At SGS, we don’t make technical decisions on principle, but out of responsibility toward our projects and the people we work with. Our gradual move from Catia V5 to Catia V6 is a good example of this. Because to be honest, it wasn’t our own initiative that triggered this step, but the needs of our customers.
A Proven Foundation That Works
Catia V5 has been the backbone of our design and engineering work for many years. Our teams know the software inside out, the processes are well established, and the results speak for themselves. From a purely internal point of view, there would be little reason to disrupt a system that delivers reliably. In engineering, stability isn’t an end in itself, it’s the foundation for quality and meeting deadlines.
That’s exactly why we didn’t actively push for the switch for a long time. When you have a setup that works, you don’t change it without good reason.
The Push Comes From Outside
That reason came from our customers. More and more of the companies we work with are adopting Catia V6 and the integrated 3DEXPERIENCE platform. They value the shared data model, the closer integration of design, simulation, and data management, and seamless collaboration across everyone involved in a project.
When our customers evolve their development environment in this direction, it’s our job to move with them. Smooth collaboration happens when everyone works with the same tools and the same data foundation. Different systems mean interfaces, and interfaces mean extra effort, translation errors, and friction. That’s precisely what we want to spare our customers.
Not an End in Itself, but Customer Value
For us, moving to V6 isn’t about chasing the latest technology. It’s about something more concrete: the quality of collaboration. When we work in the same environment as our customers, both sides benefit. Data can be exchanged directly, changes are immediately traceable, and coordination becomes faster and more reliable.
The value, then, doesn’t come from the software itself, but from what it enables for working together. This mindset shapes our decisions: technology is a means to an end, never an end in itself.
A Deliberate Transition, Step by Step
You don’t replace such a central part of your work overnight. That’s why we’re deliberately designing the switch as an orderly transition rather than a hard cut. V5 and V6 run in parallel while we systematically upskill our teams and migrate the new environment project by project.
This approach has a clear advantage: we build expertise systematically without putting ongoing projects at risk. Our customers experience no disruption in their day-to-day work, the quality they’re used to stays intact, and at the same time we gradually grow into the platform that will be the standard in the future.
Conclusion
Sometimes the best decision isn’t the one you make on your own initiative, but the one that moves your customers forward. For us, the switch from Catia V5 to V6 is exactly that: a step we’re taking because it makes working with our customers simpler, faster, and more future-proof. And in the end, that’s the best reason there is.