I truly believe we have always had an uncommonly strong relationship with our customers, and that connection has been mutually beneficial as we respond to changing new requirements and pioneer innovative solutions together. Working with global user groups such as PLM World and PLM Europe to produce conferences that are focused on learning and dialogue is an extremely valuable process for all involved.

Just as our customers are gaining new opportunities by building collaborative global business networks, Siemens PLM Connection events provide a growing network for shared knowledge and exchange of innovative thinking and practices. These events have been re-branded as Siemens PLM Connection over the past year to reflect this trend, as well as the expanding portfolio of PLM solutions that are becoming available to users now that we are a Siemens company.

Siemens PLM Connection Americas kicked off this year’s series in June, drawing more than 2,000 attendees. From mid-August through early September, Siemens PLM Connection events in Asia took place in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and 12 cities throughout India. As I mentioned, Siemens PLM Connection Europe wrapped up last week, drawing more than 750 attendees from 27 countries, and another begins this week in China. Next month users will have the opportunity to attend events in Korea and Taiwan.

What kind of benefits do attendees derive?

A wide-ranging mix of technical, management and partner tracks provide:

• Information for future planning
  Users get a strategic overview of our business and products that can help them plan their own strategies for future growth and productivity through PLM.
• Knowledge of best practices and lessons learned
  Both keynote speakers and session presenters from many of today’s most successful companies share their experiences and insights on the challenges they have faced and the successes they have achieved.
• Increased product knowledge and input
  Product managers, trainers, software developers and other product and process experts provide invaluable, in-depth technical information and training on our complete portfolio of NX, Teamcenter, Tecnomatix, Velocity Series and PLM Components products. And users have the opportunity to make their own suggestions for new product features and capabilities.
• Contact with partners and vendors
  These companies work with us to enhance the value of the PLM solutions we offer and the conference provides an excellent opportunity for users to explore offerings that may help them become more productive.
• Networking
  Possibly the most valuable benefit of all is the opportunity to meet hundreds of other Siemens PLM Software users, executives, developers and partners to share ideas and experience.

If you would like to see for yourself what went on during Siemens PLM Connection Europe, I encourage you to visit our Blog to see firsthand reports on the event and video interviews with customers and presenters such as Daimler AG, Alstom Transport, Rolls Royce, Volvo Car Corporation, DAF Trucks NV, MAN Diesel A/S, Elbit Systems Electro-optics – Elop Ltd. and Alloy. Also check out how one customer believes NX CAE users will save much more than 100x with synchronous technology.

Blogs and other social media are becoming more prevalent in our industry as a means of connecting and exchanging information on developments in PLM. To keep our dialogue with customers strong at all levels we are continually exploring new technologies and methods for listening, learning and sharing. For instance, in addition to our blog, we maintain a presence on Twitter to keep people informed of our latest developments. We also have set up an online Innovation Connection on Second Life where our customers and partners can experiment with new collaboration and visualization technologies and where we maintain a gallery showcasing some of our customers’ most innovative products.

Shortly we plan to conduct an online survey of how our customers and others interested in PLM use social media to connect with us and one another. If you receive an invitation to the survey I hope you will take a few minutes to fill it out and share your thoughts with us. Whether we meet in person at events like Siemens PLM Connection or meet electronically in the virtual world, the important thing is that business success – for you and for us – does indeed depend on having good connections!