In my last article, I walked through 30 years of PDM history—thanks to everyone who chimed in with comments and extra insights. One big question that surfaced was about disruption in the world of 3D, CAD, and PLM. Let’s talk about it today.
Every era has its giants. In the world of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and CAD, a handful of companies dominate the landscape, shaping the way manufacturers manage data and processes. Their names feel untouchable, almost immortal – Dassault, PTC, Siemens (UGS), Autodesk, and a few more. But history teaches us otherwise.
Think about it: for over three decades, we’ve essentially had the same lineup—three dominant CAD/PLM players, two ERP giants making PLM moves, Autodesk stepping in, and most recently Aras rising into the circle of recognized leaders.
As leadership shifts in all major PLM and CAD vendors (Chuck Grindstaff, Carl Bass, Bernard Charles, Jim Heppelmann, Peter Schroer), the question looms larger: what will happen to all these companies in the future? Are today’s market leaders destined to reign indefinitely, or will they follow the same path as once-mighty companies that disappeared almost overnight? Here’s the thought experiment: are these the “Blockbusters” of our industry? And if so… who’s going to be the “Netflix”?
Looking back at past failures — in PLM and in enterprise software more broadly — offers a sobering reminder: no leader is safe from disruption.
Let me speak about some examples of the companies that were disrupted or acquired.
Please note – although I speak about the challenges these companies faced, and at times their mistakes, each was ultimately a success for the industry, for its era, and most importantly, for the people who founded and built these technologies and businesses. After all, the only way to avoid mistakes is to do nothing.
Agile Software: The Pioneer That Lost Its Momentum
Agile was an early PLM darling. Its focus on BOM and change management won many customers in electronics and high-tech, but it never expanded beyond that niche. Oracle acquired Agile in 2007, and the product quickly faded inside Oracle’s much larger ERP portfolio. Along the way, Agile made a few acquisitions, including Eigner PLM and Cimmetry (AutoVue), and built a strong customer base, but it never grew beyond its core niche. Now, with Oracle planning to eliminate Agile PLM in 2027, other PLM vendors are actively hunting its customers for replacements.
Parallel: Lotus 1-2-3 in spreadsheets. Both pioneered their category but failed to evolve when platforms shifted and ecosystems consolidated.
MatrixOne: Innovation Without Sustainability
MatrixOne was famous for its flexibility – an amazing tech which scaled and had unique data management capabilities – platform that could be endlessly adapted. Many enterprise customers adopted it for that reason.
But flexibility turned into over-customization and unclear application strategy, making systems fragile and expensive to maintain. Dassault Systemes acquired it in 2006, when it was on the hunt for scalable V6 core tech and its independent identity and later tech disappeared.
Parallel: Borland in developer tools. Brilliant, flexible, and loved by power users — until ecosystems standardized around larger players.
Eigner: A European Story of Brilliant PLM Functions and Scale
Eigner excelled with engineering-focused PDM. Prof. Dr. Martin Eigner took it to unimaginable level of quality to support PLM scenarios. Its foundation was strong, but it never scaled globally beyond German speaking country. Acquired by Agile and its influence was later buried inside Oracle. Still has customers that run it even 20 years after the aquisitions.
Parallel: Sybase in databases. Strong technology, regional loyalty, but unable to fight global ecosystem leaders.
The “Workgroup” PDM Graveyard
Several systems that were great technologically and functionaly – SmarTeam, SolidWorks Workgroup PDM, PTC Pro/INTRALINK and some others — these tools served its segments well in the 1990s, 2000s and beginning of 2010s. But they weren’t designed to be “platforms”, to grow for enterprise company collaboration. Got acquired and replaced for a better “platform” or “scale” vision. Some of them still has customers even in 2025. Vendors discontinued them, leaving customers stranded or forced into expensive migrations.
Parallel: WordPerfect. Hugely popular, practical, but once ecosystems shifted to Microsoft Office, it was game over.
Sun Microsystems: Innovation Without Monetization
Sun created Java, Solaris, and SPARC servers. It was a giant. But Sun never managed to monetize Java effectively, and commodity Linux servers crushed its hardware business. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010.
Parallel to PLM: Many vendors invented the right concepts — digital thread, BOM Management, system modeling, but failed to monetize or operationalize them. Innovation without a business model is fragile.
Informix Database: When Trust Disappears
Informix rivaled Oracle in the 1990s database wars. But accounting scandals undermined trust, and IBM picked up the pieces in 2001.
Parallel to PLM: While PLM hasn’t had accounting scandals, it has suffered trust breakdowns of another kind — long, costly projects that over-promised and under-delivered. When credibility collapses, recovery is nearly impossible.
The Common Threads of Enterprise Failure
Here are two five failures in enterprise software and CAD/PDM/PLM I identified.
- Missed platform shifts: DOS/Unix → Windows, on-prem → SaaS, desktop → cloud.
- Bundling beats brilliance: Office vs Lotus; ERP vs PLM. Ecosystems matter more.
- Over-customization fragility: MatrixOne, Borland. Flexibility becomes liability.
- Failure to monetize innovation: Sun with Java; PLM with many concepts in the 2000s.
- Broken trust: whether financial (Informix) or implementation over promise (PLM).
Recommendations for Today’s PLM Developers
History offers clear warnings. For those building PLM today, I’d like to outline a few principles:
- Monetize innovation carefully. Big concepts only matter if they deliver usable value.
- Focus on business and sales relentlessly. It is easy to create a product, hard to build a business.
- Embrace true multi-tenancy and SaaS-native architecture. Retrofitting old models never works.
- Design for networks, not silos. Future PLM must enable broad multi-company collaboration.
- Balance flexibility with governance. Guardrails are as important as configurability.
- Focus relentlessly on trust and time-to-value. Quick wins are the only cure for PLM skepticism.
What is My Conclusion and PLM’s Fragile Legacy?
The disappearance of Agile, MatrixOne, Eigner, Pro/INTRALINK, SmarTeam, Workgroup PDM echoes the fates of Lotus, Borland, Sun, and Informix Database. The lesson – no software system, no matter how entrenched, is immortal.
Today’s PLM giants may look untouchable, but so did Blockbuster, Sun, Lotus, WordPerfect… Tomorrow’s disruption will not be about size, but about adaptability, openness, and the ability to deliver trust and value across networks of companies.
The question for PLM’s current leaders is not whether disruption will come — but whether they are prepared to survive it.
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
