Interview with Christoph Braeuchle and Danilo Beuche about the future of pure::variants at PTC
Following the recent acquisition of pure-systems, I sat down for an interview with Christoph Braeuchle, SVP, General Manager of the ALM Segment at PTC, and Danilo Beuche, VP, Strategy and Go to Market at PTC (former CEO of pure-systems) to talk about how we’re planning on integrating pure::variants and Codebeamer, what they see in store for pure::variants at PTC and more.
What does pure::variants do?
pure::variants offers a holistic solution to the challenges posed by an increasingly individualized and complex market for software-driven product innovation. Slotting right into your existing process chains, pure::variants uses the similarities between products in your product lines to optimize and automate the whole reuse process.
What benefits does the acquisition bring to PTC customers?
Christoph: With pure::variants, we have seen a strong complement to some of the key differentiators to Codebeamer. One of those key differentiators is the ability to reuse assets that form software-intensive systems and to manage the complexity that comes with the shift toward software-driven product innovation, software-defined vehicles, and so on. Reusability, and managing the complexity are exactly what our customers are looking to achieve with Codebeamer, and we have seen the more advanced customers use pure::variants as a complement to Codebeamer in order to deal with the intentional and strategic reuse. Not only do we see an overlap of customers, but after we announced the acquisition, we also received a lot of positive feedback from customers who are not yet users of pure::variants and need some functionality in that area. Often, they tackle these challenges with homegrown or customized solutions, or they tried to succeed with other tools.
Danilo: From the customer’s point of view a benefit is the fact that PTC can now connect more dots than ever before. Codebeamer is an integral part of many toolchains, for software development, and systems engineering, but there are many other tools that need a tight connection, for specifications, and test cases. This is what pure::variants unlocks, not only with Codebeamer, but helps customers connect with other pieces of the tool chain as well. This connection helps customers get more value out of Codebeamer in combination with pure::variants, than each would provide stand-alone.
Christoph: Let’s tie that in with an example. You want to define a new functionality for autopilot in an electric car. A lot of components need to play very well together: braking systems, steering systems, multiple sensors, and processing units for the sensor data (radar, video sensors, etc.). Now this functionality is specified with a set of requirements, it’s refined with a (typically) system model, and a lot of code is generated from (for example) a Simulink model. The code is managed and further augmented by software in a Git repository. It’s being validated with unit tests, hardware in the loop simulation, entire vehicle tests, and all those individual pieces need to play well together. OK, so we are talking about a multi-dimensional, complex set of individual engineering assets, that need to be traceable, coherent, and in the end form one software-defined vehicle functionality. This is being validated for one vehicle. But would the car company, that’s developing this functionality in collaboration with their suppliers, want to do the entire development, design, software management, and test & validation process all over again for the next vehicle model? The answer is clearly no. That is exactly where pure::variants comes into play, to control the variability, and drive the reuse across all those tools that need to work together in such a complex software-defined vehicle innovation scenario.
What’s our plan for the integration of pure::variants and Codebeamer?
Christoph: The good news is that the integration between pure::variants and Codebeamer already exists, and it’s best-in-class. pure::variants provides integration with other tools, including other ALM tools, but Codebeamer is one of the very best. That is a great head start, which we will use to push the envelope of how this integration will add value to our joint customers, and those who may in future become joint customers.
Danilo: Yes, we want to set the benchmark for the integration we will have with Codebeamer, it will be the one everyone will be looking at and saying that this is the one we want to have. This must be our goal. But as Christoph said, not by removing functionality from the other integrations, but by delivering excellence through what we do within PTC’s ALM portfolio. The best value will be delivered in combination with Codebeamer. That’s very important to state, how we will run the integration.
Christoph: Our commitment to openness is very intentional. We will win our market with superior functionality, with more value that we can provide as one company, as PTC with our strong digital thread portfolio. We will not take any value away from existing customers, who may use pure::variants in combination with third-party products, or even with competitor products.
What’s our plan for the integration of pure::variants and Windchill?
Christoph: We say software-defined products it’s already in the term, that there’s software but they’re also products. That maps so well with our vision for digital transformation. In the physical realm, we also deal with product data, CAD data, and bills of materials that are managed in the PLM system, and the best PLM system is Windchill. pure::variants has a strong concept to connect with the options and variants logic in Windchill, by managing the variant model and then being able to publish that variant model into a PLM system. Where then the options and variants logic in the PLM system can make use of the definitions and use of the variant model to derive the correct configuration of the actual product. That is an approach that we want to take with Windchill, it may take more time than with Codebeamer, but we certainly want to build this together with our PLM colleagues soon.
Danilo: That is another part where we are connecting the dots. Although you could say that software is defining the world, we all know that particularly software needs hardware to run, to make it accessible. Just software is nothing, it is a combination of both, hence PLM will not reduce its footprint, but we rather see that software will enlarge its footprint. Software and hardware is the winning combination. Those who ignore that (on both sides) will fail. We have seen examples of customers who understood this. Software and hardware platforms, independently, but collaboratively developed – that’s the thing to combine. This adds a level of complexity, and to be clear: reuse is not a value by itself, it must have a purpose and deliver value. Being able to deliver value despite the complexity, strategic reuse also requires the right tools, methodology, and the right mindset. We should be able to deliver all of that to our customers. With ALM and PLM. We owe the best in class to our customers.
pure::variants provides integration with various ALM tools, including Jama. Why should developers choose the Codebeamer and pure::variants integration over the Jama and pure::variants integration?
Christoph: First of all, let me say that we have no intention of removing the Jama integration from pure::variants, we don’t want to take that away from anybody. However, let’s be clear that Codebeamer adds more value to the customers than what they can get with Jama. That is especially true in end-to-end traceability, enterprise-level, scalable, and full-functional test management. Now probably the most important differentiator is the superior reuse functionality in Codebeamer with our Working Sets. In this area we are currently investing a lot of R&D capacity, to improve our Working Sets functionality even further. Working Sets are the perfect landing place for content, for engineering assets that are transformed by the pure::variants logic into a variant configuration. So, with Codebeamer a customer can use pure::variants to derive a product variant end-to-end with all requirements, tests, risks, trace information, and even the traces into the actual source code.
Jama customers, who can live without such a concept, will be able to continue using it in combination with pure::variants. However, I am convinced that many customers will look at pure::variants and Codebeamer and consider this combination to stay ahead of the curve. But again – this decision is up to the customer. They will be able to continue using the already existing integrations of pure::variants with other ALM tools.
Is there anything that you can share about the future of pure::variants at PTC?
Christoph: We will come up with interesting pricing and packaging options that can also make the decision for a pure::variants and Codebeamer combination even more attractive for customers. I think that one of the most important things is that customers can expect a one-stop-shop service. They won’t need to call into two different companies/organizations to get support for their product line engineering, and ALM tools. They will only have one company to deal with, one integrated service where they can address all their needs, questions, and priorities. This adds tremendous value to the customer. Including all the compatibility variations, making sure that the right versions work together. We might even come up with a more integrated offering, that makes it even more easy for customers to use both products and capabilities in combination.
Danilo: For sure deployment will be simplified. This is one of the technical benefits that comes from this acquisition. Together, we can make it easier for customers to realize value faster. We all know that this is a challenge for I would say most of our customers. We have the enterprise deployment consultancy for a reason, and it will help them remove one obstacle. We want solutions delivered to the customer. As Christoph said, this is quite important. This is one area that customers prioritize. From our experience, when I was with pure-systems, I would assume it’s the same at PTC. When the tools are not running and working together, you take the value out of them.
Christoph: That’s right. So, customer success and adding value for our customers are our number one priority. Now with pure::variants and Codebeamer being part of PTC’s digital thread, we offer a very compelling digital thread solution, that will support our customers to gain a competitive edge, and build better products more sustainably.
Danilo: Sustainability can be achieved. Software must be sustainable, as well as all the hardware products. Software can often make the difference. We need to make our hardware reusable, not use new resources, and we can help our customers go in that direction. We all know that this is not an easy path to go on, but Product Line Engineering and Variant Management help traveling that path much faster.