The Future of PLM consultancy

by Oleg on March 20, 2012 · 7 comments

The internet changed our life for the last decade. I don’t think somebody will argue about that. Cloud is trending. Thinking about different aspects of how cloud is going to influence our future business, the topic of consultancy and service providing shouldn’t be missed. Some time ago, I posted – PLM, Cloud and Service Channel. Back three months ago my conclusion was as following

I have no doubt, introduction of new cloud solutions won’t reduce the amount of services and implementations. So, first, it is a good news for VARs and service providers. At the same time, cloud solutions will set a different “price” demand in front of vendors and partners. To re-organize to a new pricing structure will be another challenge.

The following announcement few days ago resonated to my thoughts about PLM cloud and service partners – General Atlantic And Sequoia Put 60M In Enterprise Cloud Consultancy Appirio. Here is the news, in a nutshell:

Cloud solution provider and consultancy Appirio is announcing $60 million in new funding led by private equity firm General Atlantic, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital. This brings Appirio’s total investment to over $70 million. Previous investors include Salesforce.

Appirio shows some impressive growth.

In 2011, Appirio grew revenue by over 80 percent, expanded into Europe with the acquisition of Saaspoint and developed the Cloud Enablement Suite, an integrated set of applications that supports enterprise cloud development. Additionally, the company introduced CloudSpokes, a crowdsourcing community for cloud development.

So, what is my conclusion? All PLM service providers that afraid about how cloud will destroy their business need to calm down. There are plenty of work to deploy cloud solutions and money is here. You will probably need to justify you skills and think about how to adopt your practices and experience to the speed of the cloud. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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Tagged as: Cloud, Consultancy, PLM, Services

  • http://twitter.com/PLMJim Jim McKinney

    Oleg – Nice post, and some good points.

    As I pointed out in a recent blog - http://plmjim.blogspot.com/201… - there is still much work that must be done for companies to take advantage of the cloud, or any other technology that supports PLM. I think consultants will be busy for a long time helping companies prepare their businesses for the changes that are coming.

    Those companies that think one technology or another will be able to fix many of their long-standing problems with people and processes will be disappointed. I look forward to the challenge of helping people make significant changes in their business with the correct application of PLM.

    -Jim

  • Prashant Dhonde

    Hi Oleg,

     It is going to be shift of same magnitude when PDM/PLM systems came in place and traditional document management teams were reduced but at the same time new areas were opened up with probably much higher financial benefits.
     Undoubtedly seeing the price benefits Cloud based Solutions are going to PLM of masses and probably even the big giants as end of the day both of them do business in Collaboration
     In fact what I see a much higher demand for PLM Consulting as no of Companies going for PLM will grow inorganically with Cloud based PLM Solutions

    Enjoy PLM,
    Prashant

  • beyondplm

    Jim, agree – technology doesn't solve organization problems. However, I think the type of consultancy will change together with the cloud. Just my opinion… Oleg

  • beyondplm

    Prashant, thanks for your comment! One of the challenges with PLM cloud consultancy is a price tag. Whatever, available today is priced quite expensive. This is okay when PLM software is expensive. But what if it won't…? Something to think about… Oleg

  • http://www.acnovate.com/ Brion Carroll

    Oleg,

    Nicely put. This is why I am promoting the most–clouded data with mobile strategy. I find the more comfortable a company or service group is with all of their processes being access through mobile devices and the cloud, the better they are and more cost effective. 

    Managing materials and creating libraries that are stored on iCloud that can be permitted to load data to select applications on a secure network based on approvals, is just one of examples of how clouded data is working today in fashion and retail design. Its overwhelming response in shortening lead time and shortening the actual lifecycle of a product to create a superior go-to-market strategy, I feel, is the way product development should be approached. These type of process enabling lifecycles, will certainly be the standard way products are not only defined, but created with customer volatility of demand and economical reporting statistics as their justification.     

  • beyondplm

    Brion, thanks for your comment! I agree cloud and mobile are coming together. I can see many companies are making it as a combined strategy. Best, Oleg

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