Yesterday Intergraph issued a press release (via email, not yet online) about a major customer (Alcoa) agreeing to standardize on Intergraph Plant Design System, PDS. As I said earlier this month in a posting about AVEVA, I don’t usually report software vendor “wins†unless there’s a back story that piques my interest. This time, what drew my attention is the software in question, not the size of the deal or the buyer.
PDS has been the market leader for years, but is not a true 3D play or even the state of the art from Intergraph, let alone considering the competition. It relies on an outdated third-party CAD engine (Bentley’s MicroStation V7, formerly known as MicroStation/J—but we won’t go into a revisionist history lesson right now). So why make a big deal out of a five-year standardization agreement?
Simple, says Intergraph’s Tom Greer, manager of corporate communications. PDS is not the dead-end street the competition claims it to be. The competitive claim in this case comes from Bentley, which characterizes the choices facing PDS users as “revolutionary vs. evolutionary.†If you go from PDS to SmartPlant 3D, Bentley says, you are committing a “revolutionary†disruptive act, while following a Bentley-guided upgrade from PDS to their new Digital Plant suite of applications is a more comforting “evolutionary†approach. As far as Intergraph is concerned, the whole idea is a tempest in a crock.
PDS is “highly entrenched in clients’ work processes,†says Greer. “Clients have made sizable investment in PDS, and it is Intergraph’s commitment to help them preserve those capital outlays.â€
Plant design environments that have successfully standardized on one and only one CAD standard are not all that common. PDS may dominate in one company, but PDMS will be used by an acquired group; or the EPC (Engineering Procurement and Construction) firm uses AutoPlant while the O/O (Owner/Operator) has made the leap to SmartPlant 3D. Intergraph understands that firms with multiple software design environments need to standardize within the organization first, and then look to upgrading their operations with a next-generation design solution. Alcoa’s purchase agreement is designed to do exactly that—consolidate a mixed environment around PDS. “The contract represents global standardization on PDS for all Alcoa’s alumina process plant major projects,†says the Intergraph press release.
“Clients cannot be abandoned nor ‘forced’ to upgrade to SmartPlant 3D,†says Greer. He makes thinly veiled reference again to the competition: “Engineering design communities among the process manufacturing, power generation, marine and offshore petroleum industries, along with others, are seeing what forced retirement means along with heterogeneous, differing platforms and data, not to mention vendor technology/business instability arising from willy-nilly acquisitions of dubious value.â€
FUD—as in Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt—seems to be quite common in plant design marketing these days. As the historic leader in the industry, Intergraph is the one with the most FUD arrows in its back. Intergraph never gained a monopoly with PDS, but it is a deeply entrenched technology, and everybody wants a piece of the next generation action. It is in Intergraph’s best interest to keep PDS strong and healthy in parallel with SmartPlant 3D. Intergraph says it will have more to say about expanded integration of PDS into mixed environments, as well as news about continued improvements to PDS in the near future. It needs to do so, because competitors have compelling stories as well. Of all AEC industry segments, plant design software is the most mature and robust of the vertical applications.
As we reported recently, the rise of XML technology is extending the life of older formats, making transition less of an issue in some circumstances. PDS users should consider their long-term IT strategy, and carefully weigh transition costs and benefits. But characterizing an Intergraph-based future for current PDS users as “revolutionary†is disingenuous.
Originally posted by Randall Newton from AECnews.com
