INCAT Announces Comprehensive Extended Enterprise Integration(TM) Solution for the Automotive PLM Market

DETROIT, Feb. 19, 2004 -- INCAT today announced a comprehensive supply-chain integration solution for the PLM market. The solutions are focused upon helping the manufacturing industry reduce product development costs, improve product quality and innovation, and simplify the process of synchronization and communication between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their supply chain.

"Companies throughout the automotive industry must enable themselves to communicate and collaborate more effectively with their partners, both up and down the supply chain. For suppliers, the ability to seamlessly communicate with their customers is critical if they expect to be successful in responding to either requests for quotations, or to changes in product requirements. Companies that solve this problem effectively will be the ones that survive, and thrive, over the coming years. PLM provides the vehicle to achieve this level of supply chain collaboration, and enable companies to leverage their own innovative strengths," says Ed Miller, President of CIMdata, a global consulting and research firm focused on PLM.

The Extended Enterprise Integration(TM) (EEI) offering leverages INCAT's market-leading experience gained through partnering with the world's top automotive, aerospace and general manufacturing companies over the past two decades. It facilitates simultaneous engineering, rapid engineering change, and seamless processes from conceptual design to manufacturing definition throughout an OEM's extended enterprise. The solution set merges the core competencies of INCAT in PLM tools with its world-class consulting expertise and knowledge of the automotive product creation process to deliver the latest in PLM collaboration capability, business process integration, methods development, best-practice deployment, and legacy data migration. INCAT's Extended Enterprise Integration solution is comprised of multiple levels of integration offerings spanning five domains: process, methods, tools, deployment and operations. Overlaying this matrix of product creation process integration offerings is a Migration Workshop that defines an implementation roadmap that addresses the specific business needs of each organization. This design is very flexible and ensures rapid and cost-effective product creation process integration between the OEM and each partner in the extended enterprise. The solution offering exploits the combined IBM(R) and UGS PLM Solutions(R) portfolio of collaborative product development and data management applications, including CATIA(R), UNIGRAPHICS NX(R), IDEAS(R), ENOVIA(R), SMARTEAM(R) and TEAMCENTER(TM), together with JT translators from Theorem Solutions and INCAT's proprietary data quality technology, icheck(TM).

"Automating data exchange and sharing static content are limited in their ability to support collaborative product development. Enabling critical decision-making between collaborating partners in real-time requires the application of the appropriate PLM technology to support the product creation processes and methodologies of the extended enterprise. INCAT's EEI offering addresses the specific needs of automotive suppliers throughout the extended enterprise by offering solutions that focus on process improvement, methodology optimization, tool integration and deployment support," says Jeff Nedwick, INCAT-Automotive Practice Manager.

About INCAT

INCAT is an independent, global professional services company focused on Product and Information Lifecycle Management.

Our services combine a proven, disciplined approach with real-world expertise to deliver total business solutions that enhance our clients' agility and capacity to innovate.

Founded in 1984, and headquartered in London and Detroit, INCAT has more than 600 employees working with Fortune 500 and other organizations in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim.