PLM Market to More than Double - Will Top $14 Billion by 2008, According to a New Study by the...

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2003

The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market, which totaled more than $5.6 billion in 2002, will more than double and top $14 billion by the end of 2007, rising at a Cumulative Annual Growth Rate

ARC's PLM Software & Services Worldwide Outlook shows why this market will grow so rapidly at a time when the world's economies are in trouble and no other major enterprise software market is even approaching a 20 percent growth rate. An integrated PLM solution can measurably help manufacturers have the right product at the right place, at the right time, and at the right price. It does this by helping manufacturers to:

-- Design and develop more competitive products

-- Lower development and support costs

-- Deliver product to the marketplace faster

-- Protect the company's intellectual capital

-- Effectively and efficiently support the customer

"Product Lifecycle Management is more of a strategy than any one specific product," according to ARC Vice President John Moore (jmoore@arcweb.com), a co-author of the study. "Even today, no single supplier has a complete solution for fulfilling all the functions of PLM. Moving beyond its heritage in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Product Data Management (PDM) systems, PLM is evolving into a better understood, recognized, and appreciated enterprise business solution/process whose impact and influence extends across the entire enterprise out to suppliers and customers."

"Product data is the central component of an enterprise PLM environment, and as a concept, PLM has been around as long as product itself. However, it has only recently become a viable concept as an enterprise solution. PLM has taken years to become defined within the mindset of manufacturers, in part because it has been so closely associated with CAD and PDM," according to Analyst and co-author Steve Clouther (sclouther@arcweb.com).

Today, manufacturers see PLM as a business strategy that employs collaborative software solutions to create a product-centric data record for any product over its entire lifecycle, from concept to retirement. PLM encourages and coordinates interactions between a product information repository and all stakeholders, both internal and external to the enterprise, and this provides the mechanism for manufacturers to bring new and innovative products to market much faster and at a lower cost.

The study defines PLM as the integration of business systems to manage the lifecycle of a product. Within the PLM process itself, there are six distinct segments, including Innovation and Portfolio Management, Project and Program Management, Collaborative Design, Product Data Management, Manufacturing Process Planning, and Service/Support Management.

Further information on this study can be found at: http://www.arcweb.com/research/ent/plm.asp

Note to Editors: This document can be used with attribution to ARC Advisory Group. For a graphic containing 'PLM Software & Services Business in Billions of Dollars', please contact Maryanne Flynn at mailto:mflynn@arcweb.com.

ARC Advisory Group provides strategic planning and technology assessment services to leading manufacturing companies, utilities, and global logistics providers, as well as to software and solution suppliers world-wide. From Global 1000 companies to small start-up firms, ARC has the strategic knowledge needed to succeed in today's technology driven economy. Further information can be obtained from ARC, Three Allied Drive, Dedham, MA 02026, 781-471-1000, Fax 781-471-1100, E-mail info@arcweb.com, Web ARCweb.com.