PTC (software company)


PTC Inc. is an American computer software and services company founded in 1985 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The global technology company has over 6,000 employees in across 80 offices 30 countries, 1,150 technology partners and over $1bn in revenue. The company began initially developing parametric, associative feature-based, solid computer-aided design modeling software in 1988, including an Internet-based product for product lifecycle management in 1998. PTC products and services now include Internet of things and augmented reality among others.

History

The Russian immigrant and mathematician Dr. Samuel Geisberg worked at software-design providers Applicon and Computervision prior to forming Parametric Technology Corporation in May 1985. In 1988, the company unveiled its first Unix-based commercial product called Pro/ENGINEER and soon-after landed John Deere as its first customer. Pro/ENGINEER was the first parametric, feature-based solids modeling CAD software. Pro/ENGINEER could recognize a change in a single variable of a design and adjust the rest of the model accordingly.
Parametric's revenue grew quickly from $3m in 1988 to $45m in 1991. The company officially went public in 1989 under the stock ticker PMTC. Parametric continued to gain industry recognition in 1992 with IndustryWeek naming Pro/ENGINEER ‘Technology of the Year’ and the company landing its largest customer to-date, Caterpillar. It made the Fortune 500 in 1995 and exceeded $800m in revenue in 1997. The company made a few acquisitions in the 1990s including CDRS and 3DPaint products from Evans & Sutherland, Rasna Corp., Reflex and DivisionGroup.
In 1998, Parametric acquired the company its founder had previously worked for. The company consequently acquired Computervision subsidiaries including Windchill Technology, a Minnesota-based startup co-founded by current PTC CEO, James Heppelmann. Later that year, Parametric shipped Windchill, an internet-based solution for Product Lifecycle Management. PTC announced in 1999 it had 25,000 customers across aerospace, retail/footwear/apparel, automotive, industrial equipment, consumer products, electronics, and high-tech industries.
In the 2000s, Parametric developed lifecycle management software for products, assets, applications, processes and services through acquiring several companies including Polyplan Technologies, Arbortext, Aptavis Technologies Corp., NetRegulus, Synapsis Technology, Relex Software and Planet Metrics. It also made a few CAD-related acquisitions including Cadtrain, NC Graphics, Mathsoft, ITEDO Software GmbH and CoCreate.
On October 1, 2010, James Heppelmann assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of Parametric. The company renamed its initial CAD product Pro/ENGINEER to PTC Creo. The company officially changed its legal name ‘Parametric Technology Corporation’ to PTC Inc and its NASDAQ ticker to ‘PTC’ from ‘PMTC’ in 2013. PTC continued to acquire CAD and PLM-related companies including MKS Software, 4CS Software Solutions, Servigistics, Enigma, NetIDEAS, Atego and Plugin76.
In December 2013, the company made its preliminary Internet of Things acquisition with the $112m takeover ThingWorx. PTC continued to acquire IoT companies with the acquisition of IoT connectivity management provider Axeda Corporation for $170m in August 2014, IoT predictive analytics company Coldlight for $105m in May 2015 and industrial connectivity provider Kepware for $100m in January 2016. The company made its initial outside investment into the Augmented Reality space with the acquisition of Vuforia from Qualcomm in November 2015 and then acquired Waypoint Labs in April 2018.
Rockwell Automation made a $1bn equity investment in PTC acquiring 8.4% ownership stake in PTC on June 11, 2018. PTC also announced major strategic partnerships with ANSYS and Microsoft in 2018.

Acquisitions

PTC has five product segments under two divisions: IoT Group and Solutions Group. The IoT Group consists of its Internet of Things and Augmented Reality business units and the Solutions Group includes CAD, PLM, and SLM.

Internet of Things

PTC's offerings for the Internet of Things include many of its previously acquired technologies including its Industrial Internet of Things Platform, ThingWorx. ThingWorx is based on ThingWorx Foundation, an application enablement platform used as a design and runtime engine for IoT applications. It also includes ThingWorx Analytics, Thingworx Industrial Connectivity, and Vuforia studio.
ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity includes library of over 150 device drivers and industrial protocols to connect industrial machinery to the ThingWorx platform. ThingWorx Analytics is the IoT data analysis engine for real-time pattern and anomaly detection, automated predictive analysis and contextualized recommendations. The PTC Marketplace allows customers to bolt-on PTC and/or third-party applications from PTC partners to their IoT deployments.
Over 800 partners and 550,000 developers in PTC's Global Partner Ecosystem use ThingWorx.

Augmented Reality

PTC's Augmented Reality offerings include the Vuforia Engine, An AR Platform with over 425,000 developers and 50,000 AR applications. Vuforia Studio is the AR authoring application and Vuforia Chalk enables a user to draw virtual images overlaid on physical systems. PTC also acquired Waypoint technology which captures digital workflows through AR annotation tools.

PTC Creo

The PTC Creo suite includes product design and engineering software solutions. Creo runs on Microsoft Windows and provides apps for 3D CAD parametric feature solid modeling, 3D direct modeling, 2D orthographic views, Finite Element Analysis and simulation, schematic design, technical illustrations, and viewing and visualization. Creo integrates with PTC's other product development solutions including Windchill, Mathcad, and Arbortext. Mathcad is used to solve, analyze, and share engineering calculations.

PLM

Windchill PLM includes a portfolio of different PLM capabilities to create a 'single source of truth' for all product-related information such as CAD models, documents, technical illustrations, embedded software and calculations. Windchill products include Windchill ProjectLink, Windchill PDMLink, Windchill CAPA, Windchill Service Parts, Windchill SociaLink, Windchill Utilities, FlexPLM for retail, Integrity Lifecycle Manager, Integrity Modeler, Integrity Process Director and integrations for IoT and CAD. Windchill has over 1.5m users.

SLM

The Servigistics product integrates service planning, delivery and analysis to optimize service outcomes by providing a single view of service. Servigistics Arbortext enables manufacturers to create, illustrate, manage and publish technical and service parts information.
The PTC CAD product provides a set of Computer Aided Design capabilities. PTC CAD is a suite of 2D and 3D product design software used to create, analyze and view product designs. PTC Creo software was released in June 2011 to replace and supersede PTC's products formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER, CoCreate, and ProductView. Other products include:
Engineering calculation software that is used by engineers to solve, document and share the calculations used for product design.

PTC Integrity

The PTC Integrity product provides a set of Application Lifecycle Management and Systems Engineering capabilities and consists of the following products:
Service lifecycle management SLM software that is used by manufacturers to understand how service planning, customer service, and analysis of returned product data can improve service value over a product's life. PTC SLM productset includes:
Kepware software, primarily KEPServerEX, is a connectivity platform for a diverse set of industrial automation endpoints. The software enables users to connect, manage, monitor, and control heterogeneous devices in the Industrial Internet of Things.

People, Culture and Brand

PTC President and CEO James Hepplemann has contributed to three Harvard Business Review reports through collaboration with Harvard Business School's economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker, and teacher Michael Porter. The first report, 'How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition' was released in November 2014, 'How Smart, Connected products are Transforming Companies' published in October 2015 and a 'A Manager's Guide to Augmented Reality was printed in December 2017.
PTC runs its annual industry event LiveWorx in Boston, Massachusetts with 2018 event having over 6,000 attendees from over 40 countries.
In September 2017, PTC announced its plans to move global headquarters from Needham, MA to 121 Seaport in Boston's Seaport District in January 2019. The facility will be in the Boston Waterfront Innovation District.
In December 2019, PTC Partnered with Callisto Integration, one of the leading Software Integration companies providing solutions which cover the manufacturing supply chain from materials receiving through manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution centers.