CIMdata and ANSYS, Others Publish eBook on Digitalization

CIMdata, Inc., a global PLM strategic management consulting and research firm, has pubilshed an eBook on digitalization, the third such eBook published as part of a multi-sponsor collaborative research program on digitalization / digital transformation in industrial companies. 

"For many, digitalization is about applying digital technologies to change a business model, resulting in new revenue and value-producing opportunities. CIMdata believes that if you are a product company that is pursuing a digitalization or digital transformation initiative it will be difficult to succeed without a strong PLM foundation," says Stan Przybylinski, CIMdata's vice president.

"In this research we asked industrial companies to describe their as-is digital environment and where they may go next, as well as the impacts of concepts like the digital twin, the digital thread, advanced variant configuration management, simulation data and process management, and smart manufacturing," he adds.

CIMdata enlisted several solution and service providers as sponsors of this research: ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes, and HCL. The extended research program team collaborated to help identify the crucial challenges facing companies addressing these issues. 

The research program comprised several elements, including interviews with thought leaders from sponsors and their lead customers published on the CIMdata.com blog.

"This interview series has provided some great insights into both solution provider strategies and their customers' actions," says Przybylinski. 

This CIMdata eBook highlights the key issues facing adopting organizations. Entitled "Speeding Your Digital Transformation Journey" the eBook seeks to frame the discussion around the key concepts, like digitalization, digital transformation, digital twin, digital thread, and the rest using standard terminology, supporting the discussion with selected data from the survey results and quotes from interviews conducted.

The survey results highlight the dominance of these trends in industry,  according to Przybylinski, who shared some of the survey results. In three years, 96% of the respondents claimed that smart, connected products would be very important or important for their company strategy, including 16% who said it was not at all important today. Just 11% say they have digital twins in production today, but climbing to 34% in three years. Another 43% expect to be in pilot three years from now.

These results seem to line up with other research on these topics and show how much these trends are impacting industrial firms, and how fast they are acting to address them, according to Przybylinski. "This will create a lot of opportunity in the market and also reduce the potential for confusion, one reason why we try to frame the discussion using the eBooks," he adds. 

"The digital transformation is driving our customers to create innovative products more efficiently by implementing pervasive simulation strategies and improving how they share data and optimize designs," says Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager at ANSYS. "Design success lies way beyond the ability of any one point solution, tool, or environment, as customers must address scale and complexity challenges across heterogeneous workflows, data and process management, high-performance computing integration, traceability, and results accessibility throughout development."

To find out more and to download the eBook on Digital Transformation, click here. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.