Picking a PLM Vendor: Examine the Vendor's Ecosystem

This series of posts assumes you have defined
your path to PLM and provides some guidance on how to choose a
vendor.

What is a Vendor’s Ecosystem (and why
should I care…)?
The last post was about vendor size,
pointing out that there are advantages to both big and small
companies. In particular, small companies are often specialty
vendors with focus on a specific industry or business process. One
thing to consider, though, is the business that is built around the
software solution. In this case, I am not talking about the
vendor’s business itself, but how many other companies are involved
with the customers’ solutions. What I call the vendor
ecosystem.

Vendors that have a large install base create a
services and software industry of their own. For example, look how
many consultants and software vendors have solutions aimed at
helping a manufacturer (or other company) get more value from their
SAP implementation. SAP, in fact,
is encouraging companies to extend SAP using their NetWeaver
platform to create composite applications (applications built from
existing SAP components to cover business processes or capabilities
that SAP doesn’t provide). They are a clear example of a company
that an ecosystem has developed around. There are several
components of the vendor ecosystem:

• Complementary Software - These
  can be add-on solutions like regulatory management. As an example,
  Synapsis
  Technology offers EMARS which is a regulatory management
  solution for product developers and engineers. The solution fits
  well into Siemens PLM’s
  (formerly UGS) Teamcenter applications. It is also integrated with
  the Oracle Business Suite. Synapsis also offers a line of PLM
  products that extend Teamcenter capabilities to make it easier to
  use and extend it’s use into new areas.
• Software Extensions - Like the
  SAP NetWeaver ecosystem, this is when companies use the vendors’
  software and technology platform as a base for their own solutions.
  Sometimes this can be specialization in an industry, such as the
  apparel solution Aptavis built on PTC’s Windchill solution (see note) or the
  PLM solution for life sciences built by Integware on top of Dassault Systemes’ MatrixOne
  solution.
• Service Companies - Software
  requires services. Whether it is just the technical implementation,
  or a full PLM transformation requiring strategy, change management,
  systems integration, and more in-depth consultation. Companies like
  Accenture, Deloitte Consulting, and others
  invest in developing skills in solutions that they can help their
  customers implement (and that they feel will make good markets for
  them). Many companies also have value-added resellers (VARs) that
  combine service, software sales, and sometimes even software
  extensions.

Is an Ecosystem always
Good?
The counter to the need for an ecosystem is that
many of the specialty providers will tell you they don’t need an
ecosystem. Why?

• The system is easy to
  implement. There is not a lot of money available to
  consulting firms for easy to implement solutions. I have
  experienced this one firsthand, where I had a solution that had
  very little service required, and the systems integrators were not
  very interested in partnering with our company or supporting our
  solution.
• The system is relatively
  complete. There is not a large need to integrate some
  solutions to other solutions because it does what it needs to do.
  Specialty solutions may not need as many extensions or
  enhancements, for example.
• The system is easy to
  integrate. Companies can build the integration
  themselves in some cases, or the integration may be provided by the
  vendor. Web technologies such as XML and SOA have diminished
  integration challenges, so pre-canned integration is not as
  necessary as it once was. But the integration challenge is only
  part technology, you still have to figure out how to align the
  processes and the data for your business.

How do I find the Vendor’s
Ecosystem?
One word - Google. The vendor themselves may know
their ecosystem and their website may tout their alliances. But if
a market has developed around a software solution, I am sure that
the companies in the ecosystem would like you to know about
them.

So I have given you one more thing to think about
when selecting a PLM vendor. 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…

Note: Aptavis was subsequently acquired by PTC in
their effort to offer more tailored solutions to the apparel
industry.
Note 2: It’s not too late to take the Aberdeen survey on PLM for fashion,
apparel and footwear if it is applicable to you.