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

Cloud and PLM Solution Evaluation

Cloud and PLM Solution Evaluation
olegshilovitsky
olegshilovitsky
15 April, 2010 | 2 min for reading

I think, Enterprise Software is not simple. And Product Lifecycle Management is not an exception and even one of the most complicated pieces of enterprise software. I had chance to discuss how to simplify PLM. However, today, I want to talk about how possible to evaluate PLM solution. Cloud computing, in my view, can change a lot of things in how enterprise software can be development, implemented and deployed. In addition, it made me think about cloud as a possible “evaluation” option for PLM.

Few weeks ago, I came across the publication by Lawson software availability on Amazon EC2. You can take a look on details here. The interesting piece of announcement is the following:

[…Lawson External Cloud Services also features Lawson Test Drive, which begins to change the way Lawson demonstrates its products and how customers purchase ERP software. Lawson Test Drive allows Lawson customers to test real products for up to 14 days using their own business processes and data before committing to the actual software purchase. Lawson Test Drive increases enterprise customers’ confidence that a demonstrated product will match the eventual installed product. Lawson Test Drive is being launched with two of Lawson’s newest, most innovative products…]

In my view, providing possible test drive in the virtual testing environment can be an easy option for customers to evaluate PLM software. I can see the following advantages:

1. Customer doesn’t need to invest into local infrastructure and  IT work
2. Environment can be tuned and optimized by software vendor
3. Evaluation can be shorter and more efficient.

A big question is how to load such a testing system with customer data? This can be complicated task. However, if you think about a pilot project it can be possible, in my view.

What is my conclusion? Evaluation of enterprise software is a very interesting space. Cloud solutions are probably in the beginning of their development in the such areas like CAD/PDM/PLM. However, to use cloud for evaluation can be an interesting option to make an evaluation simpler and in the end to improve customer’s adoption rate. It is always easy when you can test and see how it works…

Just my thoughts..
Best, Oleg

Share

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
18 August, 2009

Product Lifecycle Management and Master Data Management. I had chance to raise this issue few months ago in my post...

3 December, 2015

Collaboration is such as sweet word. Remember, collaborative design, collaborative PDM, collaborative PLM, collaborative engineering, etc. Nice buzzwords, but what...

26 June, 2023

In the realm of engineering and manufacturing, making products faster, better, and with optimal cost is one of the biggest...

30 May, 2020

Just a few months ago, I wrote the article – Are PLM conferences dead? Sad enough, the recent pandemic turned...

29 October, 2019

I’m coming to Autodesk Forge DevCon – a pre-conference before Autodesk University. As in the last year, it will take...

2 December, 2015

  For the last 15-20 years, PDM and PLM tools went long way from perceived as an-add for CAD tools...

7 September, 2019

One of the most popular discussions in the PLM domain is about what is PLM. The debates are going on...

12 January, 2011

What is the most popular PLM system in the world? Yes, Microsoft Excel. In my view, every time PLM system...

21 April, 2010

Customization is a topic in Product Lifecycle Management that always raises discussions. There are multiple aspects related to customization of PLM...

Blogroll

To the top