CoCreate Software, my employer, is merging into
Parametric Technology GmbH. This is a major
milestone for both CoCreate
and PTC. We have good reasons to look forward to what's coming up - but
it's also a perfect opportunity to look back at 25 years of CoCreate history.
I joined the company in 1991 when it was still called MDD, a division
of Hewlett-Packard at their Böblingen site. Shortly after
that, I heard somebody report that some sales guy from a competing company was
questioning the viability of our division and our products. Apparently, customers were
told something like: "Give them 2 more years, and then they're gone."
This was one of my first lessons how things are done in real
bidniz: It's not just
about the functionality and quality of your product, but also about how far customers
will trust your company. And competitors will not hesitate to attack both on the
product and the company credibility front.
Anyway - turns out that the prognosis was just a
tad too aggressive. So far, we
survived another
seventeen years (and not just barely), way more than the two years
the Cassandras gave us. And even as a part of PTC, we'll continue to serve our
customers with our own product line, so the CoCreate story continues.
Memory of those days in the early 90s is hazy, and maybe I've got it all wrong. But then,
I'm pretty sure somebody also mentioned which company that sales guy worked for.
It was PTC
Revision: r1.5 - 23 Apr 2009 - 19:00 - ClausBrod