Earlier this week, I had the chance to present at the Share PLM Summit 2025 in Jerez de la Frontera. It was my first time there and I found a very interesting mix of history, craftsmanship, and community in a way that feels completely alive. Sherry wine, flamenco guitars echo through old stone streets. I found a deep respect for the human touch – it was one of the reasons Share PLM picked this place for the conference and also for building Share The Nest.
It felt like the perfect place to talk about a subject that’s been close to my heart for years: how we build PLM systems that actually work for people.
My talk, “PLM’s Missing Link: Data That Works for People”, focused on rethinking the foundations of PLM – starting not with process or compliance, but with the real needs of the people who use these systems every day.
Let me walk you through the five core principles I shared during my session.
Provide Answers to People
Let’s start with the most basic expectation: people want answers.
Whether you’re in engineering, procurement, quality, or support, when you open a PLM system, you’re not looking to admire the data architecture. You’re trying to understand what’s going on.
What changed in this release?
Why was this part replaced?
Are these vendors approved?
If your system can’t answer those questions clearly and quickly, it’s creating friction, not value. A human-centered PLM must move beyond passive data access. It must behave more like a colleague—one you can ask a question and get a straight, contextual answer in return.
Treat Data as a Product
We need to stop thinking of product data as a byproduct of the process.
Data is the product. The knowledge we capture—about design decisions, configurations, costs, suppliers, revisions—is what enables teams to build, maintain, and improve complex products over time.
When you treat data like a product, you design it differently. You version it. You track its quality. You care about its lifecycle.
At OpenBOM, we’ve built our foundation around this idea: your product knowledge deserves the same attention and engineering as the product itself.
Use Graph-Based Architecture
Products are systems—and systems are relationships. Flat data structures and disconnected tables simply can’t capture the way real products are built and maintained.
A graph-based architecture allows us to connect parts to assemblies, revisions to changes, files to workflows, and people to roles in a way that mimics how engineers think.
This architecture unlocks traceability and visibility. It helps us answer questions like:
- Where else is this part used?
- What will break if I change this?
- Who approved the last change?
It’s not just about technology—it’s about building a foundation that reflects the real, connected nature of product development. Therefore, the overarching goal for PLM industry is to build its Manufacturing Graph.
Compose, Don’t Monolith
The era of monolithic enterprise software is over. The future belongs to platforms that are composable, flexible, and open. Check my Rethinking Monolithic Architectures article.
A human-centered PLM doesn’t try to do everything. Instead, it connects the right pieces—CAD, simulation, ERP, sourcing—into a system that fits the way your company actually works.
At OpenBOM, we believe in modular services, open APIs, and a data model that lets you evolve your system organically, not through massive reimplementation projects.
You shouldn’t have to choose between modern tools and a functioning PLM. You should be able to compose a solution that works for you.
Embrace New Business Models
This final principle is about accessibility. Human-centered PLM must be easy to adopt and scale. That means more than just SaaS—it means rethinking how PLM is sold and delivered.
Gone are the days of multi-year contracts, upfront license fees, and consulting-heavy deployments.
Today, companies want:
- Fast onboarding
- Try-before-you-buy options
- Usage-based pricing
- Continuous delivery
We must build PLM platforms that grow with companies, support new business models that promote network effect and increase the usage, and deliver value in weeks—not years.
đź“˝ View My Presentation Slides
If you missed my talk at Share PLM Summit 2025 or want to explore these ideas in more detail, you can view my slide deck here 👉
What’s My Conclusion?
In Jerez, the history of wine, music, and manufacturing is passed from generation to generation—not through files and databases, but through connection and conversation. It brings memories.
We’ve built systems for compliance. Now let’s build them for conversation. We’ve made PLM about process. Let’s make it about people. The next generation of PLM isn’t just about managing complexity—it’s about making that complexity usable, navigable, and meaningful.
The same about every company developing products – product and company memories are reflected in the data captured during the product design, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, maintenance. All together, it is intertwined with what company does and how it treats their customers.
That’s what PLM should feel like. A living, evolving memory of your product and your people.
And it starts, always, with one simple question: who are we building this for?
Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Disclaimer: I’m the co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM, a digital-thread platform providing cloud-native collaborative and integration services between engineering tools including PDM, PLM, and ERP capabilities. With extensive experience in federated CAD-PDM and PLM architecture, I’m advocates for agile, open product models and cloud technologies in manufacturing. My opinion can be unintentionally biased
