Comments on: Implementing PLM requires a vision

By: Anubhav

Anubhav — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 11:46:08 +0000

http://infosysblogs.com/oracle/2008/12/need_for_expansion_of_product.html#more

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:39:18 +0000

You must be kidding. Reading this post makes me feel like you are saying “your target customer” is stupid. Is this what you are saying?

To say a mid-market company does not innovate is nothing but crazy. In order for a mid-market company to exist they had to innovate something, and to survive they must continue this process. Those in politics understand this and use this to fuel the economy. Lack of innovation cannot be tagged to any one type of company, but you need to wonder if this is part of the US auto mess. I would say these guys are in trouble partly due to a fear of change (which is another word for innovation).

Maybe the problem with your customers is they just don’t value what you are pitching…

Chris I am not saying mid-market companies are stupid. What I am trying to say many of the customers I am working with – and most of them are in West-Europe – often have a long history and they exist because they have a core product or technology that they really understand since 100 years. Maybe this is different in the US – i cannot judge this.

Inside these companies you see the whole battle between conservatism (we always did it this way – therefore we are successful this way) and opportunities to change. For me innovation has a strong correlation with change.
For me the US auto mess is not because the mid-market does not innovate – it is about the OEMs that work like dinosaurs disconnected from the reality or too slow to react.
I am touching this briefly in my latest post.

Jos

By: Hari Koduru

Hari Koduru — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:04:42 +0000

Jos,

How are you..Hope you are doing great. It was a very good article. I agree with all your points. I have also been thinking about these points since past few months. My thoughts are:

1. I believe that mid-market companies don’t innovate as much as the big enterprises do, this makes them think that, PLM is not for them. In fact supporting innovation is only some portion of the whole PLM which they need to understand.

2. Secondly, I believe the market needs to understand clearly that, PLM is complementary to ERP system. While ERP is a transactional system which is at the end of the process, PLM is its supporting structure that feeds into it. If ERP is the back-bone of a corporation, PLM is the meat. None of the ERP system address the whole spectrum of the inter-process mechanisms starting from “Project / Program Managemet”, Finance, Life-Cycle Process Management, Life-Cycle Data Management, Corporate/Industry Process Management (FAA, Hazmat, Auditing etc..), Production and finally colloboration in a systematic approach. ERP addresses major business processes, PLM takes them along with the core value of the company which is their product.

3. Thirdly, I believe one of the reasons for this behavior is that there has been years of research in the Universities/Corporations all over the world on the main-stream process of a Company (General Mgmt, Finance, Sales, Support / Maintenance, HR , SRM, CRM etc etc)..But, the companies need to be understand that, PLM brings a clear value which focuses on their product which is their core of the business and brings in all their main-stream process together and this generates tremendous value to the whole company.

4. Finally, I also believe that, because of this vast spectrum of the PLM, it is always very hard to decide on which business process a company should focus on first to realize the quick ROI of PLM Implementation. Never the less packaging of the PLM solution is also a great challenge for PLM vendors because of vast variety of practices in the industry in general. This continues to my point above.

By: Yann

Yann — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:10:20 +0000

Mr Virtualduchman,
Thank you for all your articles reading them is always a great pleasure. However I do not share with you the conclusion you do based on your very interesting observation.
I have started to comment directly on this page but since my comment start to be longer than expected I have decided to move it else where :
http://yml-blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-if-smb-as-vision-for-plm-and-plm.html

This is not a rant against you but rather a different explanation of your observation.
Yann

By: josvoskuil

josvoskuil — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:01:11 +0000

Oleg I am not so sure SMB customers won’t invest in vision. It depends on what the critical mass of companies believes and does to survive.

Interesting around this topic was the article i found today:

http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=17902

not sure if it was based on recent research

By: josvoskuil

josvoskuil — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:56:36 +0000

Brian, for sure Sharepoint narrows the gap between ‘classical’ PLM and basic content management. From acceptance point of view mid-market companies might feel attracted to utilize sharepoint based solutions.
Still I consider it like a intermediate solution as the main point I am trying to make is that people should start to work different – cross-departmental. And for that a process change is needed – which might be easier to implement sharepoint based instead of a full PLM system everywhere

By: oleg

oleg — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:57:20 +0000

I don’t see how SMB customers invest in vision. TheyIn my view they invest in two directions: 1/ how to do impossible for their size (it comes on different levels – product, technology etc.; 2/how to implement tools that can do job they need (to develop on time, make new innovative products etc.)

By: Yannis

Yannis — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:19:12 +0000

Jos, I fully agree with this vision, but PLM represent a significant investment and it’s very hard to make those company the interest to invest to be successful in 5 years when they are struggling to close 2008.
On a previous note you were saying that it was a chance to adapt to new stakes of the market, and I agree again.
The real question I think is to help them to build that vision. I think that further that just ask questions, it is our role to assess the real business value and impact of PLM on the company. We need to build / use simple tools to show directly where and how the ROI will be.
I have seen quite a few from DS, MatrixOne, IBM, but none of them is directed specifically to the mid market.

Have a nice day!
Yannis

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:36:42 +0000

Great post, my sentiments exactly. It reminded me of a press release I saw last week: http://tinyurl.com/6kd6ce

“Windchill ProductPoint benefits companies of all sizes, providing smaller companies with an ideal steppingstone into product lifecycle management (PLM) and giving larger companies with a SharePoint strategy the ability to extend their product development system to broader user communities.”

What do you think? Could this bridge the gap?