“Meeting the Challenges of Transitioning PLM Implementations” A New Program Review from CIMdata

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — CIMdata released a new Program Review entitled “Meeting the Challenges of Transitioning PLM Implementations.” This Review describes some key challenges faced by companies as they transition their PLM implementations through the series of version and enhancement releases provided by their PLM supplier. As examples, CIMdata interviewed a number of long-term customers of Siemens PLM Software (Siemens) to assess their approaches and experiences in addressing this often-challenging issue.

Enterprises worldwide are faced with significant challenges as they strive to compete more effectively. Mr. Ed Miller, President of CIMdata, reported that, “In increasing numbers, businesses have committed themselves to transforming the way they operate in order to become more innovative, effective, and responsive to the markets they serve. In order to facilitate new processes, companies generally utilize information technologies as primary enablers.” In this environment, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is one of the most significant initiatives to be introduced into industrial companies in the last several years.

IT-based initiatives offer significant opportunities to organizations, especially broad enterprise-focused ones like PLM, but they also bring their own set of issues. Mr. Miller stated, “A major issue that has challenged companies implementing PLM over the years has been the time, cost, and difficulty of evolving their PLM environment through the ongoing introduction of new versions of software that are provided to them by their PLM solution suppliers.” He continued, saying, “A common complaint from companies with PLM implementations has been that technology changes introduced by their PLM suppliers have often caused them difficulties as those newer technologies have been inconsistent (with their previous versions) in both architecture and application software, and thus not easily evolved within the company’s IT environment.”

In this market environment, Siemens has consistently attempted to position itself as a PLM solution supplier committed to ensuring that customers can upgrade to successively newer versions of their software without significant trauma. In an effort to review Siemens’ positioning and success in supporting upgrades and enhancements, CIMdata has interviewed a number of Siemens’ customers to gain a better insight into their experiences. This Review provides CIMdata’s perspectives on the results of those interviews and the recommendations that these companies provided to minimize difficulties. Some excellent examples emerged.

Copies of the “Meeting the Challenges of Transitioning PLM Implementations” CIMdata review are available here at no cost.