Seaway Designs from Bow to Stern Virtually with PLM Solutions from IBM and Dassault Systèmes

World’s leading boat development firm to launch new Shipman 63 model designed with CATIA V5 ahead of schedule

Bled, Slovenia and Paris, France – October 7th, 2004 - IBM and Dassault Systèmes (NASDAQ: DASTY, Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) announced today that Seaway, the world’s leading boating design, engineering and tooling company, has chosen their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions to standardize its PLM platform for managing boat projects from conception to retirement.

Seaway chose IBM PLM Solutions CATIA V5, the world’s leading 3D product-development application, and SMARTEAM, for collaborative product data and lifecycle management, both developed by Dassault Systèmes. The company has already completely designed the new Shipman 63, a descendant of the popular Shipman 50, in CATIA V5 and will launch it several months earlier than previously estimated.

With a global workforce of 110, Seaway offers its clients, both major European shipyards and smaller sail and power boat builders, a unique “one-stop shopping” service that includes everything from the initial 3D design stages to the engineering and manufacturing of production-ready molds.

To offer this service efficiently, Seaway required an open PLM solution that could manage multiple computer-aided-design (CAD) formats including UGS and related product data. The environment also needed to be flexible enough to modify projects on demand to match the requests of customers and constraints of suppliers.

“One of the characteristics of Seaway is our constant research into new technologies,” said Luca Bonetto, manager Design Office, Seaway. “This has enabled us to develop a highly advanced product lifecycle environment ready to meet the ever increasing demands of the shipyards we work with. IBM and Dassault Systèmes are now providing us with the most advanced and flexible software tools on the market.”

“Openness and support of industry standards are pillars of Dassault Systèmes’ development strategy,” said Denis Senpéré, vice-president, PLM Europe, Dassault Systèmes. “Seaway’s easy addition of CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM with its existing PLM toolset is proof of the benefits of open solutions that enable companies to better connect, integrate and automate.”

Seaway will extend CATIA V5 to all the phases of design including the computer numerical control (CNC) processes. It will leverage SMARTEAM and its robust customization capabilities to rapidly provide a PLM solution that meets the needs of Seaway and its current and potential customers, providing a universal tool for exchanging data and ideas and collaborating with partners all over the world. SMARTEAM will also provide a highly usable graphical interface to customers, facilitating their remote, Internet-based access to relevant drawings and 3D models.