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MSC.Software Corp., the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) products including simulation software and services, today announced the availability of MSC.SimManager 2004 r2. MSC.SimManager, formerly called MSC.SDM, automates the execution of simulation processes, captures all intermediate and resulting data, and increases the effective use of simulation by delivering crucial product performance knowledge earlier in the design cycle. To further support and leverage MSC.Software's strategic alliance with IBM to deliver solutions to a broad customer community, this latest release features support for key IBM infrastructure technologies. MSC.SimManager 2004 r2 also provides significant new automation capabilities to further enhance the productivity of simulation engineers. "Regardless of the industry, our customers around the world need a better way to manage the generation, storage and reuse of product performance information to make quicker and better product development decisions," said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "We have been working very hard to get the MSC.SimManager message out to our customers and have found that our approach is resonating with all of them, large and small. MSC.SimManager was designed from the ground up as a simulation process automation and knowledge capture system that works in a complementary way with a company's existing PLM technologies and infrastructure. It is a huge competitive differentiator for MSC.Software." "Process improvement and data management are high priorities for IBM's manufacturing customers, especially as they relate to PLM strategies and the integration of product performance information, PDM systems and other enterprise systems," said Janette Beauchamp, General Manager, IBM Global Automotive Industry. "The combination of IBM's technology and integration expertise and the MSC.SimManager technologies enables us to deliver a complete solution stack for the management of simulation processes and product performance data." Manufacturers around the world are increasing their use of virtual prototyping and reducing their dependence on physical prototyping in order to reduce development costs and get products to market faster. The increased reliance on VPD techniques necessitates a system for managing the ever-increasing amount of performance-related product data, and for managing and automating the processes that generate and make use of these data. MSC.SimManager enables engineers to assess and compare the performance of multiple design configurations rapidly and consistently. MSC.SimManager 2004r2 includes many new features and enhancements enabling engineers to set-up simulation processes, conduct simulations, quickly evaluate results, iterate through multiple design "what-if" scenarios, and provide meaningful feedback to the design team. Particular emphasis has been placed on: * Support for operation with key IBM technologies -- WebSphere Application Server, DB2 Universal Database and the AIX 5L operating system. * Support for Red Hat Linux on Intel-based servers. * A new, Web-based report generator, which provides users with the ability to interactively collate and annotate data into a single report, to publish results and insights into product behavior. * New advanced capabilities for execution and interactive configuration of Trade Studies. This enables engineers to perform rapid simulation-based "what-if" evaluations of different product configurations by varying design parameters in an automated and systematic way. MSC.SimManager is deployed as a web-based Enterprise Simulation Portal that improves the return on investment of existing simulation tools and systems, by increasing productivity and giving companies collaborative, enterprise-wide access to model and simulation data. This allows engineers to perform automated simulations, evaluate design changes and generate comparative reports to determine optimal design configurations. For more information on MSC.SimManager please visit: http://simmanager.mscsoftware.com/.