GMail and CAD PLM Cloud – Does it Fit Together?

October 2, 2011

gmail-300x220.pngI found an interesting article about GMail – Gmail now ‘Viable Alternative’ to Microsoft, says Gartner. Gartner is well known analytical company also making PLM consulting. Navigate your browser to the link and have a read. The opening sounds like as following:

Google’s Gmail is now a viable alternative to Microsoft Exchange Online and other cloud email services, according to analyst house Gartner, which said the enterprise-focused cloud email package is gaining momentum among commercial organisations with more than 5,000 seats. While cloud email is still in its infancy, Gartner expects it will account for more than half of the email market by the end of 2020.

This article made me think again about the latest wave of cloud announcements from Autodesk and Dassault System. Is there any connection between future growth of GMail and CAD/PLM vendors rushing to the cloud? Obviously, it is too early to say what will be the dynamic of cloud apps adoption, clearly both Autodesk and Dassault are trying to win "cloud game" and position their portfolio on the cloud. No doubt, mail is very important. In the past enterprise companies (especially in PLM domain) behaved in a quite ignorant way about email and even trying to compete with email. In my view, they lose this competition. At the same time, it seems to me a second round is coming. Cloud offering from CAD/PLM companies have a chance to be integrated with the cloud email. GMail is a perfect candidate.

What is my conclusion? I can see early dynamics in cloud email adoption. The same happens with CAD/PLM companies. They are confident about the future of cloud, but trying to check it carefully. Future interplay with cloud email, such as GMail can be an interesting competitive advantage. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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PLM, Organization and Information Silos: Good, Bad and Ugly

October 2, 2011

Earlier this month, I posted What is the biggest PLM challenge? Since then I had multiple conversations on twitter, blog and LinkedIn groups. Discussing a potential level of changes in the organization, I came to the topic of “information silos”. I found this topic interesting. Information silos – is it good or bad? Is it a problem at all? What PLM vision need to be applied to handle it? I wanted to quote one of my readers:

…It is about maintaining a trade-off between what is local and what is global in a company. The problem in my view is one of terminology. If we say “silos” we immediately think “bad”. This in turn promotes actions to minimize silos, which is harmful if driven too far. We need to conceptualize the organization in a different way. My take is “work practice” or similar constructs. An organization would be seen as a constellation of workpractices, each contributing to the overall goal of the organization. This would provide a perspective where trade-off, silos, business processes, etc., could be discussed from a more productive point of view.

I followed up the same topic on the round table during Autodesk Forum in Moscow. During the discussion, we found some interesting facts. Few participants mentioned that one of the challenges during PLM implementation is that PLM improve the transparency of processes and corresponded information in an organization. You can say – this is a really good thing. However, I’ve heard people faced organizational resistance. Information and process control is a power in every organization. So, people responsible for it don’t want to lose it. At the same time PLM streamlines processes it reduces the power of “gate keepers”. This is the ugly truth.

What is my conclusion? PLM is not only about technology. It can (actually does) change the way organization works top-down and bottom up. To manage this change is an important part of every implementation. However, PLM technologies nee to allow to make this change more transparent and less painful. Just my thoughts… I’d be interested to hear more about your experience. Speak your mind.

Best, Oleg

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PLM, Sharing Information and Googe+ Circles

October 1, 2011

If you developed or implemented PDM or PLM system, you probably know that definition of users, groups and roles are an essential piece of your implementation. The ability to set them and maintain within the time is very important and can influence many aspects of how a system performs and how business processes in the company will be managed. I’ve seen multiple implementations of users, groups and roles management tools and all of them looks pretty much the same.

Recently, lots of conversations happen around a so-called “social” topic. In a nutshell, lots of these talks about how to streamline organizational processes as a result of re-use some of the experience social networking website and web 2.0 applications gathered for the last 3-5 years. Social networks have been challenged by a significant increase in the level of complexity. Systems growing to 10s and 100s million of users invested a lot in the development of mechanisms to group people and establish different mechanisms define users and groups. Privacy concern made a key role in forcing social networks to develop very sophisticated information sharing mechanisms.

Most probably you had a chance to experience Google+ already. If you haven’t, make a try… Despite the obvious comparison with Facebook, I found it, actually, very different. Even if Google+ is only 3 months old, it is already running to add new features. I’ve been reading Mashable article – Now you can share your Google+ Circle with others. Google Circles are the mechanism that allows you to split and share multiple information streams. Watch the following video to see how you can share Circles:

This feature made me think about how Google+ Circle Share feature can be used to share information between different people and teams across the organizations. The user experience is the key point here. Instead of running complicated tools you can help people to find a right person to connect in the organization based on the contextual information (i.e. people’s role, project belonging, etc.). Do you think the idea is completely crazy? Tell me what tools are you using, for the moment, in your organization?

What is my conclusion? Everything becomes flat these days. Organizations are not exclusion from this rule. Complicated hierarchies and dependencies need to go away. To develop new ways to share information between people in organizations is extremely important. Google+, as well as other social nets are good examples of what future may look like. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

 

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