With recent events, much of the exciting Digital Manufacturing tech updates and releases of 2020 have flown under the radar.

Relax! I’ve got you covered. Below are my picks of the most intriguing and impactful tech updates & releases so far and how they might affect the talent landscape for the remainder of the year.

Altair

Altair were unfortunate to have timed their “most significant release in the company’s history” during the height of COVID-19. That takes nothing away from the enhancements Altair have made to their flagship product, HyperWorks, which is sporting a new advanced interface, however. In Altair’s headline grabbing virtual event, they announced a ton of new enhancements for 2020!

Ubisense

Ubisense reacted swiftly and effectively to the threat of contracting COVID-19 in the workplace by releasing a new enterprise COVID-19 contact-tracing solution. This enables businesses to monitor locations, interactions of employees, facilities and workstations in real-time to “minimise the spread and impact on operations.” Kudos to Ubisense for playing their part in the fight against COVID-19 and to help companies get back to business!

Centric Software

Centric Software revealed the latest updates to its flagship PLM solution, Centric 8 PLM version 7.1, back in June. The fashion PLM provider made huge strides in “individualising the PLM experience” boosting digital collaboration, time to market all whilst promoting business growth during trying times for business owners.

Virtalis

Virtalis just earlier this month announced the release of their developer portal, placing the power of development and innovation in their customers hands. Today’s businesses are mad about customisation and adaptation, so I think this is a very exciting move by Virtalis and encourages even more innovation and collaboration!

Immerse

Another August release, Immerse have announced the rollout of their Virtual Enterprise Platform (VEP). Listening to their customers, they have built a training platform which helps businesses “create, scale and deploy VR training and maximise their ROI“. I feel VR technology is the future for training and development and Immerse are continuing to push the limits of what’s possible.

Onshape

After PTC’s acquisition of Onshape at the back end of 2019, Digital Manufacturing’s sweetheart has struggled to keep out of the headlines. The talented team at Onshape release updates to their CAD software almost every month, or even twice a month, as their technical team appears to work a lot of overtime! You can check out the long list of improvements here.

Impacts on talent

It’s apparent from the Digital Manufacturing tech updates and releases from above that software engineers, developers and product teams are vital to Digital Manufacturing companies to facilitate the rising demand for digital transformation software.

On this, I am experiencing a rise in the demand for former industry professionals to make the switch to industry and to utilise their hands-on experience in a software environment.

It’s also not unusual for companies to seek SaaS, IoT or cloud engineers from other sectors too in order to help bridge the skills gap within the manufacturing sectors.

Further to this, the advanced nature of these solutions also requires sales professionals to improve their technical understanding to ensure these technologies are given the justice they deserve.

Whether they are supported by former industry professionals and engineers or even possess technical backgrounds themselves, it’s a crucial skill to possess.

And lastly, given the current climate, companies want to get the most out for their money. 2020 has truly seen the rise of Customer Success Managers to help customers realise their business objectives through Industry 4.0 technology.

Which tech updates have I missed out? Disagree with my thoughts on how these technology advancements might affect recruitment and talent? I’d love to read your comments and feedback on my LinkedIn post HERE!