By Joachim Christ
PROSTEP has been supporting companies in the manufacturing industry with the digitalization of their business processes and models for 30 years. Many of our customers, particularly in the automotive and supplier industry, have been with us from the very beginning. Their trust is our most important incentive to continuously develop and improve our comprehensive range of consulting services and solutions.
PROSTEP AG is now 30 years young. We reached this proud age at the end of last year, as the company was officially founded in November 1993 with its business activities starting at the beginning of 1994. Because of this, we chose to use 1994 as our official first year of business.
In a fast-moving industry like ours, 30 years is a long time in which we have had to constantly reinvent ourselves. Always having our finger on the pulse of technology was and is the secret of our success. We maintain close contacts with all leading PLM manufacturers and maintain an intensive exchange of ideas with many research institutes. Together with partners, we also regularly participate in important innovation projects on topics such as Digital Twin, Digital Thread, autonomous driving, and sustainability.We have grown up with the topic of standards. ProSTEP Produktdatentechnologie GmbH was originally founded as the operational arm of the ProSTEP Association to support the industry in implementing the STEP standard. The company and the association still work very closely together today.
An important step towards greater independence for our company was the conversion of ProSTEP GmbH into PROSTEP AG, with which we initiated the further professionalization of our commercial range of services and the expansion of our branch network in 2001.
The flagships of our product portfolio are the world’s leading PLM integration platform OpenPDM, which is also used in numerous PLM migration projects, and the data exchange solution OpenDXM GlobalX, which has been established on the market for many years. In 2021, we added the digital thread solution OpenCLM to both products, which enables the cross-domain linking of data in different IT systems. We also support customers with data logistics, from CAD conversion, data migration, and quality assurance to the transfer of data to the recipient systems.
An important pillar alongside the solutions business is our business with major OEMs from the automotive industry and other industries, which we have been supporting for many years in the ongoing development of their PLM and ALM system landscapes. We have competent teams of software developers who are also familiar with agile development methods. In addition, we primarily advise larger medium-sized customers on the definition of their PLM/ALM strategies and support them in the implementation, i.e. the modernization of their system landscapes.
Over the decades, PROSTEP has become the leading vendor-neutral PLM consulting and software company with a comprehensive range of solutions and consulting services for the manufacturing industry.
As a recognized expert in PLM integration, we support companies in automotive, mechanical and plant engineering, shipbuilding, aerospace, and other industries in the digitalization and digital continuity of their business processes. The PROSTEP Group now employs more than 300 people.
In addition to our headquarters in Darmstadt, we have five offices in Germany and a subsidiary in Poland, which strengthens our software development. An important milestone in our international expansion was the founding in 2006 of our American subsidiary in Troy, Michigan, near Detroit. Our aim is to further increase our international footprint in the coming years.
Furthering the importance of developing our company was the acquisition of BHC GmbH in Boeblingen, which specializes in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) consulting for mechatronic and software-based products. The acquisition represents an important strategic expansion of our consulting and solutions offering. The importance of this pillar is underlined by the fact that BHC Managing Director Philipp Hasenäcker is now a member of the Executive Board of PROSTEP AG. Together with Karsten Theis, he is steering the direction of the company after our long-standing CEO Bernd Pätzold went into well-deserved retirement last year.
Digitalization is constantly presenting our dedicated employees with new challenges. Artificial intelligence, shared data spaces such as Gaia-X or Manufacturing-X, and the Industrial Metaverse are the topics we are currently working on to continue to provide our customers with the best possible support on their journey into the digital future.
It’s not for nothing that our motto is:
“We Integrate Your Future!“
