Earlier this week Stan Przybylinski of CIMdata presented 2018 PLM market analysis results at CIMdata 2018 industry and market forum in Ann Arbor. CIMdata forum is a great opportunity to get early visibility on trends and market. The event is organized specially for PLM vendors and services providers.
PLM market exceed CIMdata forecast (7.3% vs 6.5%) coming totally to $43.6B. Like Peter Bilello of CIMdata said during his opening sessions, it is a nice and big enough market to be in. Below are numbers for major segments.
If you like historical perspective check this slide
My special attention in Stan’s presentation was caught by list of acquisitions. 4 slides list presents “who was acquired by whom”. The devil is in details of course, but list gives you an idea of the acquisition domains and some sense of purpose why acquisitions happened.
My overall take on the acquisition list – vendors are filling the gaps. Mature functional and technological providers were acquired by larger vendors to cover missed functionality and technological niches. Larger resellers bought smaller resellers to increase their customer base and improve profits. Two major CAD and PLM players (Autodesk and PTC) were silent. My hunch both restructuring and integrating previous acquisitions.
What is my conclusion? Even market numbers exceeded CIMdata expectations, I found current market state as a ‘status quo’ situation. Customers are buying from existing providers and working hard to solve their problems. CIMdata research didn’t present much of new stuff in their research – things mostly continuation of previous technologies and trends – big data, additive manufacturing, IoT, service lifecycle management. Cloud ‘rethink everything‘ is the only thing that caught my attention as a new trend and, in my view, has a potential to change the market in the next few years. So, by focusing on players innovating in cloud CAD and PLM systems, you learn about future trends and, as Wayne Gretzky said, – to skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Want to learn more about PLM? Check out my new PLM Book website.
Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
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