Altair is Named Computer Software Company of the Year and Earns a Gold Stevie® Award at the 2012 American Business Awards(SM) Ceremony

TROY, Mich., Sept. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair, a leading global provider of simulation technology and engineering services, was presented with a Gold Stevie® Award as Company of the Year in Computer Software at the 10^th Annual American Business Awards Sept. 17.

The American Business Awards are the nation's premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. 

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for "crowned," the trophies were presented to winners during a gala banquet on Monday, Sept. 17 at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco.  More than 200 nominees and their guests attended. 

This year, for the first time, The American Business Awards were presented at two awards events: the traditional awards banquet in New York in June, and at a new tech and product awards event in San Francisco.

More than 3,000 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories.

Altair earned the gold award for its achievements throughout 2011. During that period, Altair strengthened its position in the global market through its breadth of offerings and steady growth, with revenues exceeding $200 million – up more than 20 percent from 2010. This growth propelled Altair to the top spot as the world's largest privately held computer-aided engineering (CAE) software development company, largely accelerated by the significance of advanced technology in design, engineering and manufacturing strategies worldwide.

"We are grateful for the exceptional recognition we have received from the American Business Awards," said Jim Scapa, chairman and CEO of Altair. "Altair is a great company in a very highly competitive category, so we are honored to be named the Computer Software Company of the Year. We hope that recognition of our achievements will help us to further realize our vision of radically changing the way organizations design products and make decisions."

Among its notable achievements in 2011, Altair introduced version 11.0 of its popular HyperWorks CAE software and HyperWorks on Demand (HWOD), a high-performance computing (HPC) solution for design innovation in the cloud. HWOD leverages Altair's patented licensing system and provides access to Altair's HyperWorks software and a modern, scalable HPC infrastructure through a secure and efficient Web-based platform. It also opened a high-powered data center to support HWOD customers and manage large-scale high-performance computing jobs.

Altair also unveiled BUSolutions, a collaborative effort between public and private entities to research, develop and commercialize advanced transit bus systems to revitalize public bus transportation. Altair leveraged its systems engineering approach, domain expertise from various industries and technology, including OptiStruct, a finite-element based technology for conceptual design synthesis and structural optimization, to create the world's first series hydraulic hybrid transit bus. The significantly lighter-weight bus boasts fuel economy results 110 percent better than conventional diesel buses and 30 percent better than today's best electric hybrid buses, with lower lifetime ownership costs and no compromises in performance, safety and durability

Stevie Award winners were selected by more than 270 executives nationwide who participated in the judging process this year.

"We're delighted to recognize innovative companies, new products, technical achievements, and technology executives in the ABA's new product and tech awards categories," said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards.  "It's gratifying and inspiring to have received so many remarkable entries for this year's competition."

Details about The American Business Awards and the lists of Stevie Award winners are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba. 

About Altair
Altair Engineering, Inc. empowers client innovation and decision-making through technology that optimizes the analysis, management and visualization of business and engineering information. Privately held, with more than 1,500 employees, Altair has offices throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. With a 26-year track record for high-end software and consulting services for engineering, high-performance computing and enterprise analytics, Altair consistently delivers a competitive advantage to customers in a broad range of industries. To learn more, visit www.altair.com and www.simulatetoinnovate.com.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

SOURCE Altair