As usual, at the end of the year, there is a time for blog posts with predictions, opinions and future trends. Last 2-3 years of technological boom were around consumer applications – social, web, mobile. These are three major application field that developed many technologies of the past years. How it may impact enterprise and PLM?
I was reading thebarefootvc blog earlier today – 10+ trends: recap of 2011 and what’s next… One of the trends mentioned in the context of 2012 was Enterprise. This is my favorite passage:
The Enterprise: The last few years have focused on consumer usage and adoption of technology. However, large companies are recovering from the shock of the 2008 collapse and re-aligning to the New Normal. Technology can play a role through cost reduction and creating efficiencies (virtualization, cloud computing) as well as top line revenue enhancement (utilizing data and social media for better customer service and sales strategies). New financial services and healthcare regulation will also create the need for related IT solutions.
It made me think about PLM in 2012. Few important events happened in the end of 2012. One of them – Autodesk entered PLM. This is an important move. Autodesk means “volume”. Consumer market is also about volume. Volume means broader adoption and lower prices. Volume is about Toyota and not about Lexus. Second is a broader adoption of the cloud technologies. For many enterprise organizations now it is a question of “when” and not a question of “why”.
What is my conclusion? 2012 has a potential to become a year of PLM rock stars. Cost will be one of the most important factors of PLM in a near future. Cloud technologies and behemoths like Autodesk will be playing a significant role in this process. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
