CompoSIDE aims to be the leading IT service of choice for experts developing composites applications, enabling them to maximise their creativity and knowledge to deliver exceptional composites projects.

CompoSIDE offers a unique suite of web based engineering and data tools and services that help our clients to reduce costs and time to market for their composites application. We deliver an integrated, end-to-end IT service spanning the entire composites application lifecycle enabling project managers, designers and engineers to develop and deliver exceptional composites solutions.

CompoSIDE meets a market need for engineering and data tools and services that are focused on developing composites applications. The cloud based software has been developed by engineers for engineers. It helps project managers, designers, engineers and architects to create composites solutions faster and more efficiently than has previously been possible. It is the first IT solution of its kind and incorporates many unique features.

There was no single dedicated composites design solution

Organisations trying to find an IT solution that enabled them to develop composites applications had little choice. There was no dedicated composites solution available. Invariably, engineers developed a composites IT solution that was put together with manual linkages from existing off-the-shelf CAD and analysis software and homemade spreadsheets.

The result was complex and inefficient workflows that required multiple inputs – often by cutting and pasting – of the same data. Vital information could get lost when transferring from one system to the next. Companies found they suffered from loss of data, increased liability risk and inconsistent quality. Users spent as much time on how they developed the IT tools and solutions as they did on actually developing their composites solutions.

That’s why in 2010, three composites experts and co-founders, Julien Sellier, Radek Michalik and Rolf Dothagen, who recognised the need for a single dedicated and integrated composites IT solution, developed CompoSIDE.

Inspiration: a solution developed by engineers for engineers

Radek and Julien are joint managing directors of composites business and technology consultancy STRUCTeam. When they founded STRUCTeam in 2010, the team reviewed the market for a suitable IT solution but found nothing that exactly met their needs. The few software packages that were called composites solutions had not been developed by engineers with practical design knowledge and experience. The origins of these software solutions showed because they did not provide STRUCTeam’s engineers with the solutions they needed.

In a former role with a leading global composites materials manufacturer, Radek had already gained experience in developing composites focused IT solutions. Together, Julien and Radek developed a specification of what the ideal composites design software should look like and set out to create it using STRUCTeam’s internal resources.

A visionary new collaborative composites IT solution

According to Julien and Radek’s vision, CompoSIDE was designed to challenge the assumptions of the engineering software market and deliver an innovative, agile and modern solution. The key drivers were innovation, creativity, efficiency, quality and collaboration. The most effective collaboration software is a web based centralised server data based approach. Cloud based solutions are invariably the most efficient and cost effective. As a result, CompoSIDE was developed as a cloud based solution delivered via a web browser.

By 2011, the first project management, materials database, reporting and documentation and design modules were ready for use internally by STRUCTeam’s engineers. During the years that followed, additional modules were developed to meet specific design challenges. These include creating laminate composites structures, designing beams and even specific components that included yacht scantlings and fatigue analysis tools. By 2013, the developers had created the online cloud based version of CompoSIDE, and it was also extensively and successfully tested by STRUCTeam’s engineers on over 100 client projects.

CompoSIDE’s global launch

In November 2014, when CompoSIDE had the full engineer’s toolkit that had been thoroughly tested, its founders decided that it was time to commercially launch the unique solution to the global marketplace. In addition to its unrivalled technical functionality, CompoSIDE offers an innovative subscription model that bills according to metered usage. There are no site or user licences – it allows unlimited users so is uniquely scalable.

Today, CompoSIDE offers project managers, designers, engineers and architects a comprehensive and integrated suite of web based design, engineering, data management and reporting tools for developing market leading composites solutions.