According to Alexie Gurevich, IBM marketing representative, there are now more than 100 operational installations of CATIA, IBM’s CAD/CAM system, at Russian enterprises. IBM started the distribution of CATIA system in 1992. The cost of one CATIA workstation is $50,000 to $80,000. The main sites are now AvtoVAZ, Togliatti, and Gorkovskij Automobile Plant, Nizhnij Novgorod, the aviation enterprise Saratovskij Aviatsionnyj Zavod, in Saratov; and IBM business partner SEPT has also bought two CATIA systems. Gurevich says a contract with another company for 14 CATIA systems was signed last month and installation was due in November. These should be operational by the year end. CATIA is a three-dimension computer-aided design system developed by Dassault Systems SA, France, initially for aerospace applications.
