PLM is late in moving to the cloud. Gartner and many others predicted several years ago a much higher adoption rate by year 2019 than we have seen. Fast-moving industries, SMEs and newcomers are leading but classic PLM user like aerospace and automotive are slow in their cloud adoption. Protection of IP, export control, legacy, complex needs and probably a missing business case have slowed down the adoption. Many companies in aerospace and automotive are large companies with IT and PLM operations that have been trimmed for lower cost over many years and as a result performing OK. This is for inhouse PLM.
When it comes to data sharing with external partners it is a different story. For data that will anyhow leave the company, cloud is an option and a promising one. There is use of email, Sharepoint, Teams, Dropbox, Slack etc for external collaboration. All these are demonstrating the power of cloud but missing needed PLM functionality. As a classic PLM system is too cumbersome and expensive to deploy for external collaboration, a neutral hub-based solution should be used. The collaboration hub should focus on the collaboration processes and allow for any partner to keep their internal processes and IT, to avoid hardwiring a business relation. This flexibility is best for everyone as internal processes, IT and partners will change.
We believe cloud PLM is going to be most attractive to SME’s, who so far have been unable to afford any of the current PLM solutions. This goes for in-house use but also for collaboration externally. With proven success, larger enterprises will follow. The reasons for the cloud solution attractiveness are:
- Low entry cost
- Known operating cost
- Ease of access and use
- Integration with other cloud services
At Eurostep, we have been implementing collaboration hubs for more than 15 years with demanding clients. Our solutions have mostly been implemented on-premise as ShareAspace clients so far have been large organizations with their own IT infrastructure. But this fall, October 2019, we are launching ShareAspace-as-a-Service, primarily targeting SMEs. Our cloud solution is based on the proven ShareAspace platform, built on modern cloud technology. Standards-based (PLCS and AP242) and open, it is an excellent choice for a solution in-between organizations. The collaboration hub won’t be restricted to what is used in-house by one of the partners. It will be easy to set up and easy to use. Truly adding value.
For those interested to have a preview of the ShareAspace cloud offering and learn about the initial scope please contact pierre.drouzine@eurostep.com.
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