Get Savvy about PLM

All PLM systems are not created equal. When we work with our customers to select a PLM system we evaluate the entire business situation not just the engineering department. Too often PLM is viewed as an engineering system only and yet in every case we’ve seen it put in place successfully, PLM rapidly outgrows the engineering department and becomes an enterprise wide, process changing, paradigm shifting, productivity enhancing system. Manufacturing users of PLM often exceed the engineering users, and Field Service also rapidly jumps on board to get proper information on the products they service.

The irony is that all too often, PLM selections are made in the shadow of a CAD selection, being viewed only as a means to handle CAD vaulting. This is a waste and will result in less than optimal use of the PLM system. In addition, it means that the system selection for PLM is driven by CAD and not by a systematic business benefits, enterprise wide justification, and then executives percieve that they have a “qualified” system and ignore the fact that key process needs are not met by the system.

In my opinion - these types of selections are as poorly advised as selecting your PLM solution based upon your ERP system. In both cases the PLM solution has not been selected to meet your full business needs but has been selected as a “default” decision.

Copyright 2007 - All rights reserved LHirr

Okay - I’ve been biting my tongue long enough regarding the shifting sands of the PLM space. The past year has seen massive movement among the players and the question is not really how do these deals impact shareholders but how does it affect the longer term delivery by the vendors to the customers.

Here are my personal views of the changes…

Agile-Oracle
I have been up close and personal with Agile customers for years. I service systems that range from Agile 6 to Agile 9 and see the same trends over and over again - users tend to use Agile well - out of the box functionality is great BUT Agile has had ongoing issues regardless of version with system stability and with the responsiveness of the support desk. Every version of Agile has had some sort of workaround for stability that involves “restarting services” 3-5 times per week to keep the systems stable - that has always concerned me. In addition, Agile helpdesk has been notorious for assigning issues to “marketing” or “engineering” which customer after customer has described as a “black hole” from which the issue never gets resolved. The overall product is good - but for these components (stability and support) to remain issues for 6+ years as the most common complaint I encounter is surprising. So my biggest question on behalf of the customers would be - will Oracle do better? I would expect so. Oracle actually can make the connectivity between Agile and Oracle databases work - but will MS SQL be abandoned yet again? I also can’t imagine that Oracle helpdesk can be worse than Agile’s was - so I hold hope but it will take time for everything to shake out.

Siemens - UGS
UGS has been on the auction block many many times over the last 5 years - First the SDRC and UGS pull into EDS, then EDS spin off back to UGS (held by investment companies) and now being bought by Siemens. Like Agile - I’ve been up close and personal there too - but I see a big difference. UGS has maintained a rock solid product consolidation roadmap thru all the changes. Any one who talks to the management at Seimens/UGS will be getting a consistent message that has fundamentally not changed for the past 5 years - a commitment to making the customers succeed and to bringing about the synergy and merging of products. The main problem has been the distractions of change - no matter what - that much change means that cultures have to blend, work things out, settle - and it can’t help but slow things down. It is commendable that the roadmap has been carefully adhered to and that the customers have as a result remained highly loyal.

Dessault - MatrixOne - Connesio - … and what else
MatrixOne had all but disappeared from the PLM market space here in the Pacific Northwest. I maintain relationships with many of the vendors and their folks had vanished - next thing I knew Dessault had picked them up and also not long after picked up Connesio. That was on top of the already mixed up combination of Enovia, SmarTeam and PDMWorks. I honestly haven’t figured out the strategy. Now PDMWorks “Enterprise” is a repacked renamed form of Connesio. The analysts are confused, the customers are confused - which system will become the mainstay? How is scalability intended to be addressed? What is the flavor today? Dessault maintains presence thru it’s offering of Solidworks to the mid-market and leverages that presence to catch the unwary and most needy businesses into PLM solutions that are still partially complete.

What of the others…PTC, Arena, SAP - these haven’t had the acquisitions to deal with so I’ll talk about them next time.

Copyright 2007, All rights reserved - LHirr