What is The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform? - An Ambitious Vision Facing Real-World Challenges

​Imagine an operating system specifically tailored for product design and development. It contains a suite of integrated apps for tasks like CAD modeling, simulation, project management, and data analytics. This is the vision behind Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform - a unified digital workspace aiming to transform how products are designed, tested, and manufactured. However, as you can guess, executing such an ambitious vision comes with very real challenges.

​A Revolutionary Vision

​You can picture the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform as an operating system with various apps for design, management, communication, and more. Then, depending on the rules of the person, s/he will be assigned different rules and access different apps in the system. By housing these apps together, they can integrate seamlessly to streamline workflows. Dassault Systèmes aims to break down silos, enable global teams to collaborate, and ultimately drive business innovation. However, any visionary idea inevitably faces bumps on the road to widespread adoption.

​Initial Promise

​During my exploration of the platform, the demos showcased its potential - seamless communication, accelerated design cycles, and predictive analytics. On the surface, it could significantly improve digital workflows. However, for organizations used to existing systems, migrating to a new platform can require a monumental change in both mindsets and practices.
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The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform promises several impressive capabilities to cater to the diverse needs of businesses. These include:

1. Global Connection - With this platform, you can link up and collaborate with colleagues around the world in real-time. No more coordination headaches or playing phone tag across time zones. It makes it smooth sailing to brainstorm ideas and work together from wherever you are. 
2. All-In-One Access - The platform brings together a killer suite of design, engineering and manufacturing apps that are connected together with cloud tools. Those include desktop apps like SOLIDWORKS and CATIA in addition to cloud design tools like xDesign and xShape. This facilitates design tracking and collaboration as everything is in one place.
3. Efficient Monitoring - Keeping tabs on projects and data can be a major pain. But with the platform's dashboards and reporting features, overseeing your workflows is simple. You've got the visibility you need to manage projects and monitor progress easily.
4. Informed Decision-Making - With serious analytics and simulation power, the platform helps you model different scenarios before locking in strategic decisions. You can predict the implications and minimize risks, allowing you to optimize resources and maximize results. No more shooting in the dark.

You might be looking at this list and think that you already have solutions addressing them all. You might be right. However, the innovation in the platform combined them in one place with stronger integration. 

​Monumental Scope

While Dassault has impressive design tools, connecting them into one unified ecosystem is enormously complex. Integrating global teams with different languages and time zones is difficult enough without building an intuitive workspace for the entire product lifecycle.
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The scope of Dassault's vision is massive - to fully unite design, collaboration, data analytics, and more into a single platform. Transforming standalone tools into an all-encompassing system remains an ambitious goal.

​Cautious Optimism

The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform shows promise but still needs time to entice organizations to get on board. This is in addition to the massive development needed to improve the platform from its initial stages. While skepticism persists, my hope is that Dassault could gradually overcome challenges to bring this vision to life - one step at a time. With a thoughtful rollout, this revolutionary concept may slowly transform digital workflows in the years ahead.
 
Extra note:
If you want to get started with a look into the 3DExperince Platform, particularly the 3D Creator rule and the xDesign app, then we have a program just for that. You can check it out here.

By Tayseer Almattar​
Tayseer is a passionate designer and educator. He believes that innovation potential can be grown and nurtured within organizations with relevant design innovation processes. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsjmattar/​