Windchill (software)
PTC Windchill is a family of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software products that is offered by PTC. In 2004, as part of their expansion in the area of collaboration tools, they arranged having "a hosted version of Windchill to small- and medium-sized customers." As of 2011, products from its marketer, PTC, were being used by over 1.1 million users worldwide. History. Windchill was originally developed by Windchill Technology Inc., which was co-founded by Jim Heppelmann, the current President and CEO of PTC. When PTC acquired Windchill Technology, Heppelmann joined the company as senior vice president. Windchill  was released in 1998 and was promoted as the first to market with an internet based PLM offering. In 2001, Windchill ProjectLink was added as a project collaboration offering, and in 2002, Windchill PDMLink launched to enhance product data management. In 2004 the parent company announced plans "to simplify its product management applications." Technology. Windchill's implementation has been described as multi-tier. Although it can run on a single server, when "serving thousands of end users on a global scale" it commonly uses three tiers: Client, Application and Database tiers. Windchill software skills are taught in universities worldwide. Market . The Windchill user base ranges from individuals to large corporations. Most customers are in the following manufacturing market segments: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Electronics & High-Tech, Industrial Products, Medical Devices, Retail, Footwear & Apparel. Commercial sales are made through a combination of a direct sales force as well as an indirect sale channel. Directly competitive products to Windchill include Empower PLM by Omnify, Teamcenter by Siemens, ENOVIA by Dassault Systèmes and Agile by Oracle.