A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

Social PLM and Mobile Dribbling

Social PLM and Mobile Dribbling
Oleg
Oleg
6 May, 2014 | 2 min for reading

Once “social” was a hot topic for PLM developer and analysts. In my view, the hype went down. Ask PLM people about social applications and be prepared for very neutral response. I asked myself – why so? Social applications can improve the way people communicate and should bring value. Nevertheless, social revolution in PLM is kinda “postponed”. You might be interested – will social apps back, when and how?

My attention was caught by WSJ.D article – Data Point: Social Networking Is Moving on From the Desktop. These numbers made me think about potential benefits  between “social” and “mobile” in PLM.

social-network-mobile-social

Similar to social apps, the popularity of mobile PLM application is not skyrocketing too. Once excited about the ability to run “everything from iPad”, users got back to their desktops, CAD workstations, BOM Excels and browser applications.  Did PLM vendors miss the point of mobile? I asked about that two years ago here. The confusion between “mobile web” and “native app” is probably only part of the problem. When world is going to be even more distributed than today, the efficiency of mobile PLM applications and intuitiveness of how mobile app can present the data becomes absolutely critical. However, mobile app will be used only if it is easier and brings additional value. The best example is taking picture during the presentation and sharing it via Twitters and/or Facebook.

Now I want to get back to social PLM option. I just read about new feature – you can tweet to Amazon to put a specific article or item in your shopping cart. Navigate here to read more. There is nothing very special here. It is all about efficiency. Imagine you found something you want to buy at the time you browse your twitter stream in the morning. To stay in the same environment and put an article to the Amazon shopping cart is all about efficiency. So, here is my guess. Social PLM can reinvent itself via mobile option.

What is my conclusion? The efficient interaction is very important when out of the office and not connected to your well-organized desktop. So, specially designed “social PLM” function can be very demanded on mobile devices. However, the fine tuning of functionality and mobile experience is a key. Efficient user interaction combined together with valuable scenario. This is a key for mobile PLM and social PLM to be successful. Without these two elements, customers will keep walking from social and mobile links to desktop. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

photo source – WSJ-D article

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
3 March, 2015

Cloud and CAD are probably getting to the point where it starts become a real thing. Autodesk Fusion360, Onshape, SolidWork...

16 November, 2016

I attended Autodesk University 2016 opening keynote yesterday. 10’000 people crowd, crazy loud music and future vision of engineering software....

20 July, 2010

Almost a year ago, I posted PLM and BIM – Common Roots Or Common Future. I think these two domains will...

8 August, 2019

Marketplace is an interesting concept and it seems to be progressing well in a modern cloud-based and internet aware economy....

18 February, 2016

  PLM is complex – the paradigm, definition, implementation, technology. Simplification of PLM is the discussion topic among PLM industry...

18 July, 2012

The topic of software licensing is one of the most debated in the context of industry transition to the cloud....

23 May, 2016

Innovation platforms is a new trend in engineering and manufacturing software. Read my earlier article Sweet Dreams about Product Innovation...

5 August, 2010

Six months ago, I posted “Collaboration Trends or Why I Stopped Using Google Wave?“. After Google’s announcement about Google Wave termination...

12 February, 2023

Learning is hard. The world around us is changing and the same is happening with the process of learning. The...

Blogroll

To the top