RNS Number:8604Q
Aveva Group PLC
14 October 2003


AVEVA Group plc

AUTODESK AND AVEVA ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), the world's leading digital, 3D software company,
and AVEVA (LSE: AVV), the leading supplier of engineering IT systems for the
process and energy industries, today announced a strategic alliance.

KEY POINTS:

* Alliance brings together AVEVA's plant design software with Autodesk's
design software and digital content. Both are leaders in their respective
markets.

* Customers will benefit from excellent upwards migration and the
capabilities of both suites of software.

* Combined offering provides significant competitive advantage for both
companies.

* The alliance will provide AVEVA with access to a substantial
additional installed user base in the medium term.


The full text of the announcement is included below.

For further information, please contact :

Richard Longdon, Chief Executive;                                 01223-556611
Paul Taylor, Finance Director
www.aveva.com

Steve Liebmann at Bankside                                       020-7444-4163 /
                                                                  07802-888159


Autodesk and AVEVA Form Strategic Alliance to Provide Extended Design Software
Solution for Plant Industries

Alliance Offers Plant Design Teams Enhanced Drafting and Documentation
Capabilities in Multiple Areas

SAN RAFAEL, California, USA and Cambridge, England, October 14, 2003- Autodesk,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), the world's leading digital, 3D software company, and AVEVA
(LSE: AVV), the leading supplier of engineering IT systems for the offshore,
process and energy industries, today announced a strategic alliance. The
alliance brings together AVEVA's leading data-centric plant design management
expertise with the superior drafting and documentation capabilities of AutoCAD(R)
2004 software to create extended solutions for larger process plant engineering
teams. This new solution will offer an excellent migration path and clear future
for users of leading legacy plant design systems.

The alliance integrates AVEVA's VANTAGE Plant Design Management System (PDMS)
and AutoCAD 2004, Autodesk's 2D drafting, detailing, and design tool and
flagship product. The combined capabilities will enhance PDMS's automated
deliverable production with versatile post-processing, enhanced management, and
accelerated delivery of design documentation, eliminating errors and reducing
the time to plant start-up.

"AVEVA has been a supplier of engineering systems to AMEC for more than 20 years
and Autodesk products have been widely used in our engineering capabilities,"
said Steve Trench, manager of engineering for AMEC Group Ltd Downstream
Business, a leading international engineering services company. "Bringing
together the PDMS 3D design system and AutoCAD design software will help us to
improve the quality of our product deliverables for our clients, through
increased productivity and flexibility."

PDMS offers advanced, automated drawing production from a plant data model in
all leading industry drafting formats. Using the AutoCAD 2004 product's powerful
detailing, annotation, sharing, and document management capabilities, AVEVA will
offer intelligent, AutoCAD-enhanced deliverables with tight integration to the
plant data model. Other PDMS output formats will also be maintained. Autodesk is
providing AVEVA with consulting, training, and support through Autodesk
Professional Services.

In addition, schematic design will be enhanced by adding the superior drafting
capabilities of AutoCAD 2004 to AVEVA's intelligent P&ID application. AVEVA has
extensive engineering domain experience in integrated 2D and 3D workflow
management, therefore the joint agreement will be able to offer significant
productivity increases in this fundamental area.

In addition, the joint development agreement offers the potential for Autodesk
and AVEVA to jointly develop integration of PDMS with Autodesk(R) Architectural
Desktop and Autodesk Inventor(R) software products to meet the needs of enclosed
process plant facilities for use by bio-pharmaceutical companies, as well as
tying together the overall plant design process to the design of specialised
process plant equipment and machinery.

Integrating for Increased Productivity

The process plant and power design software market is the third largest design
software market in the world with annual sales of software and services
forecasted at $479 million worldwide in 2003, according to Daratech, Inc. AVEVA
and Autodesk will work closely together in development, marketing, and sales to
bring this combination of best of breed technologies to this market.

"This is a monumental event for the process plant engineering IT industry as a
whole," said Richard Longdon, CEO, AVEVA Group. "As the leaders in data-centric
plant design technology, we are extremely excited about an alliance with the
leaders in drawing-centric design technology. The cooperation between the best
of each world brings a new level of productivity to every aspect of the plant
design industry. We look forward to sharing this productivity with our
customers."

"Autodesk is committed to rounding out its solution offerings in the process and
energy industries," said John Sanders, vice president of Autodesk's Platform
Technology Division. "Together with AVEVA, we are able to expand our reach,
offering a complete design solution for medium and large process plant
engineering and distributed design teams who are working on complex projects."


About PDMS

VANTAGE Plant Design Management System (PDMS) is a data centric,
multi-disciplinary solution for 3D process plant design featuring applications
and reference data for every engineering discipline. It differs from the
conventional 3D design approach in not requiring a drawing engine, but producing
graphics from a single, coherent data model of the entire plant. First launched
in 1976, PDMS's architecture was designed to evolve. It has been delivered on
many leading operating systems - the current release represents the very latest
design and business technology and complete compatibility with previous
versions.

About AVEVA Group plc

AVEVA Group plc is one of the world's leading lifecycle engineering IT solutions
and services providers to the process and power industries. Formerly known as
Cadcentre, the group has a history of groundbreaking engineering IT innovation
that spans five decades. It is one of the world's fastest growing solutions
providers and the founder of most of today's empirical engineering IT practices.

AVEVA Group plc operates globally through three divisions: AVEVA Consulting,
AVEVA Managed Services and AVEVA Engineering IT. A fourth division, AVEVA
Solutions, is responsible for product development. The group's technology has
been integral to the engineering process of industrial plants with a value in
excess of US$500 billion for more than 800 clients across the globe, including
leading plant owner/operators and engineering contractors such as 3M, Aker
Kvaerner, ALSTOM Power, BASF, DSME, Du Pont, Electricite de France, Foster
Wheeler, Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, KBR, Uhde, Merck, Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Petronas Carigali, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Shell.

About Autodesk

Autodesk is the world's leading design software and digital content company,
offering customers progressive business solutions through powerful technology
products and services. Autodesk helps customers in the building, manufacturing,
infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields increase the
value of their digital design data and improve efficiencies across their entire
project lifecycle management processes.


Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor are registered trademarks of Autodesk,
Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names,
or trademarks belong to their respective holders. (c) 2003 Autodesk, Inc. All
rights reserved.

Occasionally, Autodesk makes statements regarding planned or future development
efforts for our existing or new products and services.  These statements are not
intended to be a promise or guarantee of future delivery of products, services,
or features but merely reflect our current plans, which may change. The Company
assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect any
change in circumstances, after the statements are made.







                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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