The PLM Naughty or Nice List

The PLM Naughty or Nice List

Be honest—are your users sick of playing PLM games with you? Perhaps this will help. It’s Santa’s PLM Naughty or Nice List, and of course, he checked it twice. Rest assured it’s been validated.

  1. Open and published APIs?

If you think using multiple closed technology stacks in your PLM is going to get you on the “nice” list, you’re mistaken. The big man considers this to be extremely naughty. Unsuspecting boys and girls customizing on these technology stacks isn’t sustainable, causing them to get locked-in. Not the kind of Christmas experience anyone wants. And if you haven’t customized on one these so-called PLM suites, don’t. “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid” (A Christmas Story).

  1. Time to deploy?

Santa defies the space-time continuum. He deploys in a single night, at super luminal speeds, with nothing but a high tech sleigh and nine reindeer—one with an unusual variant in terms of nasal luminescence. If you’re on your fourth quarter of deployment and all you have are four French hens, you’re on the wrong list.

  1. You upgrade every year or two?

Your PLM system is not like a fruitcake that can last for 5, 10, or 15 years without upgrading. If it is, than ask Santa for a new one that will be upgraded by the vendor.

  1. Does your PLM facilitate secure collaboration with your partners, suppliers, and customers?

Remember, Santa works globally with tens of thousands of mall Santas, elves, toy OEMs, suppliers, good little boys and girls all over the world, and a few hundred CIOs that still believe, so the expectation is for secure global collaboration. Aras has worked with the North Pole on extended security to allow partners, suppliers, and customers access within a replicated firewall—and just the gifts they have the right to open.

  1. How secure is your intellectual property?

Do you think it’s enough to leave little Cindy Lou in charge of your data security and just forget about it? Wrong-o! Let me tell you about these users in Whoville who were breached by a hairy, pot-bellied, pear-shaped, 53 year-old snub-nosed hacker with a cat-like face and avocado complexion. Their data was not properly secured. Your PLM should be able to protect down to the object level so we don’t have ITAR parts ending up under the Christmas tree. Sadly, in their case, nothing was left in Whoville but the smallest of bread crumbs (The Grinch). Your data must be secured. To do this, you’ll need the strength of “ten Grinches plus two,” and a heart that can scale three times its size.

  1. Do you have a seamless Digital Thread?

So, your PLM got hit by a reindeer walking home on Christmas Eve. You bought it—you deserve the hoof prints.

  1. Do you have operational Digital Twins?

How do you think Santa controls all his mall Santas?  Maybe that’s not the best use-case.   For those of you who deserve a lump of coal, yet want something better, here’s a free Aras Innovator downloadable. If you want to experience nice PLM users and an open, flexible, scalable, and upgradable PLM, check out ACE 2019 in Phoenix, AZ. Anywho, I think you get the point. Remember, he knows if your PLM is bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. In the end, try to lavish your users with an open, flexible, scalable, upgradable, secure, and easy-to-use PLM based on a digital product platform. Treat your data and people with kindness, warmth and generosity this season, and give them a real Digital Thread. www.aras.com. May you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!