Buzzwords is one of the funniest things in enterprise software. PLM industry is guilty many times for overused buzzword lingo. Just think about “disruptive service oriented, big data enabled PLM platform with flexible process in the cloud”. I spent last two weeks listening to many presentations during Autodesk PLM360 and Siemens PLM Analyst event. So, I had to use my buzzword detection mechanism pretty actively.
I have to say, Autodesk PLM conference stood out with a very special panel analyst discussion basically prohibiting analysts to use buzzwords (otherwise a person used buzzword should drink an alcohol drink). You can see the picture from that panel as well as the list of “prohibited buzzwords:
List of prohibited words
PLM analysts at Autodesk PLM 360 event.
Earlier today, my attention was caught by Inc. article – The list of Buzzwords you should never use in your pitch. I found some overlap between list of words and buzzwords from PLM presentations for the last two weeks. It reminded me my earlier post – 5 overused words in PLM marketing. Just to remind you the list – Value proposition, out-of-the-box, experience, community, ROI.
So, I decided to come with an updated list of PLM buzzwords for 2015. Here is the list of my favorite 10 buzzwords you better eliminate from your PLM presentations in 2015.
1. Cloud: show me a company and/or solution which is not planning to use cloud technologies. That would be probably very old product. Everyone else is developing cloud products these days.
2. IoT: Mega buzzword these days. Everyone use it, but nobody understand what does it mean and the application in a specific domain. There are so many things that related to IoT, so you better explain what you do.
3. Big data: same as IoT. Used by everybody in so many context. Means nothing to a person listening to your presentation.
4. Synergy: Used to emphasize high level of integration. Customers don’t get it.
5. Value-add solution: Do you need solution that doesn’t bring value? Me too…
6. Innovation: Same like value-add. Find me somebody who doesn’t want to innovate. That would be probably “innovative” case.
7. Offline / Online: same as cloud. A border between online and offline is not clear. But, find me a product that works on your computer and doesn’t use any connection today?
8. Leading PLM vendor: Everyone wants to be one of the leaders. Usually adding “leading” means nothing.
9. Dynamic data model: pretends to be technical, but basically confusing. Otherwise you’re presenting about technology behind data modeling and PLM system administration. Even so, it will require dedicated explanation about what is that.
10. Interactive application. Each user facing application is “interactive”. Even server administration tool is interactive.
What is my conclusion? Buzzwords are tough. Vendors are looking how to differentiate and shine in the competitive PLM software crowd. But buzzwords are ugly and in most of the cases are not helpful. So, think about that before you include one of these words in you presentation. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Image courtesy of iosphere at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
