Jim Brown

One-to-One: Does SAP "do" PLM?
September 19, 2008

I had the chance to talk with ... SAP this week at their ASUG user meeting and analyst day in Nashville. SAP debuted their updated PLM offering to customers and analysts alike, highlighting their progress against the roadmap that they announced last year. The release is due out at the end of the year. There was a lot to talk about as SAP is delivering a significant step forward in their product roadmap for PLM. I get questions all the time about whether SAP "really has PLM" or "when SAP will have PLM" so I am going to devote today's and at least one more of my "One to One" posts on trying to answer that question for companies.

So does SAP do PLM?
SAP has a PLM offering, and has had it from some time. Perhaps the question has always been "what is PLM?" The market has been very broad in the definition of PLM, and SAP has clearly had a lot to offer. But does it really do what other PLM system from the likes of Dassault Systemes, Oracle (Agile), PTC, Siemens PLM or others do? Let's face it, SAP is the dominant ERP platform on the planet, and many manufacturers have invested heavily and consider themselves an "SAP shop." These companies would like to extend their SAP investment to cover PLM (among other things), to the point where execs and/or IT often dictate that SAP should be used unless it just won't work. So then the question is, why isn't everybody using SAP PLM?

Integrated Suite or Best of Breed?
Some PLM vendors get upset when they hear me say this, but I think we all need to acknowledge that most manufacturers would like the benefits of having a single, integrated solution for all of their enterprise software needs. After all, you don't see people stitching together a best of breed (BoB) financial package with BoB inventory control, manufacturing, planning, and procurement. Or do you? SAP (and ERP in general) had order management before the Customer Relationship (CRM) Management market came around and stepped it up a notch. ERP had manufacturing planning before Supply Chain Planning (SCP) came along and offered more advanced capabilities. ERP had manufacturing control but there is still a vibrant Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) / Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) market - ask SAP, they just bought Visiprise. So clearly ERP is not meeting all of the needs that users have - or at least not for all companies. PLM is no exception.

Have I answered the Question?
I know, I know... answer the question, I sound like a politician. But unfortunately the answer is not simple. A company needs to examine their business closely to determine whether SAP PLM, another PLM, or some combination is best for them. Sorry, it's messy but that is reality. If you came here for a simple answer, it just doesn't exist. SAP doesn't have enough parity in PLM yet to make the value of using a single vendor and pre-built integration the only deciding factor. At least, not for everybody. But they are taking PLM seriously and SAP has absolutely earned the right to be considered for SAP shops. So no, I haven't answered the question but I will try to offer some guidance to you as a manufacturer to answer the question for your business. I will spend some more time on SAP's PLM in upcoming posts, including:

• Who is SAP PLM good for?
• What about design tools (CAD, CAE, ...)?
• What about design tool integration?
• What about work in process designs, will my engineers / designers "live" in SAP?
• Where is the logical break between ERP and PLM (if any still exists)?
• What about recipe management and PLM for the process industries?
• What about portfolio management?
• What about digital manufacturing?
• What is next in SAP's roadmap and will they deliver?
• What does this mean to the PLM market?

So many questions... If you let me know what you want to hear about, I'll do my best to accommodate. So that's what I hear from SAP, I hope you found it useful. What do you think? What else should I have asked them?

Posted by Jim Brown on September 19, 2008 | Comments (3)