Atos recently announced the acquisition of IDEAL GRP, a PLM system integrator and solution partner of Siemens Digital Industries Software.
French consultant giant Atos recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of IDEAL GRP, a PLM system integrator and solution partner of Siemens Digital Industries Software. Headquartered in Finland, IDEAL GRP offers consulting, integration, software and maintenance services for businesses in the manufacturing sector, with the Nordic countries as its primary market. Furthermore, IDEAL GRP is one of Europe’s largest Siemens dedicated implementors of solutions related to the Xcelerator portfolio (Teamcenter PLM, NX CAD, Simcenter CAE, MindSphere IoT, etc.) and factory automation platforms.
The acquisition will add a highly skilled team of approximately 100 industrial experts to Atos and is one of several recent moves by the French digital and cloud consultant to strengthen its capabilities not only in terms of PLM, but also when it comes to the manufacturing side.
“The past few months have exposed the fragility of modern supply chains, leading manufacturing organizations to accelerate their digital transformation in the search for increased resilience and operational excellence,” noted Pierre Barnabé, head of the manufacturing industry at Atos. He pointed at PLM’s capability to provide a product information backbone by integrating data, processes and business systems.
Notably, this is not Atos’ first move in the PLM direction. As recently as June, Atos acquired PLM specialist Processia. Building on this, along with today’s IDEAL GRP acquisition, the operation is aligned with Atos’ industry-specific strategy. According to Barnabé, this will “reinforce its PLM and engineering solutions franchise, while also expanding the group’s footprint in Northern Europe.” He added that Atos will provide the resources, experience and confidence to allow IDEAL GRP to focus entirely on delivering the products and services needed by medium sized and large enterprises to successfully deploy transformational Industry 4.0 initiatives.
Atos has 110,000 employees globally and is currently in a state of high expansive activity. They have made three interesting acquisitions during a short period.
Besides the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of IDEAL GRP, Atos has also strengthened its position in HPC cloud enablement with the acquisition of global HPC cloud platform provider Nimbix and acquired Visual BI to enhance its ability to address customers’ increasing need for analytics in the cloud.
PLM is Developing Towards Becoming a Strategic Asset
IDEAL GRP´s CEO, Jaakko Hartikainen, said to engineering.com that an important reason for the Atos deal is that in recent years customers have demonstrated a significant change in their view of PLM. It has become more strategic and integrated, and today it affects the entire value chain in manufacturing.
“With Atos, we are now fully equipped to provide truly global and scalable services while maintaining the close relationship and local agility with our customers in the Nordics and Baltics,” Hartikainen commented.
He did not want to reveal the purchase price; however, he noted that IDEAL’s future looks promising.
“Coronavirus times have been tough for everyone, but in 2021 we have seen a turnaround. We expect to reach around 20 percent in organic growth during the year and revenues that land at a little over 20 million euros, if the development goes according to plan. We have a good, crisp strategy around everything that customers demand today with, among other things, software integration, easy-to-use low-code platforms that increase control over the product development chain and sharp advisory services,” he said.
One in a Series of Surprising Atos Acquisitions
It is not uncommon for big things to happen with company acquisitions during holidays and major vacation periods. Some of these are expected, while others are not. Atos’ IDEAL GRP acquisition definitely belongs to the latter. Atos is known as a leader in cloud and digital workplace solutions, security services in Europe and best-in-class computing power and the pioneering Quantum Learning Machine, and announcing that it is expanding its capacity with the acquisition of IDEAL GRP came as a surprise.
For some background on the company:
IDEAL GRP is a relatively newly formed business unit. In short, the background is a merger of three companies at the end of 2019: Ideal Product Data Oy (Finland), Summ-Systems AB (Sweden) and Pro-STEP OÜ (Estonia).
Some of IDEAL GRP’s customers include Sandvik, Metso Outotec, Konecranes, Tomra, Planmeca, Polar Electro, LEGO, Tooltec, Midroc-LKN, Swisslog and Laerdal.
The company has its customers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Baltics, and through a complete portfolio of services and solutions it helps industrial and manufacturing companies to utilize product and asset data, design and implement product life cycle related processes (PLM), optimize manufacturing operations (MOM) to function and optimize operations in the hyper-connected world.
When it comes to software support, Siemens Digital Industries’ Xcelerator portfolio is the main platform, and is a strong solution that was recently singled out by the analyst Forrester as the market leader in PLM and discrete manufacturing automation.
“PLM is Not About CAD and PDM Anymore”
“What are the reasons behind the acquisition? Why did you sell?” I asked IDEAL GRP’s Dick Nyström, who is heading strategic business development.
“Today, the whole has become increasingly important,” he replied. “Ten years ago, we sat down with the design managers and discussed CAD and PDM. This has changed today. PLM and automation are seen as more strategic parameters and decisions are discussed and made at higher levels. The companies want to create functionally complete solutions where things such as ERP, MES, MOM and others are included in the platform capability. With Atos, we get access to leading solutions and expertise in cloud operations and other things—everything that is in demand in today’s market.”
Wide Range of Industrial PLM and Automation Services
In general, IDEAL GRP offers consulting services, integration, software and maintenance services for companies in the manufacturing sector.
“We believe that the transformation will only be accelerated, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with Atos to help our customers create a digital advantage at the heart of this dynamic development and strategic partnership between Atos and Siemens in combination. With the breadth and scope of Atos´ range of offers, this makes the whole deal an exciting opportunity for IDEAL GRP customers and our employees,” Jaakko Hartikainen added.
Pierre Barnabé is on the same track and added that manufacturers today produce infinite amounts of data at all stages of a product’s life cycle, which is an invaluable asset but a real challenge when it comes to using all this information to make better products.
“This is where PLM systems come to the rescue and prove to be one key factor for Industry 4.0,” added Barnabé. “We look forward to working with IDEAL GRP to help our customers in the manufacturing industry on their journey towards sustainable digital transformation.”
Increasing Interest in PLM Investments Among Investment Companies
In general, this deal mirrors a rising interest for PLM, not only in a broader technology sense, but also as an industrial technology of the future well worth investing big money in. PLM is becoming hot because it can solve problems and contribute to more effective manufacturing processes—and the prospects for good returns on investment look particularly great.
One point that makes this business deal great is that combinations like the one Atos is putting together can play a necessary key role in terms of implementation, education, methodology development and support of these broad systems.
Atos management can see the rewards coming from establishing this kind of broad competence and platform capabilities we’re talking about in this context.
In recent years, we have seen a number of bets by investment firms in PLM companies on the implementation, integration, and on the support side. Examples of this include the PTC consultant PDSVISION, who recently got new main owners in the form of the CapMan fund, and the Aras PLM bets made by players such as Goldman Sachs and GI Partners.
With market-leading technology and high process competence, IDEAL GRP’s manager Jaakko Hartikainen, and his employees, are well positioned in the Nordic PLM market. As mentioned above, the company is Siemens’ largest dedicated European partner in the field, and Hartikainen envisions a good exchange based on these parameters.
It will be very interesting to follow IDEAL GRP’s development in Atos’ hands. The conditions for a successful result look good.
It is as Dick Nyström says: “Modern PLM is not just something that concerns an individual’s or a department’s need. PLM is moving faster and faster as a key function in the companies’ integrated IS/IT strategies. The requirements for Cloud and SaaS solutions will continue to accelerate, and integration with ERP will not just be ‘nice-to-have,’ but a ‘must-have.’
We also see that cybersecurity requirements as part of the solution are very high on our customers’ needs list. Here, the combination of Atos and IDEAL will move our customers to new levels and opportunities.”
