Schneider Electric launches new company to develop Consulting and Services for industrial performance and to sell DELMIA Solutions from Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes introduces new collaborative programming and lifecycle management environment for Automation

Paris, France – April,16, 2004 – Schneider Electric (ISIN: FR0000121972), leader in “Power & Control”, and Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced a business partnership to sell DELMIA Solutions, and develop Consulting and Services for the Automation and Production Engineering (production process planning, production assembly processes, and factory simulation) markets.

The partnership is structured around a new company called Dextus, fully owned by Schneider Electric, and software solutions from Delmia Corp., a Dassault Systèmes company.

Centered on mutual value creation, the partnership will leverage the companies’ respective strengths: Schneider Electric’s know-how in the industrial field and knowledge of the industrial market, and Dassault Systèmes’ expertise in software solutions for Automation and Production Engineering.

“Until now, Schneider Electric has brought its industrial customers high performance automation solutions for their production lines. With Dextus and DELMIA solutions, Schneider Electric will bridge the gap between automation and process design and maintenance,” said Eric Pilaud, executive vice-president, Strategic Deployment, Schneider Electric.

“This is a significant move for Dassault Systèmes and the industry,” said Bernard Charlès, president and CEO, Dassault Systèmes. “The automation market offers great potential. Teaming up with Schneider Electric, a world leader in automation, is an ideal way for Dassault Systèmes to extend the advantages of virtual product development to the companies in this sector. The partnership is also an important step in our open strategy to expand our boundaries beyond PLM.”

DELMIA Automation: a new product line from Dassault Systèmes

DELMIA Automation addresses all automation industries and enables companies to digitally define, control, and monitor automated systems. With its unique Logic Control Modeler (LCM), DELMIA Automation will provide, for the first time in the automation market, a “digital and generative model” of the control logic of an entire automation system independent of the PLC hardware. In addition, DELMIA Automation will deliver PLC program validation entirely in a 3D virtual environment. Control and process engineers will now work on a common, collaborative platform.

Dextus: Mastering production fluidity

Dextus will develop all the services required to implement a new approach for end users, line and machine builders, from production process definition to commissioning. Dextus’ core business will focus on Consulting around organization, project management, design process definition, information system definition and implementation.

Dextus will provide companies in the industrial and automation markets with new solutions and approaches to help them improve industrial performance, reduce startup time on the manufacturing floor, and shorten time to market for new products.

Dextus and Delmia Corp. will extend DELMIA PLM solutions for Production Engineering activities ranging from process planning to general assembly processes and factory simulation to address new industry sectors such as Discrete Manufacturing, Consumer Package Goods, Food & Beverage, and Pharmaceuticals.

Dextus will sell and provide services for both DELMIA PLM solutions and DELMIA Automation. In addition, Dextus will become a Gold Software Partner in Dassault Systèmes’ CAA V5 Software Community Program in order to develop the integration of DELMIA Automation products on programmable logic controllers (PLC).

“Our partnership brings to automation and production engineering a real technological breakthrough and provides customers innovative consulting, solutions and approaches allowing them to improve industrial performance and implement a true business transformation,” said Anne Munchenbach, CEO of Dextus.  

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