Dassault Systèmes to Hold Worldwide CAA V5 DevCon in Paris on April 13-14, 2005

Annual CAA V5 forum provides unprecedented access and insight into 3D middleware

Paris, France — March 17, 2005 — Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solutions, today announced that it will hold its annual CAAV5 DevCon Conference April 13-14 at CNIT - Paris La Defense in Paris, France. Dassault Systèmes designed the conference for customers and partners to share, learn, and influence the evolution of the CAA (Component Application Architecture) V5 development platform for PLM Solutions. This convention will bring together executives and senior managers, R&D product managers, and developers from independent software vendors (ISV); representative from companies in the consulting and services industries; and PLM solutions consultants from Dassault Systèmes. 

This year, the developer conference will build on the success of last year’s event. An extensive agenda of strategy sessions, companies’ and partners’ testimonies, and technical workshops will provide a unique opportunity for attendees to meet with the executive team and experts from Dassault Systèmes. A Technology Exhibition Area will feature V5 PLM demonstrations from Dassault Systèmes’ technology and service partners. This year, new domains, such as 3D for All and the Industrial Automation market, will be covered, and specific technological breakthroughs, such as 64-bit computing and the emerging, open 3DXML standard, will be developed.

Today, more than 100 leading software and services companies have already developed and delivered an impressive portfolio of more than 300 products, powered by the V5 platform. Major PLM customers are using CAA V5 to extend their PLM portfolios and tailor V5 PLM solutions to their specific needs to better deploy PLM within their companies and supply chains. All in all, a vast community of engineers has adopted the CAA V5 open development platform for creating new PLM products on top of V5:

• “This is our fourth year to attend this conference and it’s always a great opportunity for us to meet with the DS Executives to get strategic insights and plan ahead future R&D projects", said Jan Leuridan, executive vice-president and CTO, LMS International. “As a long-standing strategic partner, it is a good place to meet with DS partners and customers to further collaborate with DS Ecosystem.”
• “Once again, meeting with this community of CAA V5 developers is a great experience,” said Peter Koch, director business development at CENIT. “There is always something to learn and share. It’s very exciting to discover what benefits others are drawing from CAA V5. This is the right place to discover new opportunities for new projects."
• "Our developers found attending DevCon to be very useful, as the technical sessions provide insight on new directions as well as an opportunity to know more about Best Practices for utilizing the rich CAA architecture,” said Manu Parpia, managing director, Geometric Software. “Moreover, interaction with other developers on a personal level is always useful and exciting."

“A fast-growing developer’s conference, the CAAV5 DevCon is the unique place for the DS Ecosystem to share strategic insights and innovation,” said Dominique Florack, executive vice president, Research & Development, Dassault Systèmes. “It is our strong commitment to work with our partners and customers to create the future together, and I have no doubt that everyone will once again find immense value in attending this year.”

Participants from Europe, the USA and Asia-Pacific attended the 2004 DevCon conference. The conference welcomed twice as many attendants last year as it did in 2003. The event brought together last year many customers, including Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Pratt & Whitney, Toyota, Boeing, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, and Michelin. Software partners included technology and market-leading companies such Centric Software, Nihon Unisys Ltd., ESI Group, Abaqus, Fluent, LMS international, MSC Software, IGE+XAO, ImpactXoft, and more.

For complete information about the DevCon 2005, including the full agenda and registration kit, please visit www.3ds.com/devcon.