ACADEMIA

MSC.Software Corp., the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) products including simulation software and services, today announced that ABB, a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of power and automation technologies, has adopted the MasterKey license system at their two main research and development centers in Sweden and Switzerland. With this transition, ABB will extend their use of MSC.Software's VPD tools from only MSC.ADAMS to include MSC.Patran, MSC.Marc and MSC.Fatigue for research and development of air-insulated switchgears and high voltage power equipment. "One of the things MSC.Software is very focused on is executing our account penetration strategy and ensuring that we merchandize the value of the MasterKey system within our largest customers who have multi-national product development organizations," said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "Our large strategic accounts may have as many as 100 different development sites and organizations but only some of them are actually utilizing MSC.Software products to their fullest extent. We are seeing an excellent pull within our customer base of one development group talking to another and recommending they move to a MasterKey system and we are working hard to turn these recommendations into revenue." "We have been using MSC.ADAMS for a long time, and have always been extremely satisfied with it," said Dan Windmar R&D manager for air-insulted switchgears at ABB Sweden. "Today we definitely see a need to increase virtual development activities. Since not all of our MSC.ADAMS licenses were fully used at all times, we realized that the MasterKey license system gives us the possibility to use MSC.ADAMS when ever we need it, plus to extend our virtual product development activities to other CAE-tools. Seeing that it worked well for us at ABB Sweden, we suggested it to our colleagues in Switzerland who we are working with closely. With the implementation of the new tools I expect to see a further improvement of our products, quicker answers on whether a planned design will work or not, and thus a shorter time to market for our products." The MSC.Software MasterKey license system (formerly known as VDP Campus License System), gives engineers the possibility to choose from more then 250 market-leading software packages available today. With those software tools engineers may assess the complete functional performance of their products, from strength and durability characteristics to motion and controls, vibration and acoustics, thermal effects, and more, without having to purchase individual product licenses. Tailored to the unique environment of every customer, the MasterKey License System maximizes productivity and engineering budgets by providing full-range simulation capabilities and flexible product management.