Ann Arbor, MI—June 26, 2015—CIMdata, Inc., a global product lifecycle management (PLM) strategic management consulting and research firm, announced the release of the CIMdata PLM Industry Review and Trends Report, the second of five modules of the CIMdata 2015 Market Analysis Report (MAR) Series. The MAR Series provides detailed information and in-depth analysis on the worldwide PLM market during 2014. It contains analyses of major trends and issues; revenues of leading PLM providers; and revenue analyses for geographical regions, industry sectors, and historical and projected data on market growth.
The focus of the 2015 trends report is on platforms for innovation. According to conventional wisdom, companies thrive on innovation. Common practice is to use a strategic planning process to go from vision to mission to strategy. Depending on the industry, the approach necessary to meet strategic innovation objectives varies. The focus could be new products, services or processes, or a combination of strategic initiatives, with returns projected for each alternative. Companies need to innovate across the full spectrum of their operations, including logistics, infrastructure, processes, services and specific strategic initiatives. In some cases, new business models may be needed to best capture the market for a new innovation.
To support their efforts, organizations define the necessary data, processes and functional capabilities. This combination of data-process-function is the core of CIMdata's definition of a platform. Platforms may or may not be information technology (IT) enabled. Some platforms are IT intensive—for example, companies use enterprise resource planning (ERP) to optimally allocate resources for production. Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions do just that, i.e., they help companies engage with their customers to manage the sales, and provisioning of products and services. PLM emerged as a strategic business approach to support product and process development, enabled by software, technology and services. CIMdata's definition of PLM spans from product idea through life, so PLM has a huge role to play in product, process, services associated with process and innovation.
IT is currently supporting many organizational innovation processes. Over the last several years, the ideation process was spectacularly enabled by social technology. One could think of Kickstarter as the platform in this case, leveraging its communities of interest to bring new ideas to life. Many industrial companies now rely on open innovation with selected individuals or communities, creating their own platforms to make this happen. One reason for the huge growth in the simulation and analysis (S&A) segment is the increasing use of S&A earlier in the product lifecycle, back at the concept stage. While companies used to do sketches and clay models, now they are creating systems of 0D, 1D, 2D and 3D models. Are existing platforms adequate for supporting this approach or are new ones required? What new skills, solutions, and services do systems integrators and reseller/value-added resellers (VARs) need to develop to empower their customers to succeed with this new approach? These are critical considerations.
The existing PLM-enabling platforms are evolving. Several leading solution providers are moving from one monolithic offering to a core solution and associated apps, much like the ubiquitous smartphone. Is this the consumerization of IT hitting PLM? What does it mean for users, and for solution and service providers? In particular, it should have a huge impact on PLM sustainability, an ongoing CIMdata research effort. Other emerging technologies like 3D printing and the Internet of Things are creating new innovation opportunities in many industrial segments.
The CIMdata PLM Market Analysis Report Series is packaged as five modules:
- The CIMdata 2015 Executive PLM Market Report, which provides an overview of CIMdata's complete global analysis. It includes key charts on PLM market investment statistics through 2014, forecasts of investments for 2015 through 2019 and a summary of PLM solution providers' performance in 2014.
- The CIMdata 2015 PLM Industry Review and Trends Report is mainly qualitative in nature, and focuses on key issues facing the global PLM ecosystem of solution providers and end-user organizations. It highlights changes that occurred in 2014, what effects those changes may have in the short and medium term, and what is on the horizon in the years to come.
- The CIMdata 2015 PLM Market and Solution Provider Analysis Report details measures of and forecasts for the overall PLM market and its key segments, including tools, cPDm and digital manufacturing. It also includes CIMdata's estimates of PLM solution provider revenues in these segments and sub-segments for 2015 through 2019.
- The CIMdata 2015 PLM Market Geographic Analysis Report provides an additional view of the 2014 market results by major geography. CIMdata's 2014 estimates and market forecasts for 2015 through 2019 for PLM, and the major PLM market segments are provided for the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia-Pacific. In addition, the report includes estimates and forecasts for the cPDm segment within specific European and Asia-Pacific countries and regions.
- The CIMdata 2015 PLM Market Industry Analysis Report provides an industry segmentation view of the 2014 market results. CIMdata's 2014 estimates and market forecasts for 2015 through 2019 for PLM and cPDm are provided for eight different industry sectors: aerospace and defense; automotive and other transportation; electronics/telecommunications; fabrication and assembly; process-packaged goods; process-petrochemical; utilities; and construction, infrastructure and shipbuilding.
The CIMdata PLM Market Analysis Report Series is available as a five-module set or each module can be purchased separately. It is also available as part of the CIMdata PLM Community Gold Membership.
