The demand for PLM services

Services is an important part of every PLM implementation. My attention caught news article – Kalypso and GoEngineer form strategic partnership. I found it interesting, especially the following passage:

“The Kalypso-GoEngineer partnership enables both firms to scale our businesses to better serve the growing demand for PLM services and software,” said George Young, CEO of Kalypso. “With the addition of GoEngineer’s implementation business to Kalypso we strengthen the size and experience of our delivery team, allowing us to serve a larger client base with a broader set of PLM services.”

It made think again about business and technological trajectories in PLM services. While industry is moving towards providing more cloud and service offering, the question about future role of PLM VARs and service providers is driving more attention and interest. My assumption back in 2012 was that cloud PLM providers will have to grow their services to keep up with implementation demand.

Cloud PLM change a lot in the way you implement PLM. However, there is something cloud PLM cannot do for you. One of the key things – you still need to implement PLM. There is magic change that cloud can bring here. You can make much more efficient with cloud. Therefore, the focus of PLM implementation is moving towards business process optimization. Cloud PLM eliminates the need to install servers, but it doesn’t eliminate the need to model processes and integrate existing business systems.

Last year, I’ve been sharing my thoughts about PLM services, Department Stores and Digital future. In many ways, PLM services can become one of the most critical business differentiators that can help manufacturing companies to move beyond traditional PDM implementations.

What is my conclusion? Despite lot of changes in technology and business models, PLM implementations are still time consuming and requires lot of attention. Cloud PLM role here to help manufacturing companies and service providers to skip IT part and move directly into business implementation. I guess it will improve PLM ROI. However, it will require more skilled PLM services professionals. So, my hunch, the demand for PLM services will grow. Digital natives people familiar with manufacturing processes can update their resumes. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg