In our nearly 40 years, Altair has seen markets shift many times. Organizations rise, fall, merge, and transform. In business, disruption is always the name of the game. Within the past month, news has emerged of another of these great disruptions in the simulation world: the acquisition of Ansys by Synopsys. 

With disruption comes questions and uncertainty from those within and adjacent to these markets, including from investors, competitors, customers, and people within the organizations themselves. People have been asking me what this means for Altair, so I would like to share some thoughts.

I feel fantastic about how Altair is positioned coming into 2024. We remain committed to supporting our customers and delivering a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class technology. We are never complacent, and we constantly look for ways to improve to better meet the needs of our customers, partners, and the overarching global market now and in the future. This approach has guided us to success for decades. We are driven by extraordinary people who anticipate where the market is going before it gets there. 

Technology

We have always taken a long view on where things are headed in the simulation market and, as a result, are in a superb position this year as we converge data science with rocket science to usher in a new era of computational intelligence. Many of our competitors are only just getting started in their efforts to reach where we already are today. 

We recently launched what we believe are the most important and powerful software updates in the past 10 years across our entire solution portfolio including major enhancements to Altair® HyperWorks®, our game-changing design and simulation platform. At the product level, our proven modeling and visualization tools – Altair® HyperMesh®, Altair® SimLab®, and Altair® Inspire® – and our best-in-class structural solvers, including Altair SimSolid® and Altair® OptiStruct®, spur rapid innovation and give engineers unparalleled power in a unified, open environment. In addition, we’ve infused artificial intelligence (AI) directly within the Altair HyperWorks environment, which is a major differentiator for us and a massive benefit to our customers as our advancements offer design insights up to 1,000 times faster than traditional simulation. Beyond the algorithms themselves, the way we have seamlessly integrated AI into our solutions makes leveraging these capabilities frictionless and natural, which is vital.

Market Landscape and Business Model

We know that customers of all stripes are exhausted from never-ending price increases, especially when they are not paired with a commensurate increase in product quality and/or customer service. For those customers, our Altair Units licensing model is the remedy they have been desperately looking for. Not only does the Altair Units model provide greater value and flexibility than other software licensing models, it also gives users access to more than 200 Altair and partner products their teams and organizations can run when, where, and how they need.

From a market standpoint, it goes without saying that mergers and acquisitions of this scale bring significant uncertainty. Employees, customers, and investors will naturally have questions about the future of products and where the new organization will place their priorities. The fact is that large-scale mergers are difficult to navigate quickly and successfully. This gives other players a chance to capture meaningful, lasting market share.

This is especially the case for organizations that prioritize great service and customer relationships above all, the way we do.  At a recent event, I spoke with a CTO from a large global automotive supplier who made a point to express to me, unprompted, how positively Altair was viewed within his organization compared to our competitor. Altair’s customers are loyal and genuinely like us – and, after years in this industry, I know that this is not always the case for our competition. I cannot overstate how important our customers are to us, nor can I overstate how much pride I take in hearing that our efforts are recognized and valued by those with whom we work. Our values and dedication to people are anything but tired platitudes – they drive what we do and how we do it and have done so since Altair was founded. 

Final Thoughts

The simulation market is transforming. But it does not change Altair’s approach, which has helped us achieve the strong position we are in now. Altair will continue to invest heavily in our products and ensure we have top-notch support for all users, organizations, and industries, no matter where they are or what they do. We feel we are in a great position, full of opportunities, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds.