PLM 2.0: Born to Die?

PLM 2.0 is a new term that was born about 5 years ago. The term was introduced by Dassault Sysetemes as part of their V6 platform. At the same time, Dassault didn’t put “an equal” sign between V6 and PLM 2.0. The consideration about PLM 2.0 was mostly related as a vision and the next fundamental step in the development of PLM solutions. According to the Dassault’s definition of PLM 2.0, you can find that it combined of 5 elements – 3D, Online, IP, Web 2.0 and Communities.

Do you think PLM 2.0 is taking off? Watch the following video from one of the Dassault conferences 2-3 years ago. I hope you will find it funny. As you can see the familiarity of ordinary people with PLM and specially PLM 2.0 is below average .

Web 2.0 roots of PLM 2.0

Thinking about PLM 2.0, you cannot miss the analogy with Web 2.0. The fundamental elements of Web 2.0 are related to the ideas of information sharing and collaborative activities of people on the web. Here is the definition of Web 2.0 according to the Wikipedia article.

The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing,interoperability, user-centered design,[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (consumers) are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.

Take a look on the following interesting comparison between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 I found online:

Enterprise 2.0 roots of PLM 2.0

Another association with PLM 2.0 is coming from somewhat called Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0). Enterprise 2.0 term was invented by Andrew McCaffee back in 2006. Here is another definition from Wikipedia:

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of “Web 2.0″ technologies within an organization to enable or streamline business processes while enhancing collaboration – connecting people through the use of social-media tools. Enterprise 2.0 aims to help employees, customers and suppliers collaborate, share, and organize information. Andrew McAfeedescribes Enterprise 2.0 as “the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers”.

Another comparison – now between Enterprise 1.0 and Enterprise 2.0 (picture credit of Enterprise 2.0 conference)

I was reading Jos Voskuil blog yesterday. Jos started a long series of post about PLM 2.0. Navigate to the following link to read the first one: Why PLM 2.0? Jos brings another comparison between PLM 1.0 and PLM 2.0. The analogy between previous definitions and comparisons are clear.

This picture made me think about V6 and PLM 2.0 realization. Actually, I didn’t find many components of PLM 2.0 in previous definitions made by Dassault. V6 is a big leapfrog for DS and delivers a completely different PLM experience. Even so, the question about PLM 2.0 remains open.

What is my conclusion? I think the key word in a failure of PLM 2.0 is openness and availability. On a contrary, think for a moment about Web 2.0 – Blogs, Wikipedia, Flikr, eBay, Twitter… These and many other applications and technologies turned Web 1.0 into what we know as Web 2.0. It allowed many people bring web to a completely new level. I can influence the content published on the web, and many people simultaneously can have an access to this content. What I’d expect from PLM 2.0? I’d say, first, the ability to all people in the organization to have an easy access to product lifecycle data and processes. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, until now. So, we have a new version of PLM. It applies to DS V6 and to other PLM vendors as well. However, I cannot call it PLM 2.0. Just my thought…

Best, Oleg

Tagged as: Dassault V6, Enterprise 2.0, PLM, PLM 2.0, Web 2.0