Dassault Systèmes

Paris, France, and Southampton, England, March 21, 2005 – Dassault Systèmes (NASDAQ:DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) and ICEM Ltd. today announced the signing of a strategic software development agreement under which ICEM will develop and sell the next generation of its surface design and analysis and design visualization software suite for Class-A surface development based on Dassault Systèmes’ Version 5 Architecture and Components. ICEM becomes a Gold Software Partner in Dassault Systèmes’ Component Application Architecture Version 5 (CAA V5) software partner program.

ICEM will provide a PLM solution component that will tightly connect the styling and engineering departments, further endorsing the new 3D XML open format from Dassault Systèmes. It will deliver a comprehensive suite of products addressing end-to-end Automotive Class-A processes, from Class-A design and analysis to reverse engineering, realistic rendering and sketch tracing, all fully integrated with the V5 PLM environment. These solutions will include new versions of existing products for static rendering, real-time rendering, scan modeling and quick surfacing, as well as advanced applications such as dynamic, global manipulation of surfaces, advanced surface analysis, and passenger/pedestrian safety analysis. The solution will be marketed by ICEM and will either operate in standalone mode or in perfect synergy with an existing integrated V5 PLM Solution. The first release including core Class-A surface modeling and modules for dynamic global modification of surfaces and surface optimization are scheduled to be available for customer delivery in the third quarter of this year. ICEM will also provide dedicated, highly skilled consulting, best-practices and support teams to deploy the solutions to the industry. As a next strategic step, Dassault Systèmes and ICEM aim to extend the partnership to Concept Design.

"As a long-term corporate customer of both DS and ICEM, we feel confident that this partnership—merging the strengths of each partner—will be able to fulfill our end-to-end process from styling via Class A to manufacturing, an important process within our Virtual Car strategy,” said Peter Reindl, responsible for CAD/DMU applications and process integration at BMW. “Providing furthermore the necessary openness, this partnership will certainly also enable a better integration of our suppliers into this process.”

"This partnership provides us with a best-in-class automotive Class A surface modeling solution that is fully integrated into our enterprise-wide, CAD environment,” said Richard Riff, Henry Ford Technical Fellow, Virtual Product Creation & PLM, Ford Motor Company. “As a result, we will be using native CATIA V5 data throughout the vehicle body and interior design development process, with no need for data translators. This will bring real benefits in terms of data integrity and consistency, as well as in terms of an improved workflow.”

“Automotive industries around the world are facing constant pressures on their styling and engineering processes and must consider innovative approaches to reduce design cycle time,” said Dominique Florack, executive vice president, Research & Development, Dassault Systèmes. “Leveraging the best assets from each partner, we will deliver a unique and innovative V5-based styling-to-manufacturing approach as an intrinsic part of the PLM business transformation.”

For ICEM, the significance of this partnership agreement is that it enables us to fulfil our committed strategy, designed to deliver a ‘next-generation’ set of surface modeling software solutions that contribute fully to the process-centric PLM vision of our customers,” said Lee Cureton, CEO, ICEM Ltd. “We also retain our autonomy as an independent software company. One of the principle aids to improving the design-to-manufacture workflow is a fully integrated software environment that enables a seamless and uninterrupted two-way flow of information between the different design and engineering disciplines involved in the process. This agreement enables us to considerably improve design-to-manufacture workflow by providing a tight link from which the whole PLM chain will benefit.”

###

With its headquarters in the UK, ICEM Ltd. is the leading worldwide developer of advanced surface modeling, design and visualization software. ICEM software is a critical component of the product lifecycle management (PLM) software environments of many of the world’s leading automotive, aerospace, sporting goods and consumer durable products manufacturers and their suppliers.

With a worldwide network of sales and support offices and specialist distributors covering Europe, the USA, South America, Australia and the Asia Pacific region, ICEM’s principal market sector is the worldwide automotive industry. Here it includes most of the leading manufacturers among its customers, including the Ford Motor Company, DaimlerChrysler Group, Volkswagen Audi Group, Porsche, BMW, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault, Nissan, Subaru and Harley Davidson among others, as well as leading automotive industry companies such as Volke, EDAG, Pininfarina, Bertone and Bertrandt, among many others. The company also has a significant presence in the industrial design market.

For more information, visit http://www.icem.com/

CAA V5 (Component Application Architecture) is Dassault Systèmes’ open middleware and development environment for PLM. The CAA V5 Software Community Program is dedicated to ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) willing to develop, sell and support CAA V5-based applications, fully integrated with CATIA, ENOVIA, SMARTEAM and DELMIA V5. This collaboration results in the expansion of Dassault Systèmes' 3D PLM solutions to cover the entire product lifecycle range, thus enabling mutual customers to take advantage of a larger set of products in response to their specific industrial needs.

More Information available at http://www.3ds.com/alliances/software-partnership/