What I learned this week ... is that the Lawson Software acquired the PLM division of Freeborders to enter the already confusing Apparel PLM vendor landscape. One of the vendors I have followed for some time in the apparel PLM market is now a part of an ERP company. This is just one of a series of recent changes in this market driven by a flury of interest in PLM from apparel, fashion, and footwear companies. For an industry that is not known for being "cutting edge" on technology, this is a big change. Aberdeen's report on the topic shows that the demand is driven by common PLM pressures - globalization and supply chain complexity - which are felt significantly in the apparel industry.

Why does ERP want Apparel PLM? 
So what does Lawson want with Freeborders? I have had a number of conversations with Olin Thompson who runs vertical marketing at Lawson. While they haven't had a significant PLM strategy to date, but they have had strong capabilities (and a significant customer base) in the apparel industries. Given the need to expand the ERP suite to include product development, PLM is a natural fit. They are not the first ERP company to acquire a PLM solution, in fact, Infor acquired Runtime (GEAC) some time ago. That solution is not the most visible Infor product in the market, but when you have as many products as Infor you have to choose your battles. And Infor's vertical alignment, similar to Lawson, means that a vertically-oriented PLM can be a good offering for their existing customers.

Who else wants Apparel PLM?
Not all of the movement has been in the ERP community, though. The PLM suite players are all active in this market. Dassault Systems, who arguably had a pretty good head start in the apparel PLM market with their Enovia MatrixOne solution for apparel, announced a partnership and development effort with Wing-Tai not long ago. Wing-Tai not only brings Zymmetry software to the table, but also has significant experience as a contract manufacturer in the apparel industry. PTC has had a solution for some time (again, an acquisition but of a solution that was already built on their PLM platform). Surprisingly, another PLM giant - Siemens - also shows up on the list of solutions that apparel companies are evaluating for PLM. Long-time fashion software companies Gerber and Lectra are still active (and possibly good acquistion candidates themselves for someone looking to expand in this market). Centric is focusing significantly on apparel, as are a host of smaller vendors including NGC, Zweave, Yunique, TXT, Fashionware Solutions, and others.

A market with a lot of change yet to come, I expect, given the large number of companies, the interest of the ERP and PLM suite providers, and the high level of interest from the apparel companies themselves.

So the apparel PLM market has a lot of movement left in it. Who knew? Let me know how it looks from your perpsective.