Earlier this week, I attended CIMdata webinar. The goal for webinar was to provide a brief review of PLM economy and speak about significant events that happened in PLM landscape during 2023. CIMdata team lead by Stan Przybylinski, VP of Research and the new (and the youngest) member of CIMdata team – Christine Longwell. Moderated by Cheryl Peck, CIMdata team provided a comprehensive review about PLM market research, competitive intelligence, information about industry and vendor events and overview of M&A activity by PLM vendors.
PLM Market Numbers
According to CIMdata, PLM economy was doing good over the course of 2023 and performed according to CIMdata prediction. The summary below says the numbers. The summary per market segments. Note some restructuring of the revenue segment that tool cPDM up 20% and reduced some of other groups.
The picture of vendors (which largely didn’t change for the last 15-20 years). I counted 50 acquisitions mentioned by CIMdata in the PLM industry earlier this year. I think, the number is lower than previous years, but still M&A is one of the major driving forces for PLM market development.
For those that following this list might noticed the absence of Aras. According to CIMdata, although the size of Aras was much smaller than large vendors, the impact Aras made in the market trigerred CIMdata to define Aras as a mindshare vendor in PLM segment.
PLM Events and New PLM Management
CIMdata reported their comments about all major PLM events that happened in the industry for 2023. Here is the list: Autodesk University, 3D EXPERIENCE World, Siemens LiveWorx, Aras ACE, HxGN Live Global, Oracle Cloud World and a few others. You can find commentaries on CIMdata website.
Another interesting trend is changes in the top management of PLM companies. 4 PLM CEO replacement in a single year.
Should PLM Preserve Its Acronym Name?
An interesting poll question about PLM name. As you probably know, CIMdata calls the industry segment covering systems like Teamcenter, Windchill, 3DX, Aras and others cPDM (Collaborative Product Definition Management). For a few years, the debates in the industry brought the opinion that “PLM” as a name run its course and must be repalced.
So, CIMdata asked a vote of confidence about the PLM name. Here is the result – majority of attendees prefered PLM.
PLM Market Forecast for 2023
Here is CIMdata forecast for PLM market in 2023.
CIMdata will be running their 2024 market research forums in March-April 2024, so you can register to attend it in your part of the world – America, Europe, India, China or Japan. Register here.
What is my conclusion?
According to CIMdata, PLM business is growing according to the industry expectations. In some places low double digits and some places high single digits. All together those are good news for PLM. The bigs are getting bigger and small are acquired. PLM is getting more interest from companies looking into digital transformation and it will bring more news in PLM in the coming 2024.
The topics to discuss for the next year – Digital Twin, AI, Platform Strategies. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
PS. I will be writing my own trends and conclusions about PLM in 2023.
Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a digital-thread platform with cloud-native PDM & PLM capabilities to manage product data lifecycle and connect manufacturers, construction companies, and their supply chain networks. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
