After a post on Oleg's Beyond PLM blog about PTC, I was thrilled by the "Applification" of their product. It's something I believe the PLM market should look at very closely in order to relaunch the innovation process in this industry. So I was thrilled.
So I tryed to get more information and watched that video:
I loved the assessment made by Jim Heppelmann. He's right in not believing that the PLM market is mature enough that there is no innovation possible. But his answers do not adress the issues he is trying to fix.
Application could be a good way to generate innovation in the PLM world. Give the backbone, people will develop not customizations but applications isolated from the core. Applications could call each other (have a look on what WP7 does, this is what a PLM should do: consolidate information the way you want).
Creo is what? a single database? That's not new. Role base application? That's not new either. Multi CAD support? Come on! MatrixOne was doing that 10 years ago! The attention on the user interface is good (I personally love their configurator), but it's still a thick client!
How does the architecture will adapt to specific needs? There is not a word on that. But that's the key to the future. The PLM vendors have to understand that they no longer sell only software. They have to enable services. Like the iPhone or Windows Phone 7, like Google or Amazon. By enabling service you will unleach the creativity but your fondation have to be solid (like iOS). The customers will be more happy to find more solutions on the market, they will be pleased to look at best practices from other industries, their implementation will not depend of the R&D of a single vendor, and so forth...
PTC has formulated well the issue the industry is facing, but is yet to overcome the PLM legacy to have a real breakthrough in the technology.
Very good observation!
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