Unigraphics Solutions, Microsoft Announce General Motors’ Plans To Deploy Unigraphics for Windows NT Workstation

Unigraphics Solutions, Microsoft Announce General Motors’ Plans To Deploy Unigraphics for Windows NT Workstation

DETROIT and REDMOND, Wash. – Jan. 12, 1999 – Unigraphics Solutions Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced plans by General Motors Corp. (GM) to begin the deployment of Unigraphics and IMAN for the Microsoft® Windows NT® Workstation operating system as part of GM’s Fast Vehicle Product Development Program. To increase productivity and decrease total cost of ownership, GM will begin implementing Windows NT-based workstations in 1999 to host its productivity and project management tools as well as its global core design tool, Unigraphics.

“We have had long-standing success with Unigraphics and expect that Windows NT will be an essential element of the engineering infrastructure based on the flexibility, cost-effectiveness and performance it provides,” said Kirk Gutmann, GM global development product information officer. “The combination of Windows NT-based workstations, Unigraphics and IMAN will contribute to meeting our time-to-market goals for the vehicle product definition [VPD] environment. We hope our suppliers will take advantage of these same benefits as they deploy Unigraphics in support of our VPD initiatives.”

Unigraphics is the General Motors corporate system that is used throughout its global product and manufacturing engineering environment. Windows NT is part of the upgrades to GM’s worldwide infrastructure, enabling concurrent design between GM development centers and supplier centers on six continents.

“General Motors’ decision to use Windows NT Workstation as its Unigraphics-based platform is an example of the success of the Windows® platform in meeting the performance needs of enterprise customers,” said Charles Stevens, vice president for the application developers customer unit for Microsoft. “The Unigraphics product not only has the potential to reduce costs, it can integrate with existing systems, ultimately providing GM with the tools to deliver its product to market at a faster rate.”

New Dimensions in Windows NT From Unigraphics Solutions

“The full suite of Unigraphics design and manufacturing applications has been available on Windows NT for several years,” said Tony Affuso, vice president of products and operations for Unigraphics Solutions. “Unigraphics on the Windows NT platform is being used to some degree by most of our customers worldwide and in 1998 accounted for about 50 percent of our new business. ProductVision, our newest product, provides all users with easy access to product designs managed in our IMAN product data management system. With Windows NT, ProductVision has particular value in making Unigraphics designs available to users of
the Windows platform for personal productivity software, such as purchasing and factory management.”

About Unigraphics Solutions

Unigraphics Solutions Inc. (NYSE: UGS) provides end-to-end CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM software and related services designed to improve its customers’ command of product development. The company provides tools appropriate to a collaborative engineering environment, converting ideas into easily shared concepts used to develop products of varying complexity such as motor vehicles, aircraft, heavy equipment and consumer goods and the parts that comprise them. Unigraphics Solutions’ software is used worldwide and includes

Unigraphics for high-end, complex design, manufacture and assembly; Solid Edge for mid-range, Windows operating system-based product design; IMAN for product data management; and Parasolid, a design and manufacturing industries solid modeling standard. Many OEM software developers have licensed the Parasolid kernel. The company, formerly EDS Unigraphics, maintains corporate headquarters in St. Louis and can be reached via the World Wide Web at http://www.ugsolutions.com/ .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Windows NT and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Unigraphics Solutions, Unigraphics, IMAN, Solid Edge, Parasolid and ProductVision are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unigraphics Solutions Inc.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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