PLM and SharePoint Technical Definition

April 30, 2012

I’m off to Detroit, MI this week for Aras PLM user conference – ACE 2012. Microsoft .NET and MS SQL are two important elements of Aras infrastructure. For many enterprises these days, Microsoft IT based technology is no-brainerdecision. It runs everywhere.

It is near impossible to talk about PLM and Microsoft’s technologies without talking about what potential role Microsoft SharePoint can play in establishment of scalable PLM solutions. Usually, Microsoft SharePoint and PLM are over-hyped by lots of marketing slogans. I decided to take off marketing and get down to SharePoint technical definition that can help PLM and IT managers in organization to decide about how to position PLM and SharePoint in their strategies and implementations.

The following article – Making Sense of SharePoint 2010 by Tim Anderson provides a very good foundation for my post today. Have a read and make your conclusion. The following quote is the best introduction to what is SharePoint in a nutshell:

So what is SharePoint really? Technically, it is an ASP.NET application which runs on Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft’s web server, and which stores most of its data in a SQL Server database. Conceptually, it is the outcome of Microsoft’s efforts over many years to create a web storage system, a document repository accessible via a web browser.

SharePoint is extremely good if you are working with Office documents. It provides a very tight integration with Microsoft Products. The majority of companies today are running Office. I was able to see some companies taking off to Open Office or Google lately, but not doubt – Office is mainstream even after of public web 2.0 disruption. The following passage explains clearly your advantages of working with Office in SharePoint – seamless integration.

SharePoint is designed to integrate with the Microsoft Office client applications such as Word and Excel . If you do not use Office, SharePoint is unlikely to be worth running. When used with Office, a key feature is that users can open a document from a SharePoint site, edit it, and save it, without being presented with a Save As dialog. This is one reason SharePoint works better than simply storing documents on a web site with download and upload features.

I want to add few words about multiple versions of SharePoint. There are three versions – Foundation, SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Enterprise 2010. Here is the summary:

Foundation includes document management, discussion forums, wikis, and support for applications including workflows. SharePoint Server 2010 extends this with search, compliance features including document retention policies, server-side Microsoft Word automation, social media features including status updates, ratings and tagging, individual profiles and content sites, video and audio media support, templates for workflows, improved scalability, and more. SharePoint Enterprise 2010 adds server-side support for Access databases and Excel automation services, business intelligence integration, support for forms applications using InfoPath (part of Microsoft Office), more scalable search and more.

PLM and SharePoint

I think, the overall hype of SharePoint replacing PLM solutions is over these days. Nevertheless, SharePoint became practically ubiquitous these days if you think about enterprises. The infrastructure provided by SharePoint is well-known by IT and service organizations. As soon as it approved to be used in organization can provide a backbone for collaborative applications. You need to take into the account the cost of SharePoint.

The base Foundation product is surprisingly rich, considering that it is a free add-on. SharePoint involves licensing for three products, each with separate CALs (Client Access Licenses). These are Windows Server, which is always required; SQL Server, which is required unless you use the free SQL Server Express, and SharePoint itself, which is required for editions other than Foundation. Since SQL Server Express is limited to single-server installs and 10GB per database, some organisations which can get by with Foundation will still need SQL Server and its CALs.

You can consider SharePoint as a platform for customization.

SharePoint is an application, but it is also a platform. Since it is built on ASP.NET, code that runs on ASP.NET will generally run in SharePoint too. Office services for Word and Excel enable applications that parse, manipulate and create documents.

What is my conclusion? SharePoint is stable Microsoft based infrastructure. If your company is running on Microsoft products you can consider it as an option to develop additional applications. Check your PLM provider on how flexible PLM platform and applications can be integrated with SharePoint – you can save a lot of service money and people resources in the future by doing so. Reading from Aras website:

Our application framework is implemented on the Microsoft .NET and Microsoft SQL Server platform. And Aras technology has built in security from the ground up and a world-class professional services and support team to meet your unique design, development and infrastructure needs.

I’ll pay a close attention understanding how Aras keep following integration with SharePoint and Microsoft technological foundation. Follow my blog and twitter later. this week.

Best, Oleg

Disclosure: Aras paid my registration and traveling expenses to ACE 2012. Microsoft wasn’t involved. Both Aras and Microsoft are in no way influenced the content of this post.

11 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM and Multiplatform Development

December 28, 2011

Please welcome a new-old word – multiplatform. When did you hear about for the last time? For those of you counting 15+ years in the industry it reminds the time CAD was a place of heavy workstation with ***NIX operation systems, etc. For a very long period of time, CAD and PLM were a place where 99% of software was developed on top of Microsoft platforms. I touched this topic in my blog almost a year ago. Navigate to this link to refresh your memories. So, I decided to come again to this topic.

The diversity of software-development platforms for engineering and manufacturing these days is much broader than 2-3 years ago. Apple, Table, Android, iPad – all these names came to the play recently and changed the landscape of what we do. Take a look on the following chart I made playing with these names on Google Trends:

PLM – Legacy and Integration Services

These two topics become even more important in the context of multiple platforms and enterprise software (PLM is a typial use case). Existing implementations need to be support. Service companies and IT will make implementation and develop new solutions based on the software provided by vendors. This is a very complicated set of dependencies.

What is my conclusion? I think, world changed again, and we are moving from mono-development culture to multiple platforms again. It raises multiple decision points in front of software vendors and service providers. It looks like coming years will provide a bigger challenge to these companies to make a right choice about how to balance between legacy and future, existing platforms and future trends. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Microsoft Socl and Social PLM Thoughts

November 21, 2011

Do you know what is Microsoft Socl? I didn’t know until yesterday. However, now I know. It is a new research project by Microsoft, which supposed to become a next social network. Mashable just wrote about it four days ago here. Who is behind this project? This is what Mashable article says:

First published by The Verge on Wednesday, Microsoft tells Mashable that, “Microsoft’s FUSE Labs is an internal research group working on a number of forward-looking projects related to future possibilities around social search. Socl is one of the projects that we are exploring. We’ll let you know as soon as we have more to share.

However, watch the video:

You may ask me- how it is related? We already got MySpace, Facebook, Google+… now what? – Socl. Here is the point. As you probably know, I’m less interested in social networks, but more interested in PLM management.

Will PLM lose social competition to CRM?

The PLM vendors recently speaking a lot of “social” and how it is going to change their product offering. I had a chance to write about it multiple times. However, I want to point out to one specific blog I wrote 2 years ago (24-Nov): How many social platforms we need for enterprise? I wanted to get back to the same question again when I was watching socl video by Microsoft. At the same time, PLM vendors are developing social platforms – PTC, Dassault, Autodesk… Everybody is trying to play this social card.

I can see a very significant problem for all PLM social solutions – they are disconnected from people. Don’t take me wrong – obviously people are using PLM solutions in enterprise companies. However, the majority of people are not. Remember, time ago, PLM competed with ERP about “who” owns the item definition. ERP won, PLM lost the competition. Why do you think it happened? In my view, here is the reason – you have to to touch “Item Master” to manufacture the product. So, you will use ERP and it manage Item masters. You are not necessarily needed to touch “item” to run PLM. You can do it, of course. However, it happens much rarely. The same happens with social and CRM. If you are contacting your customers – you must be social. Therefore, everybody will touch Salesforce.com Chatter or similar social platform from CRM provider. However, PLM social platform will be downgraded to people that touch PLM platform only.

What is my conclusion? Social platforms cannot change the position of a system in the organization. You need to have people around the social platform to make it work and progress. It happens to CRM, but it probably won’t happen to PLM. So, maybe PLM vendors need to focus on something 100% of the users need? Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank, Social | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Google vs. Microsoft at General Motors: What does it mean for PLM Cloud?

November 18, 2011

Cloud big time… It is probably coming to General Motors. Google is fighting against Microsoft to supply 100’00 license deal for GM. Navigate your browser to the following article – GM is the latest battleground between Microsoft Office and Google Apps. Read the story. Automaker is running 100’000 seats of Notes. Will the number moves to Google or Microsoft? The following passage is interesting:

If GM were to deploy Google Apps to the 100,000 seats it has apparently contracted to study, it would be a huge win for Google. No other customer approaches that scale: The City of Los Angeles signed a contract for 30,000 Google Apps seats two years ago, but only 17,000 seats have been rolled out, with the LAPD still stalling. Genentech has about 15,000 users; KLM about 11,000 users, Valeo about 30,000, the U.S. General Services Administration about 17,000, and Rentokil about 35,000.

Think about the numbers. Also, think about other customers mentioned above. Does it ring the bell? I think it does.

How PLM software vendors can leverage Google Cloud?

It is always good if somebody fights your fight. The story about Google vs. Microsoft GM Cloud fight made me think about what PLM vendors got to do with regards to this? Companies like GM are very conservative. You need to spend a huge deal of money to convince behemoths to change their strategies. Assuming Google will convince GM and other automotive companies to shift towards Google App from Microsoft SharePoint and Office. It can turn up an opportunity window for PLM and other engineering and manufacturing solution providers into GM-like deals. Is it going to work? I think, it is hard to say, for the moment. However, long term Google has a huge potential. Will Microsoft be ready to protect their home turf? I’m sure they will. It will come as a bundle of W8, Skype, Office and other solutions. They have a chance to keep the territory.

What is my conclusion? The battle about cloud solutions is still in the future. PLM companies are trying shallow water by playing cloud with a small amount of customers. For most of them, it is about how to check technologies and solutions. Company like DS already spent huge chunks of money for R&D cloud efforts. Autodesk is still preparing to come to PLM space and surprise everybody. It is not much known about Siemens and PTC. In the past CAD/PLM companies leveraged their partnership with Microsoft, IBM and other large technological partners. How to choose the right partner for the future cloud battle is a good question to ask. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

6 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Dynamics AX Hybrid Cloud. Should PLM Vendors Care?

September 14, 2011

I have a feeling "cloud" topic got some dominance for the last days and week. However, the following article about Dynamics AX 2012 and cloud was something I considered important enough to mention. Navigate your browser and read – Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Dips Its Toes In the Cloud, Carefully. Microsoft is pushing their Dynamics AX to the cloud and trying to keep it on the ground at the same time. Here is how it happens:

With this morning’s release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the company’s long-standing enterprise resource planning suite, the company is rolling out a new set of Windows Azure-based services that are leveraged on top of local deployments. The newest of these services is a deployment assistance tool called RapidStart that gives new customers a wizard-like questionnaire system for configuring Dynamics AX.

Microsoft is trying to blend tools and introduce Azure services. Some of them already here. The choice of "Rapid Start" is interesting too. Deployment, configuration and service – these are most painful topics in every implementation. To have an assistant coming from the cloud is kinda cool…

Dynamics AX and PLM

What PLM vendors can learn from Dynamics AX? AX never been very focused on PLM and PDM options. However, Dynamics AX kept PLM/PDM in the scope of Manufacturing solutions. Take a look on the following chartrepresenting Industrial Equipment solutions based on AX.

What is my conclusion? Microsoft is trying to push their new Azure development into existing business applications. AX is one of them. The idea of cloud services to leverage existing system is an important point. It is not unique to Microsoft, but probably can fit very well. This is something that can take care of existing investment made by a customer and prevent immediate "migration" development. Azure cloud can be a good technology option for such type of solution. PLM vendors need to notice how to re-use existing assets with the cloud option. This is can be an important strategy for coming years. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Autodesk and SharePoint: collaboration with no compromises?

July 6, 2011

Collaboration and SharePoint are two of my favorite topics. I’m following them for the last couple of years. In one of my very early posts on PLM Think Tank I wrote about SharePoint PLM Paradox? Microsoft SharePoint 2007 business model made it very successful. Technology was decent and I’ve seen many customers and business partners are making success with SharePoint deployment and development. I saw a definite potential for SharePoint to enrich PLM experience from both technological and user experience side. However, I don’t see the roadmap towards SharePoint success in CAD/PLM business as something simple and straightforward. Different vendors in CAD, PDM and PLM spaces are targeting differently SharePoint. Earlier this year I put some of my thoughts about PLM and SharePoint in the following post – PLM and SharePoint: Business Together? The SharePoint roadmap was bumpy for some of the vendors, and I shared my view on PTC’s, SharePoint and ProductPoint Retirement. Navigate to the following link to learn more.

SharePoint 2010 – even more collaboration?

Microsoft announced SharePoint 2010 almost two years ago. The new version of SharePoint put additional focus on business aspects of SharePoint integration within enterprises. Content type management, BCS, Lists, Web Parts, Workflow – this is only a short list of enhancements and topics Microsoft was focusing on in SharePoint 2010. I put some of my thoughts about the Sharepoint 2010 path in PLM back in September 2009. Navigate to the following two blogs to read more: SharePoint 2010 Communities and PLM Social Demands and SharePoint 2010 for Collaborative Product Development Applications.

Autodesk, SharePoint and PLM Option

In my view, Autodesk stayed neutral with regards to SharePoint long time. It doesn’t mean Autodesk products didn’t provide some support for SharePoint. Nevertheless, I haven’t seen SharePoint as a strategic option for Autodesk.Autodesk Vault, provided set of technologies and tools for product data management (PDM) and collaboration.

Earlier last week, Autodesk announced about Vault and SharePoint collaboration. Navigate to the following link to read the announcement – Autodesk Vault Works with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 to Provide Access to Design Information Across the Enterprise. In my view, this is a notable change in Autodesk’s strategy. Here is the passage from the announcement:

The solution takes advantage of features and functionality provided in SharePoint 2010 and Autodesk Vault 2012, giving SharePoint 2010 users direct access to engineering and design data within Vault, including search and navigation, and the ability to view and print design data.… SharePoint 2010 users now have direct access to building information modeling (BIM) and digital prototyping data within Vault and can incorporate it into existing enterprise data, tools and processes.

In addition, the press release release is talking about technologies such as social computing, federated search, Microsoft Web Services and Microsoft SQL Server.

What does it mean? Brian Schanen put two videos on his blog presenting how Vault is integrated with SharePoint 2010. Here is one of them presenting Manufacturing scenario:

Let me make some observations. Autodesk is highlighting some changes in Autodesk Vault such as “a project oriented UI” and process orientation. The presented scenario shows collaboration in the context of engineering change order. This is one of the most popular scenarios presented by mainstream PLM vendors in the context of design and engineering collaboration. Huh… Autodesk is moving to PLM? This is not a new topic. Almost a year ago, I posted -Autodesk, Data Management and “Why PLM?” topic. There is no consensus about Autodesk PLM move in the industry community. In my view, PLM move will not be an easy jump for Autodesk.Recently, I can see some changes in Autodesk PLM orientation. During the recent meeting with Autodesk Management, Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO made some interesting statements with regards to Autodesk and PLM strategy. You can listen to Carl’s talk and see presentation by navigating to the following link (you will have to register and leave Autodesk you email address to access this link).

SharePoint Technology: Strengths and Weakness

Technological aspects of SharePoint integration with Autodesk Vault is another interesting question. Since I wasn’t able to find any published information about that, I can only guess and rely on Autodesk video, Microsoft SharePoint technology and architecture slides. SharePoint is a technology and platform. SharePoint platform contains lots of benefits for every company running Microsoft stack and, in addition, has lots of bells and whistles. Many enterprises are running their collaborative efforts and content management projects using SharePoint. At the same time, in order to be successful, it requires consultancy, consultancy and again, consultancy. It is important to estimate the cost of free SharePoint. Deployment is another aspect of how SharePoint option will play for Autodesk customers. Read the following blog – PLM and SharePoint Scalability to get a glimpse of the idea. SharePoint can be a powerful tool, but it requires an appropriate planning.

What is my conclusion? My hunch, statement is probably outdated. PLM ideas have some roots in the ground. PLM mindshare vendors are selling PLM solution, and Autodesk is asking themselves a question what alternative to put in front of PLM collaboration and Top Down single point of truth. Bridging SharePoint and Autodesk Vault is a step towards trying to find that solution. Autodesk MLP hardly can be considered as an option. There is probably a better option. Autodesk needs to figure out how to develop that. Interesting time… Just my opinion, of course. YMMV.

Best, Oleg

1 Comment | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM Excels and Microsoft Cloud Office 365

June 28, 2011

Do you know what is the most widely adopted PLM system in the world? You probably can guess based on the title of this blog post – Microsoft Excel. I’ve been writing about Microsoft Excel and PLM many times.

PLM Excel Spreadsheets: From Odes to Woes
Why Do I Like My PLM Excel Spreadsheet?
Do We Need Chief Excel Officer To Manage BOM?

Microsoft just released Office 365 in the cloud:

Earlier today, I was reading details about Microsoft new cloud offering. Navigate to the following link to read – Microsoft puts Office in the ‘cloud,’ confronts Google. What is the story? For many years, Microsoft was leading in Office space selling Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook to individuals and enterprises. The market share of Microsoft Office products is huge. However, for the last couple of years, Google succeeded to introduce a strong cloud competition to Microsoft Office products – Google Apps. To compete with them, Microsoft is placing Office product in the cloud for a very competitive price. This is a very interesting quote from Reuter blog post:

Google, which has had the most success in the small and medium-sized business range, says there are now 40 million users of online Google Apps suite. Microsoft does not publish equivalent numbers, but research firm comScore has estimated 750 million people worldwide use Office in some form.

PLM and Office in the Cloud

So Office is hearing in the cloud. What does it mean for manufacturing companies and PLM vendors? One of the most problematic side effects of working with Office and specifically with Excel was the ability to share data and collaborate between different people in an organization. Separate Excel files, even if you put them in the shared drives, are very bad for this. Multiple PLM systems were focused on how people can work collaboratively sharing information about drawings and bill of materials. With the introduction of Office 360 and growing competition of Google, PLM companies can find their collaborative solution with cloud collaboration supported by Excel running on cloud. Microsoft is emphasizing how Office 365 will be used by small and medium customers first. As you can see on the picture below – it is just $6 /month.

What is my conclusion? I don’t think, PLM vendors will be in a real jeopardy because of Microsoft Office moves to the cloud and competing with Google Apps. Large manufacturing companies are complicated, and PLM vendors sit deep inside with the implementation of complex PLM product suites. However, what happens with hundreds of these that are running Microsoft Excel as their PLM system? Time to make some thinking and calculations. Important…

Just my thoughts.
Best, Oleg

3 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Future Promises and Concerns about PTC after Planet PTC Live

June 16, 2011

Picture-18.pngAs you probably know, I spent the beginning of the week in Las-Vegas attending Planet PTC Live 2011. Those of my readers who follow me on Twitter already paid attention on the overflow of tweets and absence of posts. Yesterday night catching my red-eye flight to Boston, I started to put some of my initial thoughts about what I’ve seen at PTC Live.

Thinking About Apps

One of the fundamental changes I can observe within PTC move to Creo is establishing of Apps sitting on top of the configurable platform and sharing common working environment. The original idea is probably not unique. The idea of workbenches, desktops, suites and many others was before in enterprise software. However, the initial set of apps and future plans shows good understanding of customer needs and easy flow. The devil is in details, and I can see next months of working with a broader set of customers interesting.

Windchill 10 and Usability

The problem is usability is an important one. Among the use communities, PLM is often associated with the complexity of user experience, cumbersome user interface, long and complicated learning curve. PTC definitely recognized the problem and presented some ideas in Windchill. The Windchill 10 UI looks much better compared to what I had a chance to see before. However, at the same the overall Windows UI looks complicated.

Mobile and Cloud

These two topics are trending these days. I see them as very important things. I liked Windchill Mobile application presented by Brian Shepherd iPad. My favorite feature was the way to work with assembly decomposition on parts. It is pretty cool. The interest to mobile is very high these days, and it is a good sign to see PTC jumping to the PLM mobile race.

Picture-19.png

Cloud is another thing that I’m discussing a lot on my blog. I’ve heard PTC talking about the cloud as a "deployment option". You can deploy to Amazon, Azure, etc. I think, the cloud topic is broader than just deployment and includes other aspects such as multi-tenancy, parallelism and some others.

Social "Things"

PTC introduced Windchill Social Link earlier last year. The trend for social application is strong. I can see almost all enterprise vendors are working on social apps these days. Salesforce.com Chatter, SAP StreamWork and others. What is the differentiation between SAP social app and PTC social app for a specific customer? How they work together? How many social applications do we need in a single manufacturing enterprise? All these valid questions and need to be answered.

Microsoft

I had a chance to speak with people at PTC working on the partnership with Microsoft. PTC is strong Microsoft’s customer, and I’ve seen multiple examples of common Microsoft / PTC technologies working together. At the same time, it will be interesting how PTC customers will be moving to the "post-PC" era. Life was simple with regards to platform supports last 10-15 years. Similar to "a fashion world", we are moving to multi-platform world now again. This is an interesting time to watch.

SharePoint

PTC is presenting strong support related to SharePoint technologies. At the same time, the information about discontinuation of Windchill ProductPoint shows that something is wrong here. PTC retiring ProductPoint. According to the plan, ProductPoint was providing a support for smaller manufacturing companies. The ubiquitous access to information, well know user experience (shared with Windows) was a foundation for success. Navigate to the following link to learn what is my opinion about that. After few conversations with PTC people, my conclusion about ProductPoint retiring is positive. There is nothing wrong is trying the water and pushing back. SharePoint still remains the platform many companies are relying on. At the same time, customers need to asses carefully their spending before going to SharePoint journey.

One Size Does Fit All

There is something that related to the PLM vendors work with smaller manufacturing companies. Very often, vendors are calling it SMB. Without neccarily going to clarify what actually SMB means, my concern is in the way PLM solutions can scale between all companies. I’m personally not a supporter of ‘one size fits all’ approach. In my view, it doesn’t work in other places, and it shouldn’t work for PLM as well. However, to balance between multiple solutions is somewhat that always was hard to PLM vendors. Maybe the idea of Apps can be a good here. So, today I can see some holes in the PTC solutions targeting smaller manufacturing companies.

Complexity

Unfortunately, PLM has a strong association with a word "complex". PLM companies are doing well in this space, as I can see that. The complication of core functionality multiplies with complexity of customer environments, need to provide tailored solution and smooth deployment create the feeling of "messy PLM projects" nobody wants to be involved in. I think, this is still a painful topic, and it is not much addressed by PTC specifically and PLM industry in general.

Integration

We are not living in a world of a single software vendor. Companies are using lots of application and software suites these days. Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply chain, etc. The number is huge and every company is using dozens and hundred applications to get job done. It is a very important goal for PLM product to be connected and interplay with these products. Unfortunately, the dominant idea of "master data" is what used by PTC (and other vendors here). I’ve been attending a session related to PLM-ERP integration during the event and found topics that remain open for the last 10-15 years. The solution proposed here has strong reliance on "workshops" and "people agreement" in a company. Remember – technology is simple, but people are hard. Pushing a solution towards people agreement about how to integrate systems makes it very complicated, in my eyes.

Single Point of Truth

The last, but not the least one. The concept of a single point of truth is strong and heavily supported by PTC / Windchill. This concept remains with us for the last 10-15 years in PLM and maybe even more before with ERP and other enterprise software. My take on this is simple – there is no single point of truth. Company is complicated and it is impossible to have everything synchronized and working as a single whole. Even if a company can do it, it will remain valid only for the next 5 minutes. Next change will disrupt it again. The cost of change is tremendous and companies cannot afford that. Something needs to be changed here.

What is my conclusion? I found Planet PTC very energetic and enjoyed communicating with the executive and marketing team. Two days wasn’t enough to get connected to many people, but I found online community (and especially the community on tweeter) very active, and I’m looking forward to staying connected on the blog, tweeter and other social net. I think some of the things PTC is thinking and working about are very promising and following industry demands. At the same time, the strategy is still lacking some fundamental decisions related to how PLM improves the work with the rest of enterprise software. Another element of the concern is related to the scalability of solutions for different companies. My take – one size doesn’t fit all in manufacturing industry. It shows some promise in Creo Apps, but not reflected in anything else. This is just my opinion, of course.

Best, Oleg
Disclosure: PTC paid for registration and hotel during the event.

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM: From Work To Home via Microsoft and Open Cloud

May 30, 2011

Let’s talk about PLM software development today. Rewind pre-Web 2.0 and pre- iPhone era. Life was simlpe. After SolidWorks finally proved Windows is good enough for mechanical CAD, the majority moved to Redmond-based software. I’ve been thinking about changes that happened mostly for the last few years and what influences how we are going to develop PLM software in coming few years. There are two major trends I can identify: mix between “work” and “home” and significant influence of “open source” technologies.

The “Chat” Continues from Work To Home

These days we put fewer borders between work and home environment. Mobile technologies and cloud services allow to many people to be available during after working hours. Global development just added an additional pressure on people to be available out their normal work hours. Social marketing, custom-oriented product development and many other are additional factors changing our traditional working environment. I read Kelly Sommers’ blog Kellabyte – Continuous Client: Our multi-device dream but how do we build it?. This is my favorite passage.

Our needs for computing workflow have completely changed. Services like DropBox or Instapaper are narrow solutions to the real problem. DropBox lets us sync our data so that we can access it on multiple devices but it’s not addressing the workflow issue. DropBox doesn’t carry over the context of what we were doing when we shifted devices.I decided to count how many times I switched devices between noon and 6pm, so a 6 hour period. I switched devices 37 times.

Please take a look on the following picture from the same blog. This is a very typical scenario that may happen.

At the same time, most of the software is addressing data, but not addressing the “workflow” issue. And this is something that is really important if you think about business software like PLM. The only device-less software these days is the email. I can follow my emails on a desktop, tablet, mobile phone almost seamless. If you are lucky to use Google Apps, you can completely disconnect your life from a particular PC. At the same time, this is absolutely not happens in PLM business applications.

Microsoft Baby Steps towards Open Cloud

So, what happens with Microsoft these days. Do you think Redmond folks are sitting and waiting until Google mail will replace Microsoft Exchange and Outlook? Not at all. Recently, I wrote about Office 365. This is the “product” example. At the same time, I found some interesting trends related to the technological aspects of Microsoft-related development. Singularity is not popular and you can see Microsoft’s steps towards the technological trends we can see on the cloud. Navigate your browser to the following link and you will see how Microsoft Azure and PHP are working together – New SDK and Sample Kit demonstrates how to leverage the scalability of Windows Azure with PHP.

This Open Source SDK gives PHP developers a “speed dial” library to take full advantage of Windows Azure’s coolest features.

Spend some time, read it and make your opinion. Craig Kitterman brings multiple examples of software developed for Facebook and other cloud application by leveraging Microsoft Azure and PHP. Deal of the Today is sample application for PHP developers to learn how to take advantage of Microsoft Azure scalability.

What is my conclusion? I can smell ch… ch… change in everything that happens in people behaviors and software development these days. The traditional applications, development stacks and people expectations are moving forward. Gen-Y will be coming to business very soon, and they won’t tolerate existing environment. Everybody understands that, in my view. Is it a time to revise PLM software stacks and axioms? Just my thoughts… Speak your mind, please.

Best, Oleg

4 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

COFES, Microsoft and Engineering Software Business Models

April 16, 2011

COFES is a think tank for engineering software. This is a place where you can drop any idea and see if it resonates. One of the COFES sessions is so called Maieutic Parataxis session. Think about pitching your idea in front of 300 people. You can see a sequence of 7-10 pitches from people compressed in a row. This is what Maieutic Parataxis is about. Last year I shared the story about Simon Floyd of Microsoft talking about PLM Excels:COFES, Maieutic Parataxies and PLM Excels. This year Simon came with a new idea of future business models for engineering software. Some of Simon’s slides and observations were resonating with my previous thoughts about PLM software business models. About a year ago, I wrote about Faltered Licenses and Future PLM Business Models. I talked about Subscriptions, Advertising and Reverse models. Take a look on Simon’s slides and make your opinion.

What is my take on this? The engineering software is changing slowly. The dynamics are different from the consumer market where the idea of market pace was realized and succeed. I can see multiple reasons why it happens. The most important reason is what I call “a good enough” principle. Traditional manufacturers are very conservative. Software is just a tool for them to produce the result. Existing software can run these companies for years. At the same time, I can see signs of changes. There are two main reasons, in my view: cost and competition. In order to compete on the market, companies need to find more efficient software to get a job done. Engineering software market place can offer a diverse set of tools that can be used. However, the compatibility of these tools, data access and many other reasons can potentially lay down this idea. Leading companies in this space are thinking about market place and application granularity. I think next 5-7 years can show the potential of the realization of this model. Just my thought…

Best, Oleg

[tag PLM, COFES, Microsoft, Business Model]

1 Comment | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

« Previous Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 73 other followers