Whittaker Controls Inc. Launches SMARTEAM Enterprise Collaboration Solution Within Seven Weeks

Leading aerospace supplier transforms business by leveraging Dassault Systemes’ SMARTEAM PLM solution built on the Microsoft platform

PHOENIX, Ariz., COE Conference - March 22, 2005 – SmarTeam Corporation Ltd., a Dassault Systemes company (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) and leading worldwide provider of enterprise Product Lifecycle Management solutions, today announced that precision fluid control supplier Whittaker Controls Inc. has rapidly completed Phase One of its SMARTEAM enterprise collaboration deployment. Together with Microsoft, the Meggitt PLC Aerospace Equipment division company will showcase its use of Dassault Systemes-SMARTEAM PLM on the Microsoft platform this week at the COE Annual Users Conference in Phoenix.

In just six and a half weeks, Whittaker, a supplier to customers such as General Electric, Rolls Royce, and Pratt & Whitney, used SMARTEAM to set up lifecycle management workflow processes across engineering and manufacturing teams, also enabling other departments such as planning, contracts, marketing, and quality, to participate. The project included the successful import and qualification of a staggering amount of legacy data, including 140,000 documents from three different systems, and 1,200 projects and related meta-data.

Already successfully using its SMARTEAM solution for enhanced collaboration and productivity across the extended enterprise, Whittaker is now expanding the solution, merging its PLM, ERP and supplier processes to maximize its competitive advantage while further reducing costs and business risks. The company will soon begin using SMARTEAM for configuration management. It has already completed pre-production integration of the engineering BOM with its ERP system, using SMARTEAM EAI Gateway capabilities, Microsoft BizTalk Server and an ERP adapter for business rules definition. Whittaker uses the Microsoft Windows infrastructure integrated with the IBM i-series server for its enterprise IT platform, including Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and other Microsoft Office productivity tools.

 “SMARTEAM has given our Strategic Business Unit an excellent enabling tool,” said Geoff Smith, general manager, Whittaker Controls. “The nature of our business—which involves the engineering, design and manufacture of sub-component systems and heat management systems to aerospace—is highly complex and intricate, with our customers challenging us to deliver speed, agility and efficiency in all aspects of the process. SMARTEAM gives Whittaker a layer of advantage to effectively execute complex, multi-site co-creation projects.” 

Derek Aitken, Whittaker’s IT Director, noted: “Our own PLM Core Team conducted eight internal training classes, leveraging SMARTEAM reseller Design Data’s mobile SMARTEAM training environment. This enabled us to grow from six to 130 users in a 4-week period, while at the same time reinforcing our new business processes.”  

“Seamless collaboration between applications and the teams that rely on them is the desired state for any enterprise organization focused on bringing new products to market in a more efficient manner,” said Don Richardson, director, manufacturing industry unit at Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft and Dassault Systèmes have a long history of marrying the latest platform developments with advanced innovations in PLM, enabling suppliers such as Whittaker Controls to better serve their extensive manufacturing customer base.”

“Whittaker Controls has grasped the essence of the PLM vision: a sum-total of mission-critical capabilities that facilitate successful product development and drive business transformation,” said Avinoam Nowogrodski, CEO, SmarTeam. “We are delighted that Whittaker has positioned SMARTEAM, together with technology partner Microsoft, at the core of its corporate strategy.”

The next phase in Whittaker’s PLM deployment calls for “extending the enterprise to our customers, suppliers and colleagues bridging the Meggitt divisions by leveraging SMARTEAM’s collaboration suite,” said Aitken. Design Data will handle all integration, training, and deployment activities.

Built on Microsoft technologies and infrastructure, SMARTEAM solutions deliver an open architecture for optimal interconnectivity and integration across applications, a powerful data model, and an easily-implemented Windows-based user interface. SMARTEAM and Microsoft provide affordable, customizable, best of breed collaboration solutions for today’s strategic manufacturing needs, featuring availability, scalability, performance, enhanced security and open standards support.