A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

Salesforce platform and cloud PLM differentiators

Salesforce platform and cloud PLM differentiators
Oleg
Oleg
28 August, 2015 | 2 min for reading

cloud-plm-differentiator

Almost two years ago, I asked if Salesforce.com platform is ready for PLM. You can navigate to my old article to get up to speed my thoughts here. Some Youtube videos disappeared since then. The basic set of Saleforce.com platform functionality is mature and Salesforce is investing in additional development. Saleforce Lightning Design System I mentioned few days ago in the context of PLM toolkit post is another confirmation about that. Few ERP companies launched for the last few years on top of Saleforce platform and I’ve been following them. You can check – Kenandy, Rootstock and few more ERP on AppExchange.

It appears that I’m not alone with my conclusions about leveraging Salesforce as a platform for a new cloud PLM. The new website of Propel PLM software caught my attention yesterday. What I’ve learned from the website is that Propel PLM is based on Salesforce.com and it provides what you can imagine as a typical PLM functions – item, parts, bill of materials. The industry focus is spread between high-tech, manufacturing, life sciences, communication and automotive.

propel-plm-saleforce

According to website, Propel PLM contains three modules – Salesforce platform, Product Record and Process Lifecycle. Few additional facts I captured – it looks like capable to manage software lifecycle (in some sense). This is my hunch based on the notion of “software releases”. Also, Propel is capable to manage service data. Propel founders Ray Hein, Brian Sohmers and Ron Hess are coming with significant PLM and industry background with roots in Agile PLM, Oracle and Kenandy. It looks like they also have significant experience with Salesforce.

I didn’t find much information about the product, except of few screenshots. It looks like Propel is planning to bring more info closer to their launch at Dreamforce 2015 in few weeks. I will have an opportunity to speak to them and bring more information later.

The news about Propel PLM made me think about cloud PLM landscape. My earlier assessment of cloud PLM services and vendor differentiation led me to the conclusion that differentiation might be a tricky problem for cloud PLM vendors in the next few years. Each PLM vendor these days is offering some sort of cloud PLM solution. However, the devil is in details. Not each cloud is the same and business models can vary too.

What is my conclusion? Cloud PLM vendors will be searching how to differentiate themselves in the competitive market of cloud engineering and manufacturing solutions. Established vendors will search for a balance between existing platform technologies and advantages of cloud architectures. Newcomers will have more flexibility to innovate and build their own differentiation. Propel is coming first on top of Salesforce. Will Salesforce.com platform and technology will make a good deal for cloud PLM such as Propel to success? This is a good question to ask. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Picture credit Propel PLM

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
31 July, 2018

Digital transformation is the process of fundamental changes of business and product development activities, processes processes and all manufacturing company...

11 November, 2009

Few publications around a new company called PLM+, which left stealth mode this week, drove my attention. There is not...

14 January, 2019

Hello… This is Oleg with Beyond PLM and my video blog about Bill of Materials :). If you missed my earlier...

31 July, 2014

Do you remember “throw over the wall of manufacturing” statement? This is a traditional engineering world. Pretty much sequential. Engineers...

22 December, 2024

Are you still in search for a system that can easy check-out/check-in your files and asking how to uprev your...

24 October, 2016

Customization is a bad word in jargon of PLM implementations. The modern lingo brings us a new politically correct word...

16 April, 2012

I was very busy since last Thursday. As you probably know, I was attended COFES 2012. It took all my time...

23 September, 2015

I started a series of blog posts about PLM dedicated to hardware startups. In my previous article, I explained why...

8 October, 2010

The following Google Apps Blog caught my attention few days ago – More Tools For Viewing Document Revisions. I found...

Blogroll

To the top