Technology field is deeply surrounded with different type of buzzwords. The terminology is a complicated part of enterprise software and PLM marketing is probably one of the most confusing zones. In general, buzzwords don’t mean something bad. However, when overused can lost their meaning for customers.
As part of having fun and blogging process, I’m following lots of other blogs and social media channels about PLM. I decided to come with a list representing the most overused PLM marketing buzzwords. This is not statistical research, so don’t blame me for accuracy. Also, these buzzwords are not unique for PLM and you can meet them in other fields as well. Here is here is my top 5 list – 1/ Value proposition; 2/ OOTB; 3/ Experience; 4/ Community; 5/ ROI.
1. Value Proposition – a promise of value as a result of specific product, component or technology usage. Value proposition is usually comes as a result of analyzes of benefits, cost and values of product/ technology to organization. The biggest problem of value prop definition in PLM is related to the cost. It is usually missing. The term is overused without specific characteristics applied to an organization.
2. OOTB (Out-of-the-box) – represents an ability of software and/or components to be implemented without specific customization and/or development services. Usually assumes features that can be used immediately after the installation. The problem of OOTB is over-promise of OOTB features with following consulting and service agreements.
3. Experience. The original concept of “experience” is coming from the ability of user to know how to use a particular software. For the last few years, “experience” became a powerful, but unfortunately very overused term claiming practically everything in terms of how to improve use of software including sales process and end user interface.
4. Community. The term comes from outside and not specifically related to software world. Usually, it is group of people sharing common interest. During the last 10 years, community term transformed into a measurable characteristic representing the group of people using your software. The problem of the term is the absence of a precise way to measure “community value” in enterprise software. It is different from Facebook and other social networks.
5. ROI (Return of Investment). Another very general term used to calculate the efficiency of investment measured as proportion of benefits of investment and cost of investment. The higher is better. The problem of PLM ROI is to be calculated on very long period of time without specific tangible benefits.
What is my conclusion? People are tired of overused expressions and buzzwords. Count all marketing buzzwords in the marketing campaign you plan to run next week – probably you need to review the content to make your marketing more human and meaningful. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
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