Over the last few months, I have spoken to many companies from both sides of the fence, including PLM technology suppliers and PLM users at Retailers, Brands and Manufacturers, on the why the industry needs WhichPLM…
During the last 34 years I’ve been involved with PDM & PLM solutions and having worked for several of the leading solution suppliers, I can tell you that they all have one thing in common: they all claim to be the market leader. The fact is that there is no organisational body out there to validate who provides the best solution fit for each customer’s unique requirements. Customers navigating through the lengthy selection process, wading through the endless marketing spin, are particularly unaided in their search to find the perfect solution fit. .
Add to the mix, Market Analysts and Industry Trade Magazines’ frequent reports stating who the ‘top performing’ suppliers are. These might seem helpful to an industry-outsider, but are not because of the ‘research methodologies’ used. The fact is that in most cases, these organisations simply send a questionnaire to PLM suppliers asking them to rate their solution against a list of basic PLM process questions. At best, the researcher is also shown a short presentation. Now, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out the type of results that will head back to the analyst after the sales and marketing departments have completed the task! The fact that these researchers are not involved in scoring the solutions themselves leads to some seriously inaccurate and inconsistent ratings.
At WhichPLM, we carefully evaluate all solutions included on the site, scoring, not just on product functionality, but also on technical and commercials aspects. This very process will provide customers with accurate information on each PLM supplier and help level the playing field. With WhichPLM, we want to build a truly independent source of information that customers can trust, enabling them to accurately compare PLM suppliers with facts and not marketing spin.
Mark Harrop
Mark Harrop is a leading Apparel PLM expert with more than 34 years experience in the industry. Mark co-founded the Product Development Partnership Ltd, the team of experts behind WhichPLM.
