HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Implements Global Product Development Strategy With PTC Windchill®

Business Wire, Dec 5, 2005

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Leading Supplier of Automotive Communication Systems Increases Number of Windchill Seats to 1,000 - Windchill becomes Backbone for Data Management, Workflow and Collaboration

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the Product Development Company(TM), today announced that HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems GmbH headquartered in Karlsbad, Germany, is expanding its deployment of Windchill ProjectLink(TM) and Windchill PDMLink(TM) to 1,000 users across the company. HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems is a leading supplier of Automotive Infotainment Systems and runs several development centers worldwide. HARMAN/BECKER has been a long time customer of PTC since 1994, having standardized on Pro/ENGINEER(R) as its preferred design solution for mechanical engineering. The company is using PTC Windchill to complete its Product Development System, enabling control of product information and the implementation of global standards for its product development process.

In addition, HARMAN/BECKER's use of PTC Pro/INTRALINK(R) for Pro/ENGINEER data management will now be migrated to Windchill PDMLink within the next six months. PTC's Windchill will become the global information backbone to manage Pro/ENGINEER models as well as all project and engineering data management including the management of other mechanical design content such as CATIA V5, and electrical design content such as Mentor Graphics.

"Moving to Windchill PDMLink gives us faster access to product information. It allows us to generate product structure variants, for example country specific product structures, faster and with more flexibility. And it will help us reduce cost by reusing existing product structures which are now much more easily available to other teams," explains Dr. Michael Ruf, Vice President Engineering Europe, HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems.

Establishing a single global collaboration platform for internal and external use with partners and suppliers is the key to leverage the synergies across the various global engineering locations. Windchill ProjectLink allows all members of a product development team to manage projects, share information and conduct design reviews in real time over the Web.

"PTC's technology guarantees more efficient execution and management of our engineering projects, offering capabilities for real time monitoring and effective change and program management for our global organization. PTC is also the best choice to integrate the new Windchill-based PLM environment with our ERP system from SAP(R)," says Marek Neumann, Director Program Management Europe, HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems. The company expects to increase product reliability by using standardized and automated release processes. "Automating the workflows will help to optimize cross-department processes and shorten cycle times," adds Dr. Karl-Heinz Augenstein, Vice President Quality Management. "We can now easily control each product throughout the whole lifecycle."

"PTC is recognized as a leading PLM provider for the automotive industry. We have seen strong momentum as more and more automotive customers, both within and outside of our traditional powertrain customer base, choose us as the preferred partner for design, data management and collaboration. The clean, integral and flexible architecture of Windchill makes it easy for customers to adopt new capabilities across globally distributed design teams," said Dick Harrison, president and chief executive officer, PTC.

About Harman/Becker:

HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems provides premium products for the automotive industry and the aftermarket. Drawing upon world-class technologies from Becker(R), harman/kardon(R), JBL(R), Infinity(R), Mark Levinson(R) and Lexicon(R), HARMAN/BECKER integrates innovative automotive entertainment, information, and communication systems. HARMAN/BECKER offers the most advanced technologies for cars, from branded high-end audio systems with leading-edge multi-channel surround sound technology, to complete infotainment systems with navigation, media players (DVD Audio, DVD Video, CD, MP3), speech dialog systems, telephone and telematics solutions (Internet, WAP, Email, SMS, Bluetooth), analog/digital tuner and receiver technologies, headphones and rear seat entertainment.

HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems is the automotive division of Harman International. harman/kardon, Becker, JBL, Infinity, Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Logic7 are registered trademarks of Harman International. Harman International Industries, Incorporated (www.harman.com) is a leading manufacturer of high-quality, high-fidelity audio products and electronic systems for the consumer and professional markets. The company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HAR."

About PTC Solutions for the Automotive Industry

PTC solutions for automotive are designed to meet the product design and product life cycle management needs of both OEMs and suppliers in the automotive industry. PTC provides 3D design, product data management and collaboration solutions to over 1400 automotive manufacturers including 8 of the top ten suppliers and 3 of the top 5 OEMs.