PLM vs Excel: Bullfight and Prohibition

PLM has love and hate relationships with Excel spreadsheets. PLM vendors are spending marketing dollars campaigning to replace Excel. The last post by Lionel Grealou caught my attention during the weekend. Navigate to read PLM vs Excel post here. In addition to to almost traditional confirmation that PLM can outperform Excel spreadsheet, I noticed an interesting statement about the fact some organizations are prohibiting availability of Excel reports. This is a passage I captured:

Some organizations considered removing access to import from / export to Excel from their PLM applications to limit uncontrolled usage of data and reports. Most PLM applications now have advanced data search, live feed dashboard which can be tailored to business needs, with Excel-like features for data mining, profiling, compiling, formatting, presenting in various chart for analysis.

The comparison of PLM vs Excel capabilities for BOM management looks like a bullfight. But honestly, I’m not sure who is who in this fight. PLM vendors are fighting excel spreadsheets for decades with no visible success. The number of whitepapers and sales materials trying to convince users how much damage Excel can do is skyrocketing. But customers are still using Excel.

To remove an access to Excel reports is actually something new and unexpected. I had a chance to see many situations when IT was developed bunch of Excel-based solutions to eliminate the need of end users to touch complex enterprise systems in manufacturing, supply chain and finance. Customers loved Excel and hate complex enterprise software. Which reminded me my very old blog – Why do I like my PLM Excel Spreadsheets with top 5 reasons why I prefer Excel over PLM system. To balance a PLM point of view, I can recommend another post – What PLM need to take over Excel spreadsheets?

What is my conclusion? I’m sure you know that bulls are colorblind. Matadors used red material to mask the bull’s blood. PLM sales materials explaining the value of PLM systems vs Excel spreadsheets is like read caps. Users seems to me colorblind to recognize them. Prohibition also seems to me as a bad way to convince users. Especially in our era of consumerization and total focus on user experience. Enterprise UX is going through the paradigm shift. Old, bulky, cumbersome, weighty and hard to use environment that can block a productive flow will be replaced with new tools. It is all about the need for speed. When each function engineers need is “15 clicks away”, you cannot expect company to perform well. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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