Top 5 PLM trends to watch in 2015

Holidays are over and it was a good time to think about what you can expect in engineering and manufacturing software related to PLM in coming year. You probably had a chance to listen to my 2015 PLM predictions podcast few months ago. If you missed that, here is the link. Today I want to give a bit more expanded list of trends in product lifecycle management to observe in 2015.

1- Greater complexity of cloud PLM implementations

Cloud adoption is growing in enterprise for the last few years and it is getting more mature. PLM vendors are making steps in the cloud direction too. Companies are moving from marketing and research to “nuts and bolts” of implementations. Switch to the cloud is not as simple as some marketing pundits predicted. It is more than just moving servers from your data center to somebody else place. The complexity of implementation, maintenance and operation will emerge and will drive future difference between “born in the cloud” solutions and existing PLM platforms migrating to the cloud.

2- The demand to manage complex product information will be growing

Products are getting more complex. You can see it around you. A simple IoT gadget such as door lock can combine mechanical, electrical, electronic and software parts. It introduces a new level of complexity for manufacturing and PLM vendors – how to manage all this information in a consistent way?  To bring together design and bill of materials for every discipline becomes a critical factor in  manufacturing company of every size.

3- New type of manufacturing companies will be attracting focus of PLM vendors

Manufacturing landscape is changing. Internet and globalizaiton enabling to create a new type of manufacturing companies – smaller, distributed, agile, crowdfunded. It requires new type of thinking about collaboration, distribute working, digital manufacturing and more. These companies are representing new opportunity and will drive more attention from PLM vendors.

4- Growing interest in mobile enterprise PLM solutions

Mobile went mainstream in many domains. Until now, engineers in manufacturing companies mostly used mobile for email. In 2015 I can see a potential to have a greater interest in mobile solution from manufacturing companies. Distributed work and need for collaboration will drive the demand to make existing enterprise systems more mobile.

5- The demand for big data and analytics in product lifecycle.

Data is driving greater attention these days. I even heard data “data as a new oil”. Manufacturing companies will start to recognize the opportunity and think how to use piles of data from their enterprise engineering and manufacturing system to drive some analysis and use it for decision making.

What is my conclusion? I think 2015 will be a very interesting year in PLM. Broader adoption of cloud, mobile and big data analytics will drive future transformation in engineering and manufacturing software. The disconnect between old fashion enterprise software and new tech vendors will increase. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg