Dassault Systèmes – A Pioneer in Computer-Aided Design.
3D technology and simulation software has helped people deal with numerous challenges, thanks to the companies that entirely focus on developing those technologies. Dassault Systèmes SE is one such company that has been applying its innovation to develop software, which at a time was out of imagination. This French company has been in the industry for about 40 years and is constantly providing its top-notch technology software to its customers worldwide. Dassault Systèmes is mostly known for its 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which is popular among companies for creating, testing, and optimizing their consumer and business-to-business products and services.
About the Company
Dassault Systèmes is a France based software development giant, having its headquarters based in Vélizy-Villacoublay, France. The company is known for software development for 3D product design, simulation, manufacturing, etc., and according to Fortune magazine, is among such top 50 largest software companies.
Previously, the company was a subsidiary of Dassault Aviation. But in 1981, the company spun off from the latter and since then has been operating as an independent company. Dassault Systèmes is operative in about 140 countries, and over 20,000 people are working for it worldwide. The company mainly deals in the development of products like 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock-up, and Product lifecycle management, 3DEXPERIENCE platform is one of its most popular products. As per the 2020 records, Dassault Systèmes has made €4.45 billion in revenues and holds assets worth €13.87 billion.
The Founding and Growth of Dassault Systèmes
Francis Bernard co-founded Dassault Systèmes in 1981. Before founding the company, Bernard worked at Dassault Aviation as an Aerospace engineering. The company developed aircraft and eventually got into developing software for them. This led Bernard to learn software engineering, resulting in the development of the world-famous CATIA (a multi-platform software suite for CAD, CAM, CAE, PLM, etc.). Being one of the developers of CATIA, Bernard is also known as one of the fathers of CATIA. In his tenure at Dassault Aviation, from 1967 to 1981, he developed multiple software for the company.
Though CATIA was a personal property of Dassault Aviation, the company decided to start selling the software to other aviation companies. The decision led to the spinning off of the design division of Dassault Aviation, forming Dassault Systèmes in 1981, and Bernard becoming the CEO.
IBM was one of the first partners of Dassault Systèmes. In 1982, the company launched the CATIA Version 1 (V1), and version 3 (V3 for 3D design) and 4 (V4 for full Digital Mock-Up) came in the years 1986 and 1994, respectively. The introduction of those versions replaced the method of physical prototyping completely. In 1997, the company acquired SOLIDWORKS, and in the next year, it launched ENOVIA (a brand for product data management).
In 1999, Desault introduced the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), suitable for simulation analysis, 3D designs, and digital manufacturing. Another digital manufacturing brand was introduced with the name DELMIA in the year 2000. In the coming years, the company acquired names like Abaqus, Virtools, MatrixOne, EXALEAD, NETVIBES, 3DEXPERIENCE, Simple S.A.S., Accelrys, and IQMS, etc. Those acquisitions helped the company to enhance its capability and expand globally. In 2012, the company launched its one of the most innovative product, i.e., 3DEXPERIENCE platform, popular among all size enterprises and companies.
The Founder
Francis Bernard founded Dassault Systèmes in 1981. He was born in 1940 in Hanoi, French Indochina. He completed an MS in aerospace engineering from Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (Supaero) in 1965. After doing military service for two years, he joined Dassault Aviation in 1967. Though he started as an aerospace engineer, he got involved in the software development of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) programs at the company, and later, developed CATIA. Bernard was the first CEO of Dassault Systèmes and retired in 1995 after serving for 14 years at the same position.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.