For many years, enterprise software was known as a place where development of new features was one of the main priorities. To have comprehensive list of features was considered as absolute necessity. The army of sales people and advisers spent enormous amount of time in validating and comparing features of enterprise systems. From the early beginning, PLM was considered as an extremely complex discipline. Product development methodology and engineering culture made PLM in the way we have it now – overloaded with features, struggling with user experience and the ability to have fast and broad PLM adoption in any company.
It looks like we are going to spot some changes in this place. It is not about small manufacturing shops anymore. Companies like Boeing are complaining about PLM software usability and looking for solutions to solve that problem.
To confirm what I said above take a look on the slide presented yesterday at CIMdata PLM Forum in Ann Arbor. CIMdata defines the simplification of PLM as one of the key challenges PLM is facing with customers.
However, the act of bringing a simplicity is not a simple thing to do. CIMdata confirms that to make complex simple is a significant development undertaking. CIMdata defines it as “art and science” at the same time.
What is my conclusion? We are going to see a big change in PLM development. PLM developers, just a minute ago focused on how to add one more feature to the product, will take a step back and think about user experience and simplicity. This is a result of many years of customer disappointment in the way PLM systems are implemented. To hide complexity of data models and processes make a total sense. People like “everything simple” these days. Vendors must take a notes. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
