PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann Continues Thought Leadership Collaboration with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter

New Article on Augmented Reality Published in Harvard Business Review to Be Featured at National Association of Manufacturers Event in Boston’s Innovation District

NEEDHAM, Mass. – November 1, 2017 –– PTC (NASDAQ: PTC) today announced that its CEO Jim Heppelmann has co-authored with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter an article that defines the business implications of augmented reality (AR) and explores how AR is creating value in industrial settings today. Content from the new article will be featured at an Executive Forum hosted today by the National Association of Manufacturers.

The article, entitled “Why Every Organization Needs an AR Strategy,” appears in the November/December issue of Harvard Business Review (HBR), and extends the ongoing collaboration between Heppelmann and Porter, which resulted in two previous HBR articles on the business impact of the rise of smart, connected products. The latest article provides a research-driven road map for how companies should deploy AR, as well as discusses the critical choices they will face integrating it into business strategy and operations.

Augmented reality is poised to impact companies in every industry and transform how we learn, make decisions, interact with the physical world – and, ultimately, compete. As IoT data continues to grow exponentially, so too does the power of AR, as it allows us to leverage and interpret that information. AR serves as the bridge between the physical and digital worlds, opening up our ability to take advantage of the torrent of information and insights produced by billions of smart, connected products worldwide.

An early believer in the potential of AR for industrial use cases, PTC has leveraged its acquisition of the Vuforia^® augmented reality platform to expand the capabilities of its market-leading ThingWorx^® Industrial Innovation Platform. Building on its proven history in product design, manufacturing, and service, PTC is helping to bring the power of AR technology to these traditional business activities with the ability to visualize, instruct, guide, and improve interactions with physical things.

“AR addresses the fundamental disconnect between the wealth of digital data generated by the Internet of Things and the ability of human beings to capitalize on it in the physical world in which we live,” said Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC. “There are countless ways AR will change businesses – including how they serve customers, train employees, design and create products, manage their value chains, and how they compete. AR also represents a powerful new interface that enhances the way humans interact with an increasingly digital world.”

To help business leaders understand the implications of AR, Heppelmann and Porter will present their research findings at an Executive Forum hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) today in Boston’s Innovation District.

The NAM and its member companies annually host such meetings and manufacturing events to provide opportunities for members to connect with their peers and legislators to network, learn, and obtain information on the latest policy issues related to manufacturing and government.

To download a copy of the full HBR article, please visit: https://www.ptc.com/en/industry-insights/harvard-business-review/pre-register.

Additional Resources

• PTC product page on augmented reality
• Press release: ThingWorx Studio Brings Highly Immersive Augmented Reality Interactions to the Industrial Enterprise
• Press release: PTC Announces a Major New Release to Vuforia Augmented Reality