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PLM: Repositioned for a New Year
2009 was a difficult year in the PLM space. The sluggish economy hit hard at the industry, and by midyear, CIMdata revised its forecast for the PLM market downward. Fighting back, vendors attempted to fight back and started developing features that expanded away from their core engineering-centric capabilities, diversifying the features that they have to offer. PLM vendors are increasingly adding capabilities relevant to the business side, often overlapping with capabilities traditionally found in ERP systems, as reported by Managing Automation.
Ed Miller, president of CIMdata said that “All of the PLM suppliers have had to address a huge change in market dynamics and are still struggling to adapt their plans accordingly.”
IDC analyst Joe Barkai said that “We will see more and more PLM companies encroaching into what has traditionally been ERP territory. A year or two ago, I said the battlefield would move from CAD vs. CAD to PLM vs. ERP.” And the battlefield has now changed.
PLM vendors are now targeting new features that include social networking, collaboration, business intelligence, risk management, industry specific solutions, and integrations with enterprise and manufacturing applications.
Clearly, for better or worse, the definition of what PLM is and what features are intrinsic to it are now up for debate. But vendors should be cautious so as not to lose touch with their core competencies. Without a clear focus and drive, customers may only become confused.
