The first day of ACE 2012 was quite energetic. This is my 3rd year at Aras Community Event. The first one in Chicago was quite small – less than 100 attendees. Aras claims 300 registered attendees this year. I can easily say that I counted ~250 attendees during Peter Schroer’s keynote presentation. Yesterday, I put my best guesses to explain why and how I can see Aras PLM different. Schroer’s keynote presentation was heavily loaded with “BE DIFFERENT” messages. It seems to me Aras is trying to take a position of a “good PLM” in the whole spectrum of PLM companies these days. Remember Google’s “don’t be evil” statement? I can see some similarities with Aras position.
However, let’s start from the original materials. Below, you can see 3 slides from Peter Schroer’s presentation explaining how Aras PLM is different.
The net-net of Peter’s slides to me can be summarized as following: 1/accept company uniqueness from the standpoint of product development processes and needs; 2/support company on going changes and make technology following company needs; 3/support business model with no upfront license cost to a customer;
What is my conclusion? I found Aras aggressiveness against so called “big-box” PLM vendors a bit annoying. At the same time, the majority of Aras customers already have PLM solution from other PLM vendors. So, maybe this language can speak directly to a customer pain. Who knows? Aras is trying to cultivate “don’t be evil” position in the market. Their business model with no upfront license cost is working well to establish this position. At the same time, “money talks, bullshit walks”. Aras needs to show a spectacular growth to prove their BE DIFFERENT model works. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
