Comments on: What Is The Role of Business Intelligence in PLM? http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/ Product Lifecycle Management by Oleg Shilovitsky Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:57:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: olegshilovitsky http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3261 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:51:52 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3261 Pascal, Thank you for sharing your experience. When I talked about BI, I had in mind sort of capability to analyze various dimensions of product data managed by PLM today. Focus on Part Design and BOM is obvious, but the biggest value can come from multiple dimensions of PLM IP – requirements, design, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain. Such BI tools can be a very good companion for Program Management and this is, in my view, very close to your example of program release status and KPIs. Best, Oleg

]]> By: Pascal Demeester http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3259 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:39:01 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3259 Not sure what we should put under the umbrella of BI. If you include tracking part release status, related costs of parts or rolled up BOMs, get visibility on the sourcing activity of new parts, tracking parts in support of the APQP and other quality programs. Yes than I would agree there is a strong need for BI.
PLM traditionally focusses on part creation and BOM availability, there is indeed a gap.
For more than a year we have been investing in creating tools to support the above type of reporting. It allows us to build further on the meta data from our PLM, download it to an external database and as such creating a powerfull method of tracking and reporting against existing PLM and newly added attributes.
The modules we included in our software are part release, sourcing, cost and quality tracking. As all these modules are working from one database it support our platforms to report in a consistent, fast and collaborative way.
It gives platform responsibles a direct overview of the program release status and associated KPIs.

Pascal.

]]> By: olegshilovitsky http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3252 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:04:27 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3252 Manoj, thanks for your comment. One of the most challenging things in BI and BI implementation for PLM space is that BI can increase the complexity of implementation. I think most of PLM vendors these days are afraid of complexity, since customer perception is that PLM is complex. So, to resolve the complexity can be a big deal in this space. Best, Oleg.

]]> By: olegshilovitsky http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3250 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:56:58 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3250 Andrei, I think peeps in both industries still cannot see mutual benefits. Existing BI tools considered either as a very expensive toy for analysts or “per case” project. It doesn’t fit today’s PLM realities when PLM projects are focusing on how to reduce cost and mainstream adoption. This is my opinion. Best, Oleg

]]> By: Manoj http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3234 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:37:42 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3234 Oleg…I am a keen follower of this blog……very interesting topics being discussed…too many knots to untie….let it keep coming

Here is my take on BI and PLM. If a venbdor integrates BI into PLM, it will be one of the key differentiaters which be truly game changing. I believe the user community will benefit a lot if they have information on Past Trends, Current Bottlenecks and Future impacts. Decision aiding is one of the key feature of PLM when compared to pure-PDM and BI integration will only aid to it. How much thought is being put ito it by the current PLM vendors is a different question altogether. However, I believe any step forward in this direction will be welcomed with open hands by all customers….

]]> By: apandre http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3229 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:48:44 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3229 Hi Oleg:

I hope you are right about “other side” and somebody really has burning desire and budget to create new, PLM-oriented BI implementation. I also hope that this somebody will contact me, because I know internals of many BI tools and know how to do the “new implementation” for this “win/win business” you mentioned. However so far nobody contacted me and you are right that BI vendors focused on big wish, see 10th column, named “Company size (for pure BIA players)” at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t_-iYfGHRTXVj5yLYiYDWZQ&gid=1 :
their focus mostly Banking, Financials, Retail, Biotech and Pharma industries. My guess this is because these industries can afford BI tools and the usage of such software giving them ROI and solution for their problems?

]]> By: olegshilovitsky http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3227 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:26:57 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3227 apandre, Agree with part of your analyzes. However, I think BI space is overcrowded on the one side and on the other side is looking for new market implementation. I think BI vendors either focused on “big fish” like company finance or trying to catch OEM deals with big vendors (actually they successfully picked all big – IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP…). So, today for BI can be next round of opportunities and PLM can be one of the targets and maybe even win/win business. Great examples and estimations- will dig into this…. Thanks! Oleg

]]> By: olegshilovitsky http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3226 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:17:38 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3226 Prashant, Thanks for this example of Drools. I will take a deeper look on what they are doing. I thought this is a rule management system for jboss. Normally, PLM system also comes with somewhat that can be considered as a rule engine. How do you see integration of external one into existing commercial systems? Best, Oleg
PS. The ideas are in the air. The question is only how to get them. If you breathe the same air, you have a chance to pick up the same ideas :) …

]]> By: olegshilovitsky http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3225 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:02:35 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3225 Andy,I’d agree, just in order to stay in the focus, better to define the scope of PLM/BI… However, my main point is that focus on BI will allow to PLM tools to bring more value into the organization. Especially if this is something called “operational BI”. Today, I can see PLM focus is mostly around data creation (design, engineering, etc.), processes and collaboration. However, ability to analyze data you have heavily missed in many applications and implementations I’ve seen. Best, Oleg

]]> By: apandre http://plmtwine.com/2009/12/10/what-is-the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-plm/#comment-3224 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:05:57 +0000 http://plmtwine.com/?p=3794#comment-3224 Hello Oleg,

I think synergy between PLM and BI is extremely important for the future of PLM. PLM systems collecting and processing huge amount of data and without abilty to visualize these data and visually drill-down large datasets data becoming less and less useful. So I will try to comment on 3 subtopics Oleg pointed out:

1. Integration with BI: yes but with which one? SAP, IBM and Oracle are technologically behind (at least one generation behind). Microsoft tried to catchup twice already (ProClarity and PerformancePoint) and failed twice. But usually Microsft is good at third attempt and PowerPivot is coming in 2010.

2. Partner with Platform Provider(s): yes again but see p.1 above. SAS is a Mindshare leader but how easy to partner with it? So far best partnership experience you can find with companies like Qliktech, Spotfire and Panorama.

3. Development and/or acquisition of BI capabilities for PLM applications. Development is too late to start (why you need to invent the wheel and what is the time to market for it? BI and Analytics Market (BIA) is too crowded for a new development). Acquisition – yes, of course, but probably through OEM partnership and integration (API, scripting, common databases, common authentication etc.) – see p.p.1-2 above. If you want to check the Mind Share, the Market Share and some rating for BIA leaders, feel free to review my estimates here:
http://tinyurl.com/BIAShare

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