Executive Summary

Engineering Applications is a broad view of the market for Computer Aided Design & Engineering tools. It includes Computer Aided Design, Manufacture and Analysis tools, as well as the applications that manage that data in the form of Product Data Management, Document Management, Workflow, etc and Web-based tools for Collaboration and Visualisation, Mark-up, etc. In general terms, is covers all Engineering Product Lifecycle Management or PLM Tools.

CAD is, as they say "a done deal"; that is, no one could design today's products without it and most people who need it, have it! So, vendors are looking for growth in other areas. Many have targeted large corporations with PLM systems in the last few years, but the slowdown has particularly hit big-ticket items like PLM. The focus is now shifting to smaller firms, with smaller projects aimed at tackling real engineering pain-points. However, only Computer Aided Analysis (CAE) is showing a modest growth in the Engineering Applications market.

Users of these technologies have reacted to world conditions by reducing investment, freezing budgets and cancelling or scaling-back planned implementations. With 2003 showing no signs of a return to stable conditions, the economic outlook remains uncertain. There may be a backlog of investment plans in the Engineering sector which could boost vendor revenues should they be implemented in the medium term. Otherwise the prospects for growth do not look good.

2002 itself was a poor year for the Engineering Applications Vendors, with revenues falling in Europe as well as world-wide. Only the Asia/Pacific region (including Japan) showed any growth, albeit at half the previous year's rate.

Looking forwards to 2003 and beyond, our models see no growth in the Engineering Applications market. Rather, we see a slow-down in the decline - from double-digit quarter-on-quarter falls to single-digit falls - so that, excepting some dramatic unforeseen events, we expect to see a fall in the overall market of around 4.5% in 2003.

Nick Ballard
nick.ballard@cambashi.com

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The full versions of the 2002 and 2001 reports are available online:
UK CAD, CAM & CAE market review 2002
UK CAD, CAM & CAE market review 2001

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PLM at the Cambashi Seminar April 2002
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