Dassault Systemes announces Boeing selection of CATIA and ENOVIA as Enterprise wide Standards For Digital Design and Manufacture

Dassault Systemes (NASDAQ:DASTY) announced today that the Boeing Company has released the following information.

Paris (France), January 21 , 2000--SEATTLE, Jan. 7, 2000 – The Boeing Company has selected the CATIA and ENOVIA software products from Dassault Systemes and IBM as the core of the first set of engineering computing standards that spans all Boeing business units and all sites. They will be used on all future product development programs throughout Boeing and on current programs where their use makes business sense.

CATIA – Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application – is the new company standard for mechanical design. ENOVIA will be used for virtual product and process management. Both products are developed by Dassault Systemes and marketed worldwide by IBM.

"Boeing is committed to CATIA and ENOVIA as our standard tools for new programs across the enterprise," said David Swain, Boeing corporate senior vice president of engineering and technology and president of the Phantom Works business unit.

"Selection of CATIA and ENOVIA among our first companywide standards for engineering computing takes us a big step closer to the Boeing goal of 'design anywhere, build anywhere.' As a global company, Boeing must be able to flow work seamlessly between different locations and different business units without impacting our customers. To do that, we must all be working with the same best-in-class tools and processes."

CATIA is computer-aided design software that enables engineers to digitally design and manipulate a product, its components, and their relationships in three dimensions. Boeing has used CATIA since 1986 and, with nearly 9,000 seats, is one of the largest users in the world. The demonstrated ability of CATIA to support a broad set of Boeing requirements in an integrated fashion led to its selection as a companywide standard.

ENOVIA, a suite of software applications that electronically simulate and manage a product throughout its life cycle, is tightly linked with CATIA. Together, they offer a single, integrated environment for entire product life cycle.

"Our relationship with IBM and Dassault Systemes is strategic to the success of The Boeing Company," said Scott Griffin, Boeing CIO. "IBM and Dassault have provided Boeing with the computing tools and support that allowed Boeing to design and produce our products like the 777 and Next Generation-737. With CATIA and ENOVIA as standard tools across the enterprise, Boeing expects IBM and Dassault Systemes to continue to provide the computing tools and support required to design and build our future products."

The use of CATIA and ENOVIA on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program demonstrates the kind of benefits Boeing expects to realize from applying CATIA and ENOVIA as companywide standards. CATIA and ENOVIA allow design, analysis, manufacturing and maintenance engineers to work within a consistent digital mock-up environment. They ensure a standard approach to specifications, engineering rules, operational parameters and simulation results – all of which will support affordable JSF development. In addition, ENOVIA will provide the electronic database needed to develop advanced JSF support concepts that promise to reduce JSF life-cycle costs.

"Boeing is aggressively becoming the aerospace industry's leader in applying advanced information technologies to its manufacturing operations," said Nick Donofrio, IBM senior vice president, technology and manufacturing. "IBM is playing a critical role in that journey. We are working closely with Boeing to help it achieve its commercial, space and military goals with e-business consulting, services, hardware, software and networking solutions."

Bernard Charles, president of Dassault Systemes, said, "This decision demonstrates the value of digital mock-up initiated with the 777 and now adopted by all new Boeing programs. We support the decision to expand virtual product development to 'anywhere, anytime' throughout the product life cycle, leveraging the value of partnership."

The newly announced standards were selected by the companywide Engineering Process Council, led by Swain. The council is chartered to develop breakthrough common processes to provide Boeing with a significant competitive advantage through major improvements in engineering cycle time, quality and cost. Through evaluating the best engineering tools and processes from across Boeing, the council has been developing the framework for establishing standard design, analysis, and production tools and processes.

In addition to CATIA and ENOVIA, the first standards named by the council include the Boeing Integrated Vehicle Design System (BIVDS) for analysis and design in the early stage of product development, and Relex, from Relex Software Corporation, for estimating reliability and maintainability.

The council expects to name additional standards in the near future.