The academic conclusion on ‘Who decides for PLM in a mid-market company’

I realized that time is flying when you are busy, and I promised to publish the conclusion from my previous post: More on who decides for plm in a mid market company. In my two previous posts, I described the difficulties companies have to select the right PLM system. So far I discussed the two extremes, the silent approach where a possible bottom up approach was discussed and as the opposite where an ‘academical’ approach was followed.

Now it is time to get the answers on the academical approach.

These were the questions to be answered in the previous post:

• How much time has passed since the management decided PLM was good for their organization?
• How independent is the consultancy firm?
• Did they consider open source PLM as a solution?
• What was the ranking of the PLM vendors?

How much time has passed since the management decided PLM was good for their organization?

The whole process of selecting a PLM system often takes more than one or two years, starting from the first activities till the final conclusion to start. I believe this is unavoidable, as especially in mid-market companies the business values that PLM can bring are not always discussed and realized on the strategic level.

However, I believe the recent years PLM has been recognized by analysts, by software vendors and many young companies as a necessity for innovation and in the long term remaining competitive.  And this is not only in the classical domains where PLM started – automotive / aero / industrial equipment.  PLM value is everywhere in different industries, even apparel for example.

For companies that are now in the decision process, I believe 2009 and early 2010 are the years to decide, because a recovery of the economy might put back the focus on execution and not on strategy and they might miss the management focus for PLM. And as I wrote in a previous post, companies who made the best pit stop will benefit upmost.

For companies still in doubt:  It is now or never

How independent is the consultancy firm?

It is clear that real independent consultancy firms do not exist – even if a consultant wants to be independent, there are three challenges to meet:

• How can a consultant evaluate or judge PLM systems they have not seen?
• How much experience does the consultant have in your business?
• How much work is there required in the project for the consultant?

As you can imagine, reviewing the above challenges, you will realize that consultants usually specialize in systems, where their expertise it required – as they also want to make a living.  Consultants cannot afford to be an academic institute, as coming back to the previous point, all consultancy work at the end will be paid by the customer.

So to conclude on this point, if you want to be cost-effective, a company should do already a pre-selection based on systems and possible implementation partners, that fit naturally to their type of business and then evaluate how consultancy can be achieved.

What you will find out is that the major ‘expensive’ packages have loads of consultants to offer en the more and more you go into a mid-market environment, consultants become rare. For software from PLM vendors you will usually find a reseller network with people close to your offices that can support you. For Open Source software you will need to find the consultancy services through their software delivery program.

Anyway remember: 50 % of the success of a PLM implementation is based on the right implementation approach and partner not on the PLM functions and features.

Did they consider open source PLM as a solution?

No, because the consultant was not familiar with it, and discouraged the company to look at it. In general Open Source PLM, like PLM On-Demand are interesting trends to follow and should not be neglected.  However the focus and approach for this type of solutions is different. I will not generalize at this moment as also I have no clear picture where Open Source PLM or PLM on Demand would be a big differentiator. I will try to evaluate and report it in future posts.

Comments from Open Source PLM Vendors or On Demand PLM Vendors are welcome to complete the PLM selection approach.

What was the ranking of the PLM vendors?

Ranking was done by the management, the selection team and the design department. These were the results plus their major comment:

Management

1. The slide show PLM provider – they liked the business pitch

2. The CAD supplier with PLM features and gadgets – good guys – we know them

3. The PLM provider who showed everything – too much handling of data – too complex

Selection Team

1. The PLM Provider who showed everything – they really did it

2. The CAD supplier with PLM features and gadgets– we understand where they are going

3. The slide show PLM provider – do they really have a solution?

The Designers

1. The CAD supplier with PLM features and gadgets– he knows what we want

2. The slide show PLM provider– could be a good solution too

3. The PLM Provider who showed everything – too complex, it will limit our productivity

As the management had the final vote, they decided for the slide show PLM Provider, as they felt most comfortable with them.

The reason to drop the CAD supplier was that they were too afraid this provider does not know all about PLM. Both management and users felt the PLM provider that showed everything was too complex, this opposite to the project team where the members were very familiar with PLM capabilities after two years investigation and many demos and trade shows.

Conclusion: Selecting PLM, even in an academical manner is a subjective process. As in general the customer does not exactly knows what he needs and often the PLM provider shows too much in detail, the real journey starts at implementation time. And in this stage you need an experienced implementation partner who can match and communicate the expectations