Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division and a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, has announced that the community collaboration capabilities built into its Teamcenter? software now support Microsoft SharePoint 2010, further expanding popular social networking concepts into the product development process. Through its strong alliance with Microsoft Corp., and its own internal development, Siemens PLM Software is introducing the next generation of social product development and helping manufacturers enhance collaboration among their employees, suppliers and customers to streamline the introduction of new products using corporate social networks.

"Working side-by-side with our own development team, Siemens PLM Software has done an outstanding job of weaving Teamcenter into the fabric of SharePoint 2010 in a way that feels seamless and natural to the end user," said Sanjay Ravi, managing director, Worldwide Discrete Manufacturing Industry, Microsoft. "As a result, manufacturing companies using Teamcenter with SharePoint 2010 can boost productivity in all departments -- not just engineering -- while they use social networking technology to collaborate with clients."

As the world's most widely used PLM system, Teamcenter manages the product and process data for many of the manufacturing industry's most sophisticated products. Through its long standing alliance with Microsoft, Siemens PLM Software has been able to progressively integrate Teamcenter capabilities into its customers' standard desktop environment, significantly expanding its usability into all departments throughout a wide variety of industry segments.

"Companies are applying the concepts and lessons learned from social networking to connect people and enhance business interaction," said Jim Brown, president and founder of Tech-Clarity, an independent research and consulting firm. "This shift towards corporate social networks promises significant business value, particularly as social computing technologies are applied to PLM."

With the release of the Teamcenter community collaboration capabilities on SharePoint 2010, Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft continue to expand the value of PLM in a digitally connected world. For example, teams can increase their productivity by coordinating their daily activities through shared project workspaces enhanced with social networking tools such as wikis, blogs, profiles, surveys and more.

"Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft have been helping product development organizations share data and collaborate for years," said Steve Bashada, vice president of Teamcenter Applications, Siemens PLM Software. "With today's announcement, we are further harnessing the power of corporate social networking concepts, and helping our customers transform the challenges of working with globally distributed product development teams into a competitive advantage."

For more information on Siemens PLM Software products and services, visit www.siemens.com/plm.