CIMdata 2020 Industry & Market Event – What Happened With PLM During The COVID Year?

Last week I attended CIMdata PLM Market & Industry Forum 2021. It was a second virtual event (last year’s event also was virtual). CIMdata event is a traditional place for CIMdata to speak about a broad analysis of the variety of issues in the PLM industry – trends, vendors, and news. This year it was specifically interesting as it provided a perspective on a full year of PLM industry operating under COVID conditions. The agenda for the event is here.

I wanted to share a few screenshots and notes I captured during the event.

PLM industry was growing 3.46% in 2020 above CIMdata forecast, which was -1.78%. The results were mixed. Vendors continued consolidation, acquisitions, transitions to a subscription model, differentiating and expanding their reach

Below is the investment by segments as well as revenues of mindshare vendors.

cPDM is one of the core elements of the PLM market, which is focusing on the management of intellectual assets. Here is the slide summarizing the analysis of the cPDM segment.

The cPDM sector had better than expected results. Here is the analysis of vendors in the cPDM sector.

What about the PLM future? The following chart from a traditional CIMdata survey shows the problem of existing PLM vendors, which didn’t change – only 20% of companies answering the questions about PLM, the technologies and products said they cannot live without PLM.

What will wait for PLM in 2021? According to CIMdata, it will take some time for companies to return to “business as usual”  after what happened in 2020. The market has a lot of potentials and has an appetite for acquisition.

What is my conclusion?

COVID didn’t change PLM business. Those manufacturing companies invested in PLM continued their business and, even results were mixed, the PLM business seems to be doing as usual. I’m still digesting the results and will come with more notes later. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a digital network-based platform that manages product data and connects manufacturers and their supply chain networks. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.