This series of posts turned the corner from giving guidance on how to approach, justify, and define your path to PLM and started the conversation on how to choose a vendor. The last post discussed how to find an industry specialist, but it brought up a good question - how do you find a PLM specialist in the first place?

A friend of mine called the other day looking for a PLM consultant to help out on a project. He was looking for an individual to subcontract because he doesn't have the skills in-house to run a PLM implementation. He (and his company) have very skilled people for implementing enterprise applications, but needed to supplement with a PLM specialist. That had me asking the question, how can you tell whether a consultant or systems integrator (SI) has depth and experience in PLM? Here are a number of ideas:

• Look for focus - Let's face it, PLM is hot. It is growing faster than most (if not all) enterprise applications, and our research at Aberdeen shows that it provides a path to profitable growth. Because of this, many consultants are starting to list "PLM" as one of their capabilities. But where is it placed in their business? Did it make it to their website because Marketing thought it was hot, or because they have a focus on it? One way to be sure it to find a focused company. Looking at a specialist like Kalypso is an example, you see "Products - Ideas - Innovation" and "Delivering on the promise of innovation" right up front. Sure that's marketing, but it's focused marketing, and a generalist can't afford to spend that much time on one subject like PLM.
• Look for the people - For larger companies, like a large consultant, it can be harder. They are in many lines of business, and they now probably list PLM as one of them. But how can you tell that they are capable in PLM? In these companies, you have to look beyond the home page and look at their people. Do they have dedicated resources to PLM? IBM, a longstanding member of the PLM community, serves as an example. Even within the breadth of IBM, there is room for specialization. I recently attended an industry event where they announced a series of PLM Centers of Excellence around the globe. This is how a larger company shows their dedication to helping companies like you with PLM.
• Look at the company they keep - Who are their partners? Do they partner with Dassault Systemes, PTC, or Siemens PLM (UGS)? Do they attend those vendors' events? What other trade shows do they invest in? Do they attend PDMA? COFES? NDES? Do they know what those shows are? If they have to ask, they may not be focused (with one caveat, that industry specialists will probably list more focused industry shows).
• Look for their customer successes - In the end, it is about their customers. How quickly can you identify some companies like you (preferably in your industry) that have accomplished the kinds of things with PLM that you hope to? Ideally these are on the website, but you may have to dig a little bit deeper.

By the way, this test also applies to ERP vendors who list "PLM" as one of their modules or capabilities, but that should be for another post.

I look forward to your comments. Feel free to share your experience in selecting a vendor, your suggestions might save someone a lot of headaches...