I attended ACE 2019 Aras Community Event that took place in Phoenix, AZ last week, Aras Corp branded it as “Red Hot PLM”. I spent almost 3 days in the hotel with very little outdoor time. So, not sure about the weather in Arizona, but inside it was clearly a lot of RED from Aras’ branding colors.
It looks like everything in this hotel was literally red 🙂
Aras CEO and founder, Peter Schroer took a stage with community update and key topic – Digital Transformation or what we knew before as PLM. It was little about PLM and much more about Digital Transformation.
Peter Schroer spent time to talk about all myths of Digital Transformation stories. Check these topics out.
Aras is seriously coming after digital transformation. It was clear from the presentation as well as if you check Aras’ website.
My favorite part of Peter Schroer presentation was a story about Digital Twin. This is clearly Peter’s pet peeve. Watch the video below and draw your opinion.
I can see Peter’s point – 3D CAD model is not Digital Twin. It makes sense, but then the question “what is Digital Twin?” Â has no simple answer. It is a bunch of things – multi-disciplinary data, CAD models, BOM, simulation, electronic, software, etc… you name it. While logically it makes a lot of sense, it doesn’t give an easy answer and this is where it continues a well-known tradition of PLM definition – no easy answers, complex problem, and complex solutions.
What is my conclusion? Aras provides a strong message about digital transformation broad picture and clearly send a message – Digital Transformation (DX) is a new PLM. I like the idea. Digital Transformation is a very important topic for many organizations. DX is well funded by CIOs and getting into priority lists of companies. Aras flexible platform seems like a good candidate to make it happen. However, execution matter. Aras might discover many new players outside looking on how to grab a piece of Digital Transformation budget. I look forward to seeing how “Aras new PLM” will set new goals and claim a new set of priorities in organizations. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud-based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
