting. "By providing a capability that connects partners for real-time product design, development, manufacturing and life cycle support, PTC is able to help satisfy the needs of manufacturers."
"This is truly an extraordinary relationship that underscores the importance of the worldwide CPC marketplace. PTC will leverage Andersen Consulting's global presence and deep industry knowledge, while Andersen Consulting can take full advantage of PTC's technology leadership," said C. Richard Harrison, president and CEO of PTC. "We are working closely with Andersen Consulting to catapult our Windchill solutions to the forefront of executive-level e-business discussions throughout our joint client base and beyond."
Initial alliance offerings will be targeted toward the aerospace and defense, telecommunications, network equipment, industrial equipment and automotive industries.
"Our clients are looking for ways to seamlessly share product information with customers and suppliers," said Skip Shaw, a partner in Andersen Consulting's aerospace and defense industry group. "This is true of individual clients, and the emerging B2B Internet markets. Our broad presence coupled with PTC's commitment to, and experience in, delivering industry-leading CPC solutions can help our clients to achieve a sustained competitive advantage in the market."
Andersen Consulting and PTC have worked together on a variety of initiatives for clients. One such client is EMC, which designs, manufactures, markets and supports a wide range of hardware and software products and provides services for the storage, management, protection and sharing of electronic information.
"We have been working closely with both Andersen Consulting and PTC in the deployment of our Windchill solutions that are now in production," said Steve Reilly, vice president, Business Process Development at EMC. "We are very excited that both organizations have established such a strong and synergistic alliance as it will be very beneficial to our future deployments and operations."
As part of the agreement, the organizations have created an executive steering committee and each have assigned a senior officer/member who will act as a liaison to report on alliance activities to their respective board of directors or board equivalent. |
