Dassault Systèmes Announces Advances in Product Lifecycle Management Skills Initiatives in Japan

High school students become CATIA Certified Professionals; Certification Program now available through academic community; Four Japanese companies become Certified Education Partners

Paris, France and Tokyo, Japan – July 8, 2004 - Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world’s leading developer of product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, today announced several new developments in its PLM education initiatives.

Dassault Systèmes’ Certified Professional Program is now available to students through test centers in selected educational institutions, including high schools. Sixteen students from Kochi Higashi Technical High School in Japan became the world’s youngest CATIA Certified Professionals in May. Dassault Systèmes honored two members of this group of students at the Japanese CATIA forum in Tokyo this week.

Dassault Systèmes also announced the worldwide availability of certification exams through authorized academic institutions. The first center of its kind in Japan, the National Students Information Center (NASIC), will deliver exams for the entire Dassault Systemes’ certification program.

Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA Certified Professional Program provides customers and users with a globally valuable index for measuring and promoting their CATIA knowledge. The certification exams are offered in more than 3,500 testing centers and are available in English, Japanese, French, German, and Korean.

Dassault Systèmes also announced that it has awarded four members of the Dassault Systèmes Education Partner network—Aikoku Alpha, Argographics, Daizo and Fasotec—the Certified Education Partner (CEP) label in recognition of their first-class expertise in PLM education services. These companies are the first four in Japan to earn CEP status. They have proven their skills in engineering education programs with expert personnel and in using Companion, Dassault Systèmes’ award-winning workplace learning solution. The CEP label is the highest level of qualification that a Dassault Systèmes’ Education Partner can obtain.

“Our PLM skills initiative is creating a worldwide network of talent,” said Philippe Forestier, executive vice president, Dassault Systèmes. “The extension of the Certified Professional Program to the academic community will help us build a vast community of PLM knowledge across generations.”

Dassault Systèmes’ courseware is available only through Dassault Systèmes or its Education Partners. Details about the Education Partner Program and Certified Professional Program are available at https://plm.3ds.com/education