questionaire

As promised I would come back to the results of my small questionnaire about PLM for the mid-market. Here are the answers:

 

 

 

 

What is your relation to PLM ?

PLM consultant 51 %
IT specialist 21 %
Interested in PLM related to my work 14
PLM vendor 9 %
Student 5 %

The answers show that the majority of readers are professionals directly involved with PLM, which is of course not strange for my blog. And good to see, the real majority is PLM consultant. At that time when I launched the questionnaire, I was not making a differentiation between independent consultants and PLM supplier specific consultants. And you need them both.

Do you believe PLM has a place in the mid-market?

Yes, it is already happening 57 %
Yes, it is a matter of time and education 38 %
No, mid-market companies do not need PLM 5 %
No, there is no place for a PLM system next to CAD and ERP 0 %

Of course it is a PLM blog, so this explains the 0 % for the last alternative. Also it is clear that the readers of this blog believe PLM has a place in the mid-market. Some remarks here were:

  • It depends on product and maturity cycles and on whether this service is provided by the larger companies who the mid market company is supplying (IT enterprise architect)
  • PLM is a strategy and can be implemented by any tool (Student)

Who should provide PLM functionality in the mid-market

A special PLM provider 72 %
A CAD supplier as extension of their data management 14 %
A system integrator 7 %
An IT supplier, like Microsoft, as part of their architecture 5 %
An ERP supplier as extension of their BOM management 2 %

Good news, we are among PLM friends and believe it must be a PLM provider that will bring the PLM functionality to the market, not a CAD or IT-supplier. System integrators are the majority of the minority here. Some remarks here were:

  • One size doesn’t fit all. A special solution need to be provided (PLM Consultant)
  • For me, the best solutions for mid market involve low-cost of ownership, easy to use and limited but straight forward capabilities. ERP and CAD vendors are far from there from what I can see, but at least they are integrated with one or the other part. Cloud computing solutions would be the best, that could integrate with ERP and CAD would be the best. (PLM Consultant)
  • Any one, who have technical sound knowledge, broad thinking and customized software tools like ERP and CAD (Student)

I would like to see more discussion about:

PLM implementation experiences 44 %
PLM basic principles / best practices 34 %
PLM vendors and their specific coverage 10 %
PLM selection guidelines 8 %
PLM functions and features 5 %

It is clear that readers from this blog want to read PLM related topics vendor independent and I will focus on this the upcoming post about the two major responses: PLM implementation experiences and PLM basic principles and best practices. Some of the other requests were:

  • How PLM can support inter-company collaboration at design time, manufacturing time and operational support time and how service oriented technologies have a role in this, especially when products can now be supported by 3rd party companies (not the OEM). (IT Enterprise Architect)
  • As we have not came to final Point of PLM as it is vast field and will not be, so we will be discussing on different points (student)

 

Conclusion:

So I want to thank all of you who responded to this mini-questionnaire and as we are PLM supporters, I will focus in my upcoming post again on mid-market PLM experiences and practices.

 

This time I will conclude with an anecdote:

Some time ago a Christian PLM Sales professional died (let’s call him Jack) and according to his believe he faced Saint Peter at the gates of Heaven and Hell.
Saint Peter greeted Jack and said: “Jack, With your PLM Sales you have done good and bad things to the world and for that reason, I cannot decide if you should go to Heaven or to Hell. Therefore I allow you to make the choice yourself”.


Jack replied: “But Saint Peter, how can I make such an important decision for the rest of my eternal life. It is too difficult !”

Saint Peter replied: “No problem Jack, take a look at Heaven and Hell, take your time and then come back to tell me your decision”

Jack entered Heaven and he was surprised about the quietness and green atmosphere there. Angels were singing, people were eating from golden plates with the best food ever, people were reading poetry and everything was as peaceful as you could imagine. In the distance he could see God surrounded by some prophets talking about the long-term future. After some time Jack had seen it and went to Hell to have a view there.

And when he opened the gates of Hell, he was astonished. Everywhere he looked there were people partying, having fun. It reminded him off these sales kick-offs, he had in the past, exotic places with lots of fun. In the distance he could see the Devil as DJ playing the latest dance music – or was it DJ Tiësto ?

Jack did not hesitate and ran back to Saint Peter, no time to lose. “Saint Peter” he said “I want to go to Hell, no doubt and pity I did not know it before”

“So be it” said Saint Peter “go for it.”

SNAGHTML883dbfAnd then once Jack entered Hell, it was suddenly all fire around him, people were screaming of pain and suffering and also Jack felt the first flames.

“Devil!!”  he screamed “what happened to what I have seen before?”

 

With a sarcastic voice the devil replied: “That ? That was a demo”