The Embedded Software Beat

Part two of a Q&A with Matt Klassen, Director of Product and Solutions Marketing at PTC. (See part one)

This interview is part of an ongoing series we conduct with embedded software solution providers to share views on their company, products, and state of the market.

VDC:  When PTC acquired MKS, James Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC said, “Software engineering has become a fundamental backbone element in today’s product development process.” Indeed, embedded systems continue to grow in complexity and software is defining an ever greater portion of end product value. Given that environment, can you tell us a bit about how the combination of Integrity with PTC’s PLM solutions is addressing some of the challenges facing manufacturers today?

Klassen: PTC is addressing many software intensive product manufacturing challenges head on.  Integrity allows engineers to author, connect, and manage a wide range of development artifacts from requirements to design to code and test. Furthermore, Integrity offers unprecedented reuse and traceability providing efficient change management, even across product variants. This gives management a real-time view of software release readiness in the context of the product engineering cycle.  When used in combination with Windchill, Integrity extends PLM to include robust requirements management, software management, and crossed discipline change management.

VDC: Has the acquisition resulted in new markets or opportunities for the Integrity solution than was available under MKS?

Klassen: PTC gave Integrity global reach and with a loyal customer base. Integrity has been introduced to a host of new customers that have invested heavily in our ALM technology. These customers include HKMC, Huawei, Cummins, John Deere, and Ingersoll Rand to name a few.

VDC: We’re seeing Agile software development methodologies gain broader acceptance across a range of embedded verticals. How does a solution like Integrity help support a transition to iterative development?

Klassen: PTC Integrity ensures a smooth transition to iterative and agile methodologies by providing a flexible scalable Scrum based template that allows enterprises to use traditional, agile or hybrid methods across a distributed set of teams. In addition, Integrity’s support for regulatory compliance standards and ability to reuse requirements, test and code in an Agile environment is unique.

VDC: If you could accurately predict the future, how do see the opportunities for the embedded software market shaping up over in the coming year?

Klassen: The embedded software market will only continue to grow its products to become smart systems of systems.  As companies realize that it is more profitable to transform their products into services, software will enable and deliver the continuous stream of value to products already in the market such that servicing, fixing, upgrading and even offering new features will become much more efficient, less expensive and provide longer life expectancies for many products.  Companies that are able to manage the explosive growth of software efficiently and effectively in the context of the product lifecycle will thrive.  PTC’s strategy is very focused on this market force.

VDC: Thank you, Mark.

Interested in participating in VDC’s “The Embedded Software Beat” series of interviews? Please reach out and let us know.

Matt Klassen is passionate about helping customers improve the way they build software intensive products and has been helping organizations excel with software for 20 years.  In his role as Director of ALM Solutions Marketing, Mr. Klassen is responsible for leading the effort to define, market, and sell PTC software and systems engineering management solutions built on PTC Integrity.  With many years working with customers on their complex software systems, Matt has the in knowledge to understand customer challenges across the software development lifecycle in many industries including medical devices, automotive, aerospace, and high tech electronics.  Matt has been a featured speaker at many conferences and events.