Emulate3D was formerly a part of our fantastic Encompass Partner Network, and we shared great working relationships, but it’s been great to sit with the team over the past few weeks to discuss the opportunities (and practicalities!) resulting from the acquisition. I am in no doubt that our customers will benefit from the fantastic British innovation that is being added to our portfolio.
When viewed alongside the strategic alliance with Microsoft and the 2018 investment into PTC which aligned respective smart factory technologies of PTC and Rockwell Automation, the acquisition of Emulate3D is a clear indicator of how important Digital Twin and associated technologies, such as the recently launched Hololens2, will be to industry in the coming years.
Leading research and advisory company Gartner recently stated that it estimates that hundreds of millions of “things” will have digital twins within five years. This technology trend enables industry to virtually test machine and system designs (and adaptions) before incurring manufacturing and automation costs and committing to a build. It also opens the way to mixed and augmented reality applications that will change the way people can interact with industrial machines and processes.
