Under the terms of the agreement, Tata Technologies will become an IBM business partner and a Dassault Systèmes services and education partner. With support and certification from Dassault Systèmes, Tata Technologies will create a PLM competency centre to provide demonstrations, training, technical support, and software application customisation of IBM PLM Solutions.

IBM PLM Solutions and data management applications developed by Dassault Systèmes, help manufacturers of all types to innovate, improve product quality and reduce both costs and product development times. They also help companies collaborate internally and with suppliers, across geographic boundaries.

Tata Technologies will play a key role in transforming the existing manufacturing platform of Tata Technologies'' sister company Tata Motors to a collaborative 3D development environment, using IBM PLM Solutions that will link all of the company''s products, process and resource data, as well as its development and manufacturing teams.

"As the largest user of CATIA in India, this agreement gives Tata Technologies deep access to Dassault technologies and internals to allow us to provide our customers the most appropriate, advanced and cost effective solutions to meet their increased engineering needs," said Patrick McGoldrick, managing director, Tata Technologies. "Our customers are looking to obtain significant savings in time to market by adopting CATIA V5, PLM and knowledge-based engineering."

Francis Bernard, advisor to the president of Dassault Systèmes said, "With this strategic agreement, Tata Technologies can offer companies in India the competitive advantage gained using our PLM solutions. Through our Version 5 (V5) development service provider agreement, Dassault Systèmes will assist Tata Technologies to fulfil its software customisation service activity based on our V5 architecture."