Less Services. More PLM…

I’ve been discussing with colleagues Gartner’s Predict 2011: Manufacturer Revamp and Enhance Product Lifecycle Management strategies. Without Gartner’s subscription, you cannot get the document. The short passage on Gartner’s website says: Manufacturers are demanding that PLM software vendors deliver more value for the price in 2011. Top priorities include licensing models that enable lower spending and an increased ability to support software and electronics as part of manufactured products.

Customization Problem

In the beginning of the year, I wrote the following post – Is PLM customization a data management titanic. It seems to me, the customization is a biggest problem of PLM implementations today. Everybody understood, customization has a severe impact on PLM value proposition for the short term. Customer is required to make such a customization to make PLM system up and running.

Services Dependencies

Another aspect of a customization problem is long term dependencies on consulting and services. Companies are not able to maintain their implementations and required to have long term commitment with consulting companies. Which makes a solution even more problematic.

What is my conclusion? Gartner predicts vendors will be enforced to lower price in order to justify the need of customers to spend money on customization and support services. Make sense to me. At the same time, it creates opportunities for horizontal platforms and other alternative solutions. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg