CIMdata Product Innovation Platform assessment and PLM vendor comparison

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Manufacturing companies need to have a better way to compare PLM infrastructure and made a decision about PLM and other technological vendors to work with. How to come with a new set of criteria helping IT and engineering software managers to make a right purchasing decision. This is not a simple question to answer.

I shared my thoughts about it earlier this year - Why traditional PLM ranking is dead. PLM Ranking 2.0.

I grabbed few old PLM ranking schemas - Gartner MQ and Forrester from 10 years old presentations. Check this screenshot.

Gartner stopped PLM MQ. I think 2008 version was the last one. However, a new PLM wave can give you some surprises. Check the last one 2018. You can see new players (Aras), but also you can be surprised by some changes in positions of companies such as Siemens and PTC.

CIMdata recently introduced new concept PIP (product innovation platform) with set of characteristics. The following picture gives you an idea of CIMdata PIP concept.

My attention was caught by Aras publication - CIMdata Aras Product Innovation Platform Assessment. Check details here. I captured results from Aras presentation:

The overall assessments between Very good and Excellent looks impressive. Knowing how strong Aras is presenting its capabilities to upgrade between version using Aras Modeler, I was surprised it was not marked as "excellent" by CIMdata.

CIMdata PIP assessment model made me think it can be used to compare PLM technology and platforms. I didn't find similar assessment diagrams done for other PLM vendors and platforms. If you're aware about them, please let me know.

What is my conclusion? Choosing right technology and PLM platform is extremely hard process. Comparison between 2 stacks of enterprise software can be a nightmare.I continuously see manufacturing companies looking for benchmarks and comparison criteria. Can CIMdata PIP assessment become a foundation of such comparison? This is a good question. Gartner MQ and Forrester pictures are hiding granular characteristics while CIMdata PIP presented them in a better way. While it is a good presentation, it is still not clear for me if you can use it as a comparison tool. 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.