| Spring 2002 |
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Technical Committees Retool for a Global Future
With the coming of the New Year, many changes occur. The composition of the PTC/USER Technical Committees is no exception. When Jim Heppelmann became PTC’s chief technology officer last August, his goal was to streamline the company’s product offerings so that all of the software tools could take advantage of each other’s strengths. This approach not only encourages the interaction of the software, but also eliminates the need for customers to use tools that may not address their needs. For example, tools available in Windchill can interact with large ERP systems such as SAP much more easily than Pro/ENGINEER can. In response to this shift in PTC strategy, PTC/USER is currently reconfiguring its roster of Technical Committees. The accompanying table shows the new organization, each committee’s focus, and contact information for the US chairs. As you can see, several new committees are being added, some existing committees are being combined, and some committees are simply being renamed. TCs Around the World Realignment of the PTC/USER Technical Committees helps to reinforce ongoing efforts to give those outside of the United States greater access to the TCs. To encourage users to form new Technical Committees in their own countries or regions, we are currently documenting the process of how existing TCs are organized and how they interact with PTC and the other committees. But as we add new groups around the globe, we need to eliminate some of the confusion resulting from committees in different regions using the same name. We are therefore setting up a new naming system. The Drafting Technical Committee located in the US, for example, will be called Drafting–NA, while the Drafting Technical Committee located in Europe will be called Drafting–EU. The Technical Committee section of the PTC/USER website is also undergoing change. Each Technical Committee was initially responsible for maintaining its own web pages. Now, in an attempt to standardize information available on the web and improve navigation, we have assigned responsibility for the Technical Committee web pages to a central group led by PTC’s Rod Lamb and PTC/USER Executive Director Rick Snider. New Opportunities to Participate The reorganization of the Technical Committees will provide opportunities for additional users to become involved in both new and existing groups. The new line-up will be implemented during the Technical Committee meetings that precede the PTC/USER World Events (international conferences). If you are interested in joining one of the Technical Committees, please contact the chair for the region or country where you live. If there is none available, please contact me at steve@prouser.org to find out how you can start a new Technical Committee in your area. |
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