I never used to think about how companies crank out clothing lines until I started working for Dassault Systèmes. Well, let me take that back. I’d thought about fashion designers with their colored pencils and drawing pads, but that’s about it.

But when you think about it, apparel companies are lean, steaming production machines. Crank takes on new meaning. And you’ve got to do it with the right ‘products’ that meet ever-changing consumer trends.

Now add TECHNICAL WEAR to the mix. I mean intelligent clothes that help your sports performance. We’re not quite ready for mainstream mood altering apparel (it’s in the works, folks, think nanoscience!), but there is a new apparel category called Performance Apparel.  So not only do they have to crank, they have to engineer too!

The common goal between Under Armour’s designers, developers, sourcing people, and all the rest is to “make all athletes better.” Their CIO Jody Giles explains how they accomplish this, “getting that ball over the finish line” in the video below. Crank up your volume if you like rock music!

Another video brought to you by what I lovingly call . . . the DS Cube.

So next time you buy Under Armour, maybe you’ll think about Dassault Systèmes and ENOVIA . . .

Best,

Kate

September 1 has finally come, and we’re happy to finally unveil the SolidWorks 2011 product line. There are lots of updates, enhancements and improvements, ranging from the really big to the really small.

We’ll dig into some of the bigger enhancements over the next few weeks, but for now, I’d encourage you to go check out our new SolidWorks 2011 website, where you can explore some of them yourself and see what’s coming later this fall.

Enjoy!

Why Social Media?

My name is Matthias and I work for the  Dassault Systèmes Customer Support team. Whether you are a DS product user or not, chances are you hardly know who we are. And of course we don’t know all of you. Yet we play an important role in each other’s everyday working life. Because our job is to help DS users when they have technical issues with our products.

That may be the first reason why we decided to step into social media. We, as a support entity, want to know who the users of our products are. We want to know what they say, what they think. Because they are the ones who know best our products.

And it’s even more than that. We want to connect with our users and have discussions with them. And, today, what better place is there to do so than on social media platforms?

Creation of the 3DSsupport account on Twitter

In April 2010, we launched our first “social” initiative: a Twitter account named 3DSsupport. The idea is to listen and learn as well as communicate on a larger  scale. But of course we have higher expectations for the future. Our favorite model in terms of support on Twitter is Microsofthelps. If you don’t know this one, you should really check it out. The account is handled like a real support channel. A team of five people is there to answer all technical questions. They even have opening hours… can you imagine that?

I don’t know if we will ever be able to reach such level of achievement but once again we have high expectations and we will do our best to fulfill them.

A little of that human touch

One of the most interesting things about the Microsofthelps account is the way they bring their support team to light. Support is about people. Real people, like you and me. We tend to forget that when we call for technical issues.

That’s why we put a picture of our Web support team on the 3DS Support account. From left to right, you can see Lionel, François, myself, Sonia and Etienne.

As I was saying previously, this Twitter account is only a first step and you will soon hear more from us on other social media.

At this point, it’s really important for us to have feedbacks regarding our social approach. So, what do you think? Do you have suggestions / ideas about the way Support should be present on social media?

Best,

Matthias