One-to-One: Does SAP "do" PLM?

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?