PTC (software company)

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PTC Inc.
PTC New Logo.png
Formerly
Parametric Technology Corporation
Type
Public
Traded as
NASDAQ: PTC
S&P 400 component
Industry CAD/CAM/CAE/ PLM Software/ ALM/ SLM/ IOT
Founded May 1985; 34 years ago
Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Key people
Robert P. Schechter (Chairman)
James E. Heppelmann (President & CEO)
Products PTC Creo, PTC Windchill, PTC Mathcad, PTC Integrity, PTC Servigistics,
PTC Arbortext, ThingWorx
Revenue Increase US$1.164 billion (2017)[1]
Operating income
Increase US$40.9 million (2017)[1]
Net income
Increase US$6.24 million (2017)[1]
Total assets Increase US$2.36 billion (2017)[1]
Total equity Increase US$885.4 million (2017)[1]
Number of employees
6,041 (2017)[1]
Website ptc.com
PTC Inc. is a computer software and services company founded in 1985 and
headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The global technology company has over
6,000 employees in 30 countries, 1,150 technology partners and over $1bn in
revenue.[citation needed] The company began initially developing parametric,
associative feature-based, solid computer-aided design (CAD) modeling software in
1988, including an Internet-based product for product lifecycle management (PLM) in
1998. PTC products and services now include Internet of things (IoT) and augmented
reality (AR) among others.

Contents
1 History
2 Acquisitions
3 Products & Services
3.1 Internet of Things
3.2 Augmented Reality
3.3 PTC Creo
3.4 PLM
3.5 SLM
3.6 PTC Mathcad
3.7 PTC Integrity
3.8 PTC Servigistics
3.9 Kepware
4 People, Culture and Brand
5 Support of STEM education
6 Awards and accolades
7 References
8 External links
History
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The Russian immigrant and mathematician Dr. Samuel Geisberg worked at software-
design providers Applicon and Computervision (acquired by PTC in 1998) prior to
forming Parametric Technology Corporation in May 1985. In 1988, the company
unveiled its first 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 (Computervision) its founder (Dr.

Geisberg) 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 (PLM). 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 Technology Corp (Retail PLM),
NetRegulus, Synapsis Technology, Relex Software and Planet Metrics. It also made a
few CAD-related acquisitions including Cadtrain, NC Graphics, Mathsoft (developers
of Mathcad), 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
1985 - Company founded by Samuel Geisberg, formerly from Prime Computer,
Computervision, and Applicon.[2]
1988 - Steve Walske named CEO.[3] Company shipped Pro/ENGINEER and was considered
first to market with parametric modeling design software.[4] This positions PTC as
a leader in the CAD industry until the mid-1990s when a new generation of low-cost
competitors arrive in the market.[5]
1989 - Initial public offering.[6]
1992 - Caterpillar Inc. becomes PTC's largest customer.[5]
1996 - PTC acquires Reflex project modeling and management software technology[7]
sold the following year to the Beck Group.
1998 - Company ships Windchill and is considered first to market with internet-
based solutions for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).[5] PTC acquires
Computervision Corp.[8]
1999 - PTC announces it has 25,000 customers. Major industries include aerospace,
retail/footwear/apparel, automotive, industrial equipment, consumer products,
electronics, and high tech.[9]
1999 - Acquired Division Group (Division Ltd, Bristol Uk, Division Inc) Virtual
reality - dVision Head Mounted Display & Software[10][11][12][13]
2002 - The company releases Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire.[14] This is the first CAD system
to support web-based services.[5]
2005 - Acquired Arbortext for technical publishing technology.[15] Acquired Aptavis
for retail, footwear and apparel technology.[16]
2006 - Acquired Mathsoft for its engineering calculation software.[17] Acquired
ITEDO for its 3D technical illustration software.[18]
2007 - Acquired CoCreate for its direct modeling technology.[19]
2008 - Acquired Synapsis for its performance analytics technology to improve
environmental performance of products.[20]
2009 - Acquired Relex Software for its reliability engineering software.[21]
2010 - James E. Heppelmann announced as CEO effective October 1, 2010.[22] Company
renames Pro/ENGINEER to PTC Creo and promises the market product design software
that is scalable, open, and easy-to-use.[23]
2011 - Acquired 4CS for its warranty, service, support and service parts
technology.[24] Acquired MKS for its application lifecycle management technology
for all software development processes.[25]
2012 - Acquired Servigistics for its suite of service lifecycle management
software.[26]
2013 - Acquired NetIDEAS hosting vendor for more technology deployment options.[27]
Acquired Enigma for its ability to deliver technical content to aftermarket service
environments.[28] Acquired Internet of Things platform developer ThingWorx for
their software applications that connect and track network-enabled products.[29]
2013 - Acquired ThingWorx, the Exton, Pennsylvania-based creators of an award-
winning platform for building and running applications for the Internet of Things
(IoT).
2013 - The company changed its legal name from Parametric Technology Corporation to
PTC Inc.[30]
2013 - The company changed its NASDAQ ticker symbol to "PTC" from "PMTC".[31]
2014 - Acquired Axeda Corporation[32]
2014 - Acquired ATEGO Software, a leader in MBSE (model-based systems engineering)
tool used in aerospace, transportation, and automotive industries (such as Alstom
Transport and Rolls-Royce Defence)[33]
2015 - Acquired the Vuforia business from Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., a
subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. The Vuforia platform is an augmented reality
(AR) technology platform.
2015 - acquired Kepware Technologies, a software development company that provides
communications connectivity to industrial automation environments.
2018 - Acquired Waypoint Labs,[34] a startup out of MIT / Harvard that allows
frontline experts to capture and transfer knowledge using augmented reality
Products & Services
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.[35]

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
Main articles: PTC Creo, PTC Creo Elements/Pro, Creo Elements/Direct, and PTC Creo
Elements/View
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 (ThingWorx Navigate) and CAD (Creo View). 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.
[36] Other products include:
CREO parametric - formerly Pro/ENGINEER
CREO simulate - formerly Pro/MECHANICA
CREO direct - formerly CoCreate OneSpace Modeling
CREO options modeler
CREO illustrate schematics
CREO view
CREO illustrate
PTC Mathcad
Main article: Mathcad
Engineering calculation software that is used by engineers to solve, document and
share the calculations used for product design.[37]

PTC Integrity
The PTC Integrity product provides a set of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
and Systems Engineering capabilities and consists of the following products:[38]

PTC Integrity Asset Library

PTC Integrity Lifecycle Manager - formerly MKS Integrity
PTC Integrity Modeler - formerly Atego Modeler
PTC Integrity Process Check
PTC Integrity Process Consumer
PTC Integrity Process Director
PTC Integrity Process Perspective
PTC Integrity Requirements Connector
PTC AgileWorx
PTC Servigistics
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.[39] PTC SLM productset
includes:

Servigistics Inservice - formerly Enigma

Servigistics Arbortext - formerly Arbortext[40] without Servigistics
Servigistics Connected Field Services
Servigistics Predictive Service
Servigistics Remote Services
Servigistics Parts Pricing
Servigistics Arbortext Editor
Servigistics Arbortext IsoDraw
Servigistics Arbortext IsoView
Servigistics Service Network Management
Servigistics Service Parts Management
Kepware
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 (Jim) 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 alongside other
global companies including PWC and GE. PTC was named by Boston Globe as a top place
to work for 2017 and 2018.

PTC is participating in a philanthropic project with Boston Children's Hospital,

the number one pediatric hospital in the United States, to explore the use of
augmented reality to help children with autism and related developmental disorders
communicate and learn more effectively.

Support of STEM education

In 1999, PTC created a Global Academic Program designed to support educational
initiatives in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills. The
program aims to partner schools and universities with companies to assist students
in developing real-world skills needed for careers in manufacturing, technology,
and other STEM jobs. The program also has a direct recruitment program intended to
place students in jobs with PTC's commercial customers.

PTC has also been a corporate sponsor of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of
Science and Technology) since 2008, providing participating students with access to
PTC software for use in the FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST
Lego League, and FIRST World Championship. PTC sponsors the Formula Student UK
program where engineering students develop small-scale formula cars. PTC provides
several programs for educating academia with 3,000 hours of online content in the
PTC University eLearning Libraries.

Awards and accolades

PTC has been recognized as a market leader in the Internet of Things by several
industry analysts including recently Berg Insight, IoT ONE and Quadrant Knowledge
Solutions. The company was listed as a Visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for
Industrial IoT platforms, a leader in Forrester's Industrial IoT Platform Wave, the
top platform in ABI Research's Smart Manufacturing Platform Competitive Assessment,
leader in IoT Platforms and Industrial Big Data Analysis in the Experton Group's
Industry 4.0/Internet of Things Vendor Benchmark 2017 report, a leader in IDC
MarketScape: Worldwide IoT Platforms (Software Vendors) 2017 Vendor Assessment and
the Industrial Internet of Things Company of the Year By IoT BreakThrough. PTC has
also won several awards for PLM; it was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave:
Product Lifecyle Manager for Discrete Manufacturers report, a leader in the Global
IoT Plm Market by Frost and Sullivan, a leader in PLM collaboration software for
aerospace and defense manufactures by CIM Data and a leader in Retail PLM Industry
by IDC Marketspace. The company won an award from Compass Intelligence for top B2B
Application: Augmented Reality in 2017.

PTC has been recognized as a market leader in the by several industry analysts and
publications. Recent awards and accolades include:

PTC named a leader in Industrial IoT Software Platforms by Forrester Research

(August 2018)
PTC ranked by ABI Research as the top smart manufacturing platform and received top
scores in AR and overall innovation (July 2018)
PTC ThingWorx named the best Industrial IoT Platform of 2018 by Berg Insight (July
2018)
PTC ranked by IoT ONE as the unequivocal leader in its professional assessment
(July 2018)
PTC ThingWorx is named as 2018 Technology Leader in the Global IoT Platform Market
by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions (July 2018)
PTC named by IoT Analytics as leading IoT Platform vendors (June 2018)
PTC Named a Visionary in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms (May
2018)
PTC named leading IoT platform provider by Navigant Research (Dec 2017)
PTC Named a Leader in Product Lifecycle Management for Manufacturers by Forrester
(November 2017)
PTC named Top Place to Work by Boston Globe (November 2017)
PTC ThingWorx recognized as the 2017 technology leader in the global IoT platform
market by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions (August 2017)
PTC named a global leader in IoT Platforms by IDC Marketscape (July 2017)
PTC named the 2017 Compass Intelligence Awards for Industrial Internet of Things
Company of the Year AND IoT Innovative Product of the Year Vendor for the Consumer
Market for Vuforia Studio AR Solution (June 2017)
PTC Named IoT Leader by Experton Group (January 2017)
PTC Selected as Industrial Internet of Things Company of the Year by IoT
Breakthrough (January 2017 & August 2016)
PTC Named a Leader in IoT Software Platforms by Forrester (November 2016)
PTC Named Internet of Things Enablement Company of the Year AND Leading Augmented
Reality Vendor by Compass Intelligence Award (Sept 2016)
PTC identified as the Leading Provider of PLM in Aerospace and Defense by CIMdata
(July 2016)
PTC Vuforia Named �Best Tool� at 2016 Augmented World Expo Auggie Awards for Fourth
Consecutive Year (July 2016)
PTC Named a Leader in Retail PLM Industry by IDC MarketScape (January 2016)
PTC Named IoT Innovation Vendor of the Year (2016) by Compass Intelligence (January
2016)
PTC's CEO, James Heppelmann, has received several awards including:

Jim Heppelmann named CXO of the year by IoT Global Awards 2018
Jim Heppelmann named as one of ten CEOs who are transforming business through
technology by CEO Forum
Jim Heppelmann named as 100 CEO Leaders in STEM 2016 by STEMconnector (2016)
PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann Named CEO of the Year y MassTLC
Jim Heppelmann named CEO of the Year by Postscapes IoT Awards
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