Altium acquires enterprise PLM integration provider

Perception Software, as part of this acquisition will continue to operate independently as they bridge the data and information gap between EDA design teams and the enterprise supply chain. 

“With Perception’s innovative technology and expertise in enterprise integration, the EDA industry as a whole stands to benefit with a more connected and seamless product design ecosystem,” said Henry Potts, Chief Operating Officer at Altium.

Potts continued: “Our acquisition of Perception Software will enable Altium to successfully address the enterprise integration gap between engineering teams and organisations in new and innovative ways.”

The Perception Software team will form the foundation for the introduction and go-to-market of the Altium high-end PCB product to the enterprise market.

Helping to Bridge the Gap

Founded in 2006 Perception Software had a mission to make manufacturers more productive by delivering EDA-to-Enterprise and Product Analytics solutions to decision-makers that help them design, build and support great products. By integrating the Perception technology within an EDA design team’s ecosystem, engineers are able to:

• Easily connect and share data from ECAD tools with the industry-leading Agile PLM solution from Oracle.
• Enable effective communication and collaboration between electronics design engineers and product lifecycle managers.
• Effectively allow engineers to develop new products and get them to market in the most cost efficient manner possible.

“As a long time strategic partner of Perception, we clearly see the benefits of this acquisition,” said John Kelley, VP of Product Strategy/Agile PLM for Oracle: “From our perspective, our EDA integration capabilities just got stronger.”

A Decade of Enterprise PLM Expertise

The Perception technology successfully addresses the long-standing chasm between engineering teams, their organisations, and product data, enabling engineering collaboration at all stages of a product design process. With over a decade of enterprise PLM expertise, Perception offers several innovative technologies for the EDA industry including:

• EDAConnect enables effective collaboration between design engineers and product lifecycle managers with shared ECAD and Agile PLM data.
• AgileXplorer allows engineers to easily search, navigate, and discover data within the Oracle Agile PLM environment.
• Encompass Product/Support Navigation delivers critical information to product decision makers and support teams in one centralised location.

Mike Farnam, Director of Supply Chain Operations, Cisco stated: “As a customer of Perception Software for many years with over a thousand users using their applications daily, we are very supportive of this acquisition. Breaking down the information barriers between engineering and supply chain teams continues to be of high importance to Cisco.”

Continuing Partnerships

Perception Software will continue to maintain their strategic relationships with major EDA companies and PLM suppliers as they support their market-leading EDAConnect and Xplorer customer bases. As part of this acquisition, Altium engineers will be working to integrate the Perception best-in-class EDA-to-Enterprise PLM technology in their flagship electronics design ecosystem.

Joe Dalton, CEO of Perception Software, commented that this is an exciting development for them. “Our vision of seamless EDA to Enterprise integration is perfectly aligned with Altium, and we look forward to continue to deliver on that vision.”