PTC Celebrates Customer Innovation With PlanetPTC Community

Online Community Encourages Members to Showcase their Work, Network with Peers, and Inspire Each Other.

NEEDHAM, Mass - PTC , The Product Development Company®, today launched PlanetPTC Community, an online environment where PTC customers and other product development professionals can showcase their work, network with peers and inspire each other by sharing their success stories and experiences.

“A community like PlanetPTC enables creativity to flourish, benefiting all participants. One question or idea leads to another and the enthusiasm of the community becomes contagious, which can promote incredible innovation!”

PTC engaged Forrester Research to determine its customers’ readiness for a PTC-hosted community. Josh Bernoff, Senior VP, Idea Development, Forrester Research wrote about PTC’s journey to community in his blog (http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/05/what-you-can-learn-from-ptcs-long-journey-to-community.html) dated, June 8, 2010. “As it turned out, the customers were enthusiastic. [PTC’s customers are] not just ready for a social application, they're eager for it. This sentiment was robustly consistent across job roles and geographies and for customers of all of PTC's products….I expect this community to be very successful.”

“PlanetPTC Community is more than a typical social networking site. PTC is transforming the way that we engage with our customers online based upon the results of an extensive research study conducted by Forrester Research,” said Rob Gremley, executive vice president, Marketing, PTC. “PTC customers told us that they wanted access to great content and the ability to interact with, inspire and be inspired by other PTC customers through the sharing of ideas, challenges and solutions. Beyond that, they wanted a forum where they could recognize each other for their creativity and innovation. PlanetPTC Community is the result of those requests. In a very real sense it was created by and belongs to our customers.”

“PlanetPTC Community is great because it encourages people like me, who have used PTC products for years, to share ideas and use cases easily. I’m also excited to connect with people from all over the world who share my interests in product design and development. I’m really happy that PTC took on this initiative because I believe PlanetPTC Community will bring together experts from many different engineering disciplines who will discuss their experiences and inspire the broader community.”

~ Jason Clark, Senior Designer, OceanWorks

Content for PlanetPTC Community has been contributed by Diamond members (founding members) who share a passion for their work and are eager to inspire others with their success stories. PlanetPTC Community will employ the best in class Web 2.0 tools available. Featured tools include discussion forums, blogging and micro blogging, wikis, news feeds, file sharing, groups, content rating, commenting, tagging and friending. Members will also enjoy the opportunity to participate in contests where they will be awarded branded merchandise to accompany peer accolades for their showcased designs. A PTC community manager will be available to assist members with questions.

PlanetPTC Community is one part of an overall mix of dynamic channels that together make up PlanetPTC. PlanetPTC enables PTC customers and product development professionals to actively participate in exchanging ideas, success stories and best practices through three primary mediums:

PlanetPTC™ Community

* An online showcase for product development professionals who want to inspire others with their work and success stories, and be inspired by the talent of their peers.

PlanetPTC™ Live!

* A face-to-face event series that informs and empowers PTC customers through best-in-class education, product development news, and unique access to peers, PTC experts and partners - all delivered in an energizing and professional event format.

PlanetPTC™ Virtual

* A robust, user-friendly, online gathering that delivers real-time and on demand education, the latest product information, and valuable, virtual opportunities to engage with the worldwide network of PTC customers.

“PTC has vibrant, talented customers who have common interests and enjoy sharing their experiences with each other,” adds Gremley. “A community like PlanetPTC enables creativity to flourish, benefiting all participants. One question or idea leads to another and the enthusiasm of the community becomes contagious, which can promote incredible innovation!”