PLM'S BIGGEST RISK? THE NARROW VIEW

"RECORD NUMBERS" IS HOW Ed Miller, president of CIMdata, Ann Arbor, Mich., describes market acceptance of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions. In 2005 investments in that enterprise solution grew 8.7% to reach $18.1 billion, a rate that exceeded Miller's earlier estimates.

But don't

assume that growing acceptance means that all users have refined and optimized conceptual attitudes toward PLM, adds Miller. He says some still tend to characterize PLM more as a software tool than as an enterprise business process philosophy. That misperception, positioning PLM as just another software tool, is the biggest challenge, notes UGS Corp.'s Bill Carrelli, the Milford, Ohio-based vice president of strategic marketing for the Piano, Texas-based solution provider. Carrelli says the best resolution of the challenge comes from companies that adopt a strategy of integrating PLM within their normal work processes-the procedures of day-to-day activities. (Even so, CIMdata anticipates market growth will reach $26.3 billion by 2010, a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7.7%.)