Good morning, and welcome to 3 d Systems Conference Call and Audio Webcast to discuss the acquisition of Aachen by 3 d Systems. My name is Kevin, and I'll facilitate the audio portion of today's interactive broadcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to John Nipauber, Jr, Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, John.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, and welcome to 3 d Systems conference call. With me on the call Are Doctor. Jeffrey Graves, our President and Chief Executive Officer Jagtar Narula, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Johnson, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer and Doctor. Ben Schrowan, CEO of Oktund.
The webcast portion of this call contains a slide presentation that we will refer to during the call. Those following along on the phone who wish to access the slide portion of this presentation may do so on the Investor Relations section of our website. For those who have accessed the streaming portion of the webcast, please be aware that there may be a few seconds delay and that you will not be able to pose questions via the web. The following discussion and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today only and will include forward looking statements as described on this slide. Actual results may differ materially.
Additional information about factors that could Potentially, in fact, our financial results is included in last night's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10 ks and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q. Now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Jeff Graves, our CEO. Jeff?
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Over the last year, we've discussed in our investor calls the growth in demand for additive manufacturing that we see ahead for our company and for the entire industry. This growth is being driven by customers expanding their use of additive manufacturing, Moving from the laboratory or office environment into full scale factory production settings. While this opportunity is exciting, A headwind is clearly emerging as customers encounter the need for a manufacturing operating system to facilitate this change. Very simply, customers need a way to bring 3 d printers and related finishing, inspection and automation equipment into their factory workflow, Maximizing operating efficiencies, while minimizing disruption to their existing enterprise systems.
Their goal is to create a flexible, highly efficient production capability that can expand and adapt to new technologies in the future, while avoiding the need to abandon their legacy enterprise systems, in which most have made significant investments over many years. Given the size of our customer base, we've heard this story repeatedly across both our healthcare and industrial markets. So how can this need best be addressed? With considerable experience in software development to optimize 3 d printing, We explored all available options, including developing a system ourselves. What we concluded is the software platform developed by Oktin, A company founded in 2017 expressly for this purpose is by far the best position to fill this critical need for our customers And for all participants in the industry.
We'll explain why in a few moments. From a timing perspective, given the strength of our balance sheet and from recent divestitures And our operating performance, we're in a good position to acquire Oktin, support the continued evolution of their platform and make it available to customers and all others across the industry that are working to accelerate the application of additive manufacturing in modern factory production environments. To help you understand the scope of this emerging need in the market, we believe the customers are making this transition of additive manufacturing into production today Our spending over $1,500,000,000 in attempting to adapt their factory ecosystems to accommodate these new manufacturing technologies And that the resulting operational performance is still rife with inefficiencies that must be addressed. We see this demand growing to over $6,000,000,000 by 2025 and the bar rising rapidly for a solution that brings with it much improved performance. We believe Oktend meets these needs in a unique and exceptional manner.
So why are we convinced that Oktend offers the best solution to the need? Oktind is a unique software company founded by experts in the field of manufacturing and AI that has spent the last 4 years developing a cloud based platform It's focused on meeting the requirements our customers have specifically expressed. Their manufacturing operating system links the entire workflow in which additive platforms operate From raw material to finished components, these workflows are specifically tailored to each major market vertical. Using cloud resident AI in combination with machine learning technologies, the process flow is optimized end to end, Maximizing product yield, quality and throughput. This also provides full traceability from raw material through finished components That's essential in many critical applications such as healthcare, aerospace and biotechnology, just to name a few.
In addition to optimizing workflow, 2 additional attributes are critical to a customer success. First, the system must be inclusive and flexible, accommodating not only a mixed fleet of printing systems that often spans metal and polymer technologies, In many cases, from multiple manufacturers, but also integrates post print finishing and automation operations such as heat treatment, cleaning, machining and inspection systems, in some cases facilitated by autonomous robotic systems. This complex mix of operations will evolve over time As new technologies are introduced, making it vital that the system is easily adaptable via plug and play technology interfaces. 2nd, the operating system must interface seamlessly with major ERP, MRP and even CRM legacy systems In order to avoid the need for complete platform overhaul, Oktin meets both of these requirements through the use of APIs the system developers can readily incorporate. In short, the Oktin platform is easy to introduce into a factory ecosystem and it brings immediate connectivity to a full range Manufacturing operations on the shop floor that are essential to the introduction of metal and polymer additive manufacturing processes.
Oktind's approach to the market is very similar to the one we've taken to 3 d Systems over the last year, namely a market vertical approach. In other words, they tailor the workflow to a specific market vertical, such as dentistry or aerospace, and then adapt it as needed for individual customers within those markets. This brings a level of customization that's very attractive to end users, while retaining the commonality need to apply AI tools broadly for process optimization. As a final component, under our ownership, Oktind will continue to operate as an independent platform, Separate from the rest of the company, with secure data systems that ensure not only customer confidentiality, but also confidentiality among all of the various manufacturing systems that This includes 3 d printing systems, post process and finishing operations, inspection and automation systems. To ensure transparency for Oktind's customers and partners, an independent third party will continue to regularly verify That Oktind data is maintained separate and secure just as it is today.
We view this as an essential element for success. To talk further about Oktind's background and capabilities, Doctor. Ben Schwan, CEO of Oktind has joined us on the call this morning, and I'd like to now turn it over to him. Ben, it's great to have you with us.
Thank you, Jeff. I'm really excited to be here. Hello and good morning, everyone. I'm the Co Founder and CEO of Okton. Before I talk about OCTAN, I would just like to give a little background about myself.
I've been involved in the topic of machine learning and applying it to smart manufacturing for many years. After co founding and successfully selling a machine learning company in the late 2000s, I became a researcher and professor in machine learning and robotics at Ghent University From there, I joined Autodesk to manage their advanced manufacturing initiatives. It is in this background of machine learning and advanced manufacturing that really led to the launch of Oktind. When we started Oktind in 2017, it was really to create a Software platform to help manufacturing companies of all sizes through this period of massive disruption. Products need to be brought to market more quickly, leveraging ever more advanced manufacturing processes in smaller batch sizes and this anywhere in the world.
With this in mind, we assembled a global team of the best cloud machine learning robotics and manufacturing experts to create what we call a manufacturing operating system. This is a new breed of manufacturing software that integrates with existing business systems through open APIs, connects all the machines and operator workflows and allows the closed loop and integrated control of the complete production environment. For the 1st 3 years of the company, we were only engineers and worked closely with some select partners and early customers to develop this unique software solution. We released it to the market early 2021 and are currently focused on the healthcare, industrial and welding industry verticals with additional verticals to come as we expand our solution. Oktend combines capabilities of product lifecycle management, manufacturing execution systems, Internet of Things and quality management into a singular and easy to deploy cloud solution that offers full digital threat 3 stability and enables the use of machine learning to automate many aspects of manufacturing engineering.
It integrates with existing business systems Through open APIs, connects all machines and operator workflows and allows this closed loop control. Okton uses a hybrid cloud solution with a managed On premise component and is SOC 2 certified, offering the highest levels of security and availability required by our customers. Okton works for different production technologies such as polymer and metal 3 d printing, CNC machining, inspection and robotic welding. It manages the complete production process including any type of post processing and can be used in hybrid manufacturing scenarios where for example 3 d printing and CNC machining is combined. Oktane manages the complete end to end manufacturing process from capturing customer orders to quoting, design, build preparation, scheduling, Tracking and quality control across any process or technology.
Furthermore, we are uniquely able to offer AI based automation and assistance Across this complete workflow, AI is often talked about as a solution for managing complex and dynamic production environments, Such as with additive manufacturing, however, we know from our experience that AI is usually quite difficult to set up and apply. However, Oktane has taken an industry vertical approach and we can actually create pre trained AI models for specific industry verticals such as healthcare, Industrial and Welding and because our system is cloud based, we are able to continuously improve the AI algorithms based on how our customers use the software. This approach is really advanced, but actually proven. For example, it is very similar to how Tesla self driving cars keep getting better over time. We are bringing this advanced AI and machine learning capability now to the manufacturing environment.
Because AI is a bit of a buzzword, You might wonder what it actually means for Oktane. Let me expand a bit more on this. There are 3 main areas where we apply AI in our software. First, we use geometry based deep learning trained for very specific verticals to automate the coding and build preparation. In dental, for example, we can fully automate the build preparation of thousands of parts a day, significantly cutting costs for our customers.
Secondly, we use AI optimization technology to globally and dynamically optimize the planning and all the way up to 75%, dramatically improving a customer's return on investment. Finally, by integrating deeply with the production machines Through IoT and tracking all of the operator work through the manufacturing execution system, we're able to detect process issues and feedback this information to really create like this closed loop ensuring we keep continuously improving the decisions we make. Okton is currently used by over 60 customers globally, ranging from small dental labs to some of the largest OEMs and we are actively engaged with over 100 We have seen good market response to our solution and believe given what we hear from our customers and prospects That we have a truly unique proposition where AI can be leveraged to transform their businesses. Feel free to check out our website, okton.com, for case studies and some really nice overview videos. We built Okton to help organizations optimize their entire digital manufacturing environment.
As a result from the start, Okton was created to be brand neutral and we have partnerships with many different OEMs. This allows our customers to optimize their manufacturing environment irrespective of process or brand of the machines that they are leveraging. We intend to preserve this approach and continue to serve all our customers. To further enable this, 3 d Systems and Oktane have agreed to keep Oktane as a separate organization with a clearly defined and externally audited data firewall between the companies. As I end my comments, I would like to mention that I'm We're very excited to be part of the 3 d Systems team.
I believe that we found a great partner to help us grow our business. 3 d Systems is a pioneer in additive Additive Manufacturing have made it their mission for years to help organizations transition to true additive manufacturing. I'm excited by many of the resources that 3 d Systems brings us, that include their financial resources, but also their scale and expertise. There are thousands of customers around the world, many of whom use additive manufacturing for production parts. They have specific capabilities in helping customers design workflows and Their experience in additive manufacturing combined with our capabilities in cloud software, artificial intelligence and machine learning We'll create an organization that is able to help the whole of the additive manufacturing industry.
I believe that through this acquisition, we can accelerate our mission and significantly Now I'll hand it back to Jeff.
Thanks, Ben. And again, it's great to have you and your team join us at this Exciting time for our company and for the entire industry. Before handing off to JAGTAR to discuss more about the transaction itself, I'd like to comment on our existing software platforms and plans for the future. As you know, for many years, 3 d Systems has invested in software for Design optimization, print preparation, process simulation and component inspection, all centered around 3 d printing process itself. We believe that today we have arguably the best of breed platforms in many of these areas and are continuing to invest heavily in them.
Moving forward in conjunction with the Optune acquisition, we've made the strategic decision to open these software platforms, making them available to the entire additive manufacturing industry in a secure cloud based format. These include our leading brands such as 3dXpert, 3dsprints, the GeoMagick portfolio and AdditiveWorks' Amphion. We believe that making these platforms available broadly to the industry We'll further accelerate the adoption of production scale additive manufacturing across the entire marketplace. With that, I'll now turn it over to Jack Turner to discuss the financials.
Thanks, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. The combination of 3 d Systems and Oktane puts us in the unique position of providing our industry leading Additive manufacturing solutions to customers and with the addition of Oktin, a software solution that ties together all facets of a customer's production cycle. We are truly excited about this opportunity and believe this acquisition can drive 3 d Systems revenue run rate from software to $100,000,000 by the end of 2025. The purchase price of this acquisition is $180,000,000 $106,000,000 will be paid in cash, the remaining portion in 3 d Systems stock.
The transaction is subject to regulatory review and is expected to close in the Q4. After several years of development, Oktin has recently launched this product and is now ramping revenue. As a result, it is Expected to have minimal revenue impact in the current year. Prior to acquisition, Oktind's cost run rate has been approximately $3,000,000 per quarter. We expect this cost run rate to continue at current levels for the near term, excluding stock compensation and intangible amortization.
Now back to Jeff for final comments.
Thanks, Jektar. As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, the availability of the Oktane MOS We'll address a critical industry need by optimizing customers' use of 3 d printing and other advanced manufacturing technologies, Including collaborative robotics, machining, finishing and inspection operations in full production environments. This acquisition emphasizes our commitment to transform digital manufacturing and accelerate the adoption of Additive. I'm excited to welcome Ben and the entire Oktind team to We'll now take your questions. Kevin, let's open
it up for Q and A.
Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. One moment please while we poll for questions. Our first question today is coming from Sarkis Sherbetchyan from B. Riley Securities.
Your line is now live.
Hey, good morning and thank you for taking my question here.
Sure, Sarkis. Good morning. Good morning, Sarkis.
Yes. So look, it seems like an extremely interesting acquisition. When we look at the divestitures you did, I think The 3 d Systems on a pro form a basis was call it $500,000,000 of annualized sales rate and you had a really nice net cash position. So I guess What I'm trying to understand here is given the I suppose requirement for Oktind to be systems agnostic, What does this do to your financial profile? And then more specifically, here in the near term, how do you think this accelerates Your own software stack sales?
So I'd say, sorry, let me just comment on the strategic rationale and then I'll turn it over to Jack Tarr to address your Financial questions more specifically. I can tell you, we're as you guys have seen over the last year and a half, we're laser focused on Advancing additive manufacturing into production environments. That's what we're our mission is every single day. This The acquisition was highly strategic for us because one of the headwinds that was largely out of our control was the current state of the Production environments for many customers and how they were struggling to integrate 3 d printing into their overall workflow. And it varied by market vertical, but very difficult challenge.
And as we looked around, whatever stands between us and advancing 3 d We want to take on a knockdown and there was no doubt the Oktend platform was uniquely positioned to solve this problem And to solve it not only for 3 d Systems, obviously, but for the entire industry. We think it will be extremely well received by our customer base. It solves a big problem for them And it will advance the entire industry and clearly us along with it, as customers adopt the platform. So we're really excited about it. We decided to go ahead and open up our legacy software systems and we continue to invest a great deal in those And view many of them as best of breed out there.
And we've debated for several years about How accessible to make those to other folks in the field and with following the same philosophy, we said if we open those, it should advance the industry as a whole more quickly And obviously, it'd be a benefit to us as well. So we've decided to include those as optional add ons with the Oktane system. And for those that would like to use it and we believe many will. So we're excited about the demand profile we see out there. As we said, customers are spending over $1,500,000,000 by our estimates today, trying to solve this problem in really very cumbersome ways.
And I think to get the most out of their printers and the modern factory environment, this tool will be extremely useful. This platform will. And then as you look at other additive platforms, I think our legacy software, if you will, will be quite beneficial to those as well. So So we're excited about the demand profile. We're excited about how that will translate into revenue and earnings for us as well over time, but we're equally excited about it for the entire industry.
So Jack, do you want to add
any further comments? Yes. So Sarkis, I'll comment on your financial question. So as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, We expect the software business within 3 d Systems to grow to $100,000,000 revenue run rate by 2025. We're a fraction of that today.
So we're obviously expecting strong growth from our software strategy. I'd Point out that it's a high margin revenue stream. We'd expect Oktind, for example, to operate at typical Cloud software type gross margins. I talked a little bit about the $3,000,000 current cost run rate. We'd expect that to extend modestly over time as we build out our go to market infrastructure.
But over the next couple of years, we'll The gross profit crossover the expense line and we should have kind of very nice Profitability build from the software strategy. So we're excited about this.
Okay, Jack. I want to kind of focus in a little bit more on that angle. If I look at typical cloud software companies, assuming a SaaS type model, you can typically get gross In the north of 80% range call it. And as far as that's concerned, running Optin, I suppose independently, is there an impediment to getting to those margin levels or maybe on the net Profit line, is this business going to run a little bit kind of more constrained versus a typical cloud based software company? Any help you can give there?
Yes. No, we would expect the gross margin line, there's no constraint that would prevent this From operating at a typical cloud software type gross margin, gross margin rates that you talked about. From the operating line, we'll be investing in the business. We intend we will be able to capture synergies to some extent from the back office, HR, IT, finance, etcetera. So we do expect margins to build quite nicely on this over time.
Yes, we'll synergies that we get, we will work through it over time and we will invest additionally in the business. But we do expect good EBITDA margins to build over time.
Thank you. I'll hop back in the queue.
Thanks, Tarek.
Thank you. Next question today is coming from Greg Palm from Craig Hallum Capital Group. Your line is now live.
Yes, thanks. Good morning, everyone. This is Really a question for Ben. I'm not sure if he'll answer this. Feel free or anybody else, but it seems like this is such a good opportunity, hot Base, really high valuations, I guess, why sell now?
And maybe a better question, what does You went into it a little bit, but what does 3 d Systems bring to the table that maybe you couldn't do yourself or maybe relative to some of the other peers in the space?
Yes. Great question. So the what's most exciting about this partnership is the very strong software products That 3 d system already has like both on simulation, build preparation is really some of the best in the market. They're really the expert tools That people can use locally on their desktop, combining that with our very automated cloud solution is exactly what our customers were asking for. So for us, it's like that level of synergy like literally like pushes us like Forward by a couple of years, if we would have to develop all of that ourselves.
Furthermore, like 3 d Systems is the number 1 in the 3 d printing space. They've been around like they basically invented the industry. They have an incredible customer base that will again allow us To accelerate really rapidly, so no, like it's for us, this is like what not like Like a dream acquisition where the synergies are really allowing us to accelerate to get to the vision that we have Even more quickly, so super exciting.
Thanks for the nice comments, Ben. I would echo that. Greg, I would tell you, it's The imperative from our side was based on what we were hearing from our customers everywhere. I mean that people are really excited about bringing 3 d printing into the factory And getting it into production. The reality is that introducing it into their ecosystem was really hard.
And they were managing a lot of spreadsheets, both from scheduling and operations standpoint. And so when we looked at the Optin solution, we So these guys solve that problem for the customers that we're addressing all over the world. And it's a drop in solution, not that there isn't more work to do by vertical, but It's a drop in solution conceptually that really leapfrogs to not only solving an immediate problem, but it sets customers up for Flexibility and adaptability in the future. Reality, Greg, is our customers, yes, we're very proud of our printer sales. They buy a lot of our printers.
But in reality, as this thing expands in the factory, they're buying printers from a number of manufacturers. And they're doing both polymer and metal printing From a number of manufacturers, so customers want a flexible adaptable system that can incorporate that. And of course, we'd like to We like to sell as many printers as we can and support them with materials technologies we're very proud of. But in general, There was a barrier to basically everyone in the industry advancing more quickly into production. And so it solves a problem for us.
It solves problem, I believe for the entire industry and it's a really good match technically. So we've been very thoughtful in how We're going to work with Oktin. We're going to maintain them as an independent platform for the benefit of the entire industry and go to great pains to make sure Customers and partners within the software are comfortable with the data security and management. That's accomplished in many other industries today. And we think their model is going to be very, very successful in addressing a problem we all face right now.
Great. Appreciate that color. Maybe just last one, wanted to follow-up on a previous Question. So, Jack Tar, you talked about some very nice profitability build over time. The math obviously implies A modest amount of dilution at least this year.
At what point do you think that this hits breakeven and even flips to Do you have a timeline in mind or is it just too early at this point?
It's a little early. I mean, a rough timeline would be over 24 months, But it's a little early for we'll have to see how the next few quarters go.
Fair enough. All right. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, Greg.
Thank you. Next question today is coming from Wamsi Mohan from Bank of America. Your line is now live.
Yes, thank you.
I wanted to just Follow-up on sort of
just the decision on owning Oktin versus partnering. I mean a lot of your PR3D companies are partnering with Oktin. It seems as though you're going to keep that structure very much Intact, so that is a plus for the industry. But why is it, Jeff, that you wouldn't Partner with them, I mean you are putting significant amount of capital over here in this investment. I understand that You see this as something that could accelerate your software revenues over time.
But I'm just curious like when you look at the calculus of achieving $100,000,000 in software sales by 2025, How different would that have been had you partnered with Oktin versus actually buying the asset?
I think, Wamsi, the synergies this brings from a knowledge standpoint are really very strong. Obviously, you state the obvious is and we consider this in any partnership. We have a lot of different partnerships In materials and other technology areas, that work very well. This is a partnership where with the AI knowledge That Oktend brings to the table, we can certainly leverage that just basic knowledge into our software platforms. We can leverage their use of the cloud into our software platforms, again, making them available not only for our traditional customers, But for the rest of the industry, very effectively, it's hard to get those kind of technical synergies, when you're so when you're completely separate companies.
At the same time, it's a balance because we want folks, customers and partners to be comfortable using the Oktend platform from a data security standpoint. So we are going to maintain them as an independent platform. But from a I think from a technical synergy standpoint, it can be very beneficial to us and also to the Oktin folks And in terms of the knowledge we bring around additive manufacturing. Ben, would you have any other thoughts on that?
Yes. I think also one of the The most benefits can be gained with the Okton platform if there is extremely deep integration with the machines and the That's where the AI and automation we can offer really starts to shine. And I think being part of 3 d Systems will really allow them to, Doing the most deep way integrated with our platform offering really like the machine experience of the future. That's what we really see. Every time when software and hardware really comes together very closely is when you can Drive processes and capabilities that were never feasible before.
And I think through this acquisition, this is something that is now Much more easily achieved by 3 d Systems.
So that's at the heart of it, Wamsi. Think that will advance the Oktin platform, it will advance certainly advance our software platforms more readily. And then by opening our software platforms up to the entire industry, it spreads that benefit across many others. So basically anyone that would like to use it. So I think it's a win not only for us and for Oktind but for the entire industry.
Okay, thanks. And if I could just follow-up on that. When I think about all the comments that you made regarding what the revenues potentially could be Next year on the cost structure, which is helpful to understand. It seems like I'm ending up at roughly a mid-thirty percent growth rate 1st offer for 3 d Systems CAGR to get to your $100,000,000 by 'twenty exiting 2025, is that about right?
That's about right, Wamsi.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Wamsi. Thanks for the questions.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Jim Ricchiuti from Needham and Company. Your line is now live.
Hi, good morning. Thanks. Most of my questions were answered. I was just wondering if you can spend a little bit of time Talking about the Oktane business as it relates to polymer versus metals, do you have more exposure in one market versus the other and wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit more on that. Thanks.
Well, I'll offer a comment and then, Ben, maybe you want to follow-up here as well. But no, I think, Jim, the simple answer is no. It's very well distributed between metal and polymer solutions. And clearly, our historic software is in both areas. And I think the Oktin platform works extremely well with both basic technologies, Polymer and Metals.
And the nice thing, Jim, is the post processing operations for those two technologies can be much different. And the Oktin platform with its flexibility will allow folks customers to incorporate the post print finishing operations That are specific to the components they want to make. So if they're polymer based, cleaning operations and other prep operations, If they're metal based, some of the metal finishing operations, machining, cleaning, all of that, plus inspection technologies, which again can vary by Basic technology type. So this flexibility, this platform allows you to not only adjust it to both printing technologies, polymer and metals, But also incorporate an endless variety of post print processing. And that mix can change over time.
So we have many Customers that start with polymers and they're running down that path, but their fastest growth area is metals now. And they want a system that can Very smoothly adapt from one to the other in a changing mix and Jim from multiple manufacturers, right? We have a market share we're proud of in the industry, but many other folks have good market shares as well with different specific technologies. The Optum platform can incorporate all of them in an ever changing mix. So Ben, anything to add to that?
So maybe a bit more technically, but for example, in polymers, a big cost driver for polymer parts is the engineering work required To do
the build preparation of the parts before they go to the printer. That like in the polymer use case, Okton's AI automation can really drive down The cost of that initial like engineering work to get to actually print parts, where in metal use like in metal scenarios, The number one issue we hear again and again is about traceability, really being able to fully track End to end everything from which powder batch, operator training, which machine was used, machine calibration, all of that is super critical to be able to deliver parts with the quality And that's really what our customers love about it. It's like a one piece of software that really solves all these problems for them. So that's how it looks.
Jim, just one final comment. That's the view from the shop floor is exactly has been described. You've got this host Desperit Technologies you're linking together. And then there's the other end of the equation that you're trying to link into an overarching or CRM platform, an ERP platform that customers have often invested tens of 1,000,000 of dollars in already. They want a system that can plug into those overarching systems and not require a lot of reinvestment on their part.
So that's the other half of the beauty of the Oktin platform is it's easy for customers to integrate and it plugs in really nicely to their factory floor and can evolve over time. So anyway, long answer to your simple question, Jim, but yes, it can do polymers and metals.
No, that's helpful. And I'm just wondering as you open up, Jeff, your other legacy software business and the combination with Oktind, how do we think about the go to market Good initiatives for this business. I wonder if you could elaborate on how you see that, whether investments have to be made in building The sales marketing organization and whatnot?
Well, there's no doubt. Oktin will get bigger over time. So the investment in Oktins Sales force and sales support has to continue over time because they'll have a direct path to the customer base and to other partners Around the world that we use the platform. In terms of our own and our historical software investment, we have not built out A large sales team, this gives us a very nice way to bring our software to market as optional add ons to the Oktin platform. We will have some dedicated resources that will also work directly with other 3 d printing manufacturers if they want to License the technology.
So we'll have a modest cost there, Jim. But I think leveraging what Oktin is doing and using our platform As basically optional bolt ons to the Oktin platform will also be a really nice channel to market.
Got it. Thank you. Congrats by
the way to both of you.
Thanks, Jim.
Thank you. Next question today is coming from Noelle Dilts from Stifel. Your line
Hi, thanks. My question actually ties into the question that Jim just asked around Opening up your legacy software. So I'm just curious if there have been any sort of changes that you've made to the software or that you anticipate making as You open up that software to the industry. And second, if you could kind of speak 2, as you look forward over the next 5 years and think about the entire software platform, what you like that to look like And sort of what you envision the offering to the industry to what sector or targeting to bring to the industry in terms of that holistic offering? That would be great.
Thanks.
Yes, there's a lot in that question, Noelle. So And to answer your first question, let me go back to what your first question was in that. In terms of how our software will evolve now, I think the Oktin expertise in both Cloud hosting, cloud resident software applications and AI will continue to make Our traditional legacy systems better and better over time. I think the knowledge and expertise these guys bring to the table is absolutely outstanding. So I think Our legacy software systems will become easier to use.
I think their raw capability today is outstanding in many cases. And we've not made that capability available to other people. And so now we will open that up. I think the basic capability people will find outstanding, The ease of use and its integration with cloud based AI will become better and better over time. So that's an answer to your first question.
What does our portfolio look like over time? I think we're taking a very flexible approach on where we can really add value. As Ben mentioned, some of our current systems before the Oktind acquisition have been really good build prep Systems, we have our 3d expert system for metal printing, we think it is the best in the world. And some of the GeoMagick software, Which really spans a number of operations around additive, including inspection and control at the end of the printing operation. Those will undoubtedly continue to evolve.
Where we can add unique value with our 3 d printing software, we'll continue to do that. Where we can leverage other software platforms out in the world, that's great. We'll do that as well. But I think we'll have a core range of platforms That are really valuable to the industry. And then you've got on top of that, you've got the Oktin platform, which will help move All additive manufacturing into production much more readily for our customers.
So that's probably not specific as you'd like to hear it, But it will be an evolving strategy for us, Knoll.
Okay, great. Thank you. No, I appreciate that. That's it for me.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. We reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.
Thank you, Kevin. And I want to thank everyone for joining us today for your continued support of 3 d Systems. A replay of this webcast will be available after the call on the Investor Relations section of our website. Have a good day.
Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.