CIMdata Successfully Delivers its 2010 EMEA PLM Vendor Forum

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — CIMdata, a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) management consulting and research firm, presented its 2010 EMEA PLM Vendor Forum—the second in a series of global events. This forum was held in Stuttgart, Germany on April 15th 2010.

CIMdata’s PLM Vendor Forums are the world’s premiere gathering of technology and service suppliers focused specifically on the PLM market and issues concerning its development and growth. Participants gathered to hear CIMdata’s perspective on the state and trends of the current and future PLM market, and a detailed discussion of CIMdata’s research and perspective on 2009 PLM market results. These included CIMdata’s extensive analysis and forecasts regarding market growth across PLM domains, industries, and regions, and the performance (revenue and market share analysis) of leading PLM solution suppliers.

In CIMdata’s annual “State of PLM: Today’s Market and Leading Trends” address, Mr. Peter Bilello, CIMdata’s Vice President, stated that “In many ways 2009 was a positive year with regard to PLM in EMEA despite the impact of the global economy. While down from 2008, PLM’s adoption as a true ‘enterprise’ initiative continued in 2009, expanding its visibility in the extended enterprise.” In. his concluding remarks, he commented that the global economic downturn drove many companies to recognize and incorporate PLM as a critical component of their survival strategy and an enabler of business recovery. He went on to say, “In many cases, PLM is needed for the re-tooling of companies and perhaps even entire industries.”

Commenting on the PLM market in 2009, Mr. Ken Amann, CIMdata Director of Research, said, “All geographies experienced a downturn in PLM investments. The drop in EMEA occurred later than for the Americas and Asia-Pacific. However, EMEA is also returning to growth at a slower rate than the other geographies.” Recent statistics compiled by CIMdata show the overall Comprehensive PLM market experienced a 9.6% decline in growth in 2009 but the decline in EMEA was only 7.8%. Mr. Amann added, “While the first half of 2009 was definitely down, during the latter part of 2009 the PLM market began to return to positive growth.” The Central region of Europe (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) continues to be the largest in EMEA but also had the largest decline in PLM investments. Some regions had small increases in PLM, e.g., the Benelux and France. Many small- to medium-sized businesses had difficulty obtaining credit and that impacted their ability to invest in PLM.

Additionally, CIMdata provided the participants with practical insights and approaches that they can use to navigate the PLM market during the current economic recovery, and discussed two major trends impacting companies as well as the PLM industry—social networking and compliance/sustainability.