CONTACT Software
CONTACT Software is a Bremen-headquartered German PLM vendor founded in 1990 by Karl Heinz Zachries. Its Elements platform targets the German Mittelstand (mid-sized engineering manufacturers) with PLM, CAD data management, and project workflow capabilities, deliberately positioned to be lighter and more integration-friendly than Teamcenter, Windchill, or 3DEXPERIENCE. CONTACT is one of the few European-headquartered PLM vendors that survived consolidation and stayed independent.
Why it matters
CONTACT is the existence proof that the European Mittelstand is a distinct PLM market — not a smaller version of the OEM market. Its survival across three decades of Big-3 expansion shows that mid-sized manufacturers are willing to pay for PLM that they can integrate themselves rather than buy a stack from a vendor that will own their IT roadmap. Every modern "fit-for-purpose PLM" pitch is downstream of the argument CONTACT has been making since 1990.
Related concepts
External References
This term appears in
Cite this definition
Finocchiaro, Michael. “CONTACT Software.” DemystifyingPLM PLM Glossary, 2026, https://www.demystifyingplm.com/glossary/contact-software