Press Release
ProSTEP iViP Symposium 2013:
New Visitor Record on Milestone Anniversary
Darmstadt – 2 May 2013 – To shape the future PLM-world companies must be able to adapt their IT
environments agile and flexible to ever more rapidly changing market conditions. That was the
message of the 16th ProSTEP iViP Symposium. Numerous keynotes and lectures gave participants
the opportunity to learn more about the issues currently of concern to IT-managers in the automotive
industry as well as of other sectors. They also gained a vivid insight into the current state of scientific
research and new approaches on how to better manage their tasks of tomorrow, especially in the
development of interlinked systems. In addition, they had plenty of opportunity to congregate in order
to maintain contacts and exchange ideas and experiences. This year’s Symposium was sponsored by
industry partner Volkswagen and the PLM manufacturer Siemens PLM Software.
In his opening statements at the two-day event Dr. Ralf Brunken, from Volkswagen AG outlined how
the group is meeting the challenge of a global organization with 550.000 employees, 100
manufacturing sites and 12 different brands in the field of IT. He named a central leadership team,
regional competence centers, standardization, and innovation the four cornerstones of their global ITstrategy. Mr. Walter Redinger from the Brose Group picked up this ball in his closing speech at the
end of the event, outlining the IT requirements from the point of view of a worldwide automotive
supplier. The increasing electronics and software share of the total vehicle costs combined with a
growing number of vehicle derivatives with ever shorter life-cycles require a closer integration of
product and production-lifecycle, underlined Dr. Stefan Jockusch from Siemens PLM Software. To
round off its software portfolio Siemens Industry invested therefore more than four billion Euros in
company acquisitions.
This year’s Symposium was also marked by a milestone anniversary: for 20 years users, software and
service providers as well as researchers have been working together in the ProSTEP iViP Association
on developing and implementing open IT standards and end-to-end business processes. In a joint
keynote speech Dr. Dietmar Trippner (BMW AG) and Prof. Alfred Katzenbach (Daimler AG), longtime
ProSTEP iViP companions, reviewed the Association’s history and acknowledged the high level of
commitment of everyone involved, which contributed considerably to the success of STEP, JT and
other standards.
There remains a lot to be done in the field of integrated, integrated virtual product creation (iViP), the
main focus of the Association today. This underlines the high level of interest in the Symposium: with
over 460 participants from 142 companies and 12 universities it reached a new visitor record. Also on
a record level was the number of 28 exhibitors, which presented their products and services in
Hanover. The Association is also proud of the growing international reputation, stated board member
Ulrich Ahle (ATOS): this year, participants from 15 countries visited the Symposium – a greater
ProSTEP iViP e.V.  Dolivostraße 11  64293 Darmstadt
-1-
 Germany
Press Release
presence of foreign countries than ever before. The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota signed its
membership application during the symposium.
"Openness for Global Success" was the motto of this year’s Symposium, where the Codex of PLM
Openness (CPO) was one of the key issues. The ProSTEP iViP initiative for more openness in the
PLM environment has gained worldwide acceptance: the delicate, German plant has grown within a
year to a global initiative with more than 60 supporters underlined Dr. Steven Vettermann, General
Manager of the Association.
Several software suppliers explained in joint presentations their particular reasons for signing the
CPO. It became clear, that they take their voluntary commitment seriously and that it serves them as
argument within the company. Representatives from Airbus, BMW, Continental, and ThyssenKrupp
emphasized in a kind of roundtable, that openness and interoperability in heterogeneous IT
landscapes with sometimes hundreds of individual IT tools is indispensable. Therefore, even today the
CPO has become in some companies an integral part of purchase negotiations with software
suppliers.
One issue that has accompanied the Symposium for many years is the model-based system creation
and the question how Systems Engineering can be better supported by IT. This issue no longer
concerns just the speakers in the scientific tracks, but has gradually been finding its way into company
presentations – even if scientific theory and practical application are still worlds apart. "This subject will
accompany us in the future as well", says Dr. Vettermann. The next ProSTEP iViP Symposium takes
place on 13 and 14 May 2014 in Berlin.
About the ProSTEP iViP Association
ProSTEP iViP Association bundles the interests of manufacturers and suppliers in the manufacturing
industry as well as IT vendors, in close cooperation with research and science institutes, to provide its
members with the long-term competitive advantages that more efficient processes, methods and
systems enable.
Today, the ProSTEP iViP Association remains committed to developing new approaches to end-toend process, system and data integration for its members and providing digital support for all the
phases of the product creation process. Members of the ProSTEP iViP Association currently include
about 170 companies and organizations from 17 nations.
For more information on ProSTEP iViP, please visit www.prostep.org.
ProSTEP iViP e.V.  Dolivostraße 11  64293 Darmstadt
-2-
 Germany
Press Release
Contact:
ProSTEP iViP Association
Yvonne van der Steeg
+49-6151-9287-446
E-Mail : yvonne.vandersteeg@prostep.org
ProSTEP iViP e.V.  Dolivostraße 11  64293 Darmstadt
-3-
 Germany