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Top 5 PLM Insight Posts of 2020 [Momentum-PLM]

Lionel Grealou Enterprise Leadership Talents 3 minutes

selective focus photography of magazines
Image Credit: PEXEL

Looking back at 2020, I reflect on the most viewed posts and popular PLM related themes covered on the momentum-plm.com platform.

In a nutshell, core themes covered last year included: PLM and related delivery roles, from Solution Architect to Product Owner, functional and industry knowledge, delivery methodologies, from waterfall to agile, key success factors, business change, platform vendor and system integrator selection, platform configuration and customization, talent development and acquisition, PLM related skills and career paths… and many more topics.

These themes were discussed in context of enterprise operations, continuous business improvement and digitalisation. With this series of posts, insights were introduced and discussed from a practical and return-on-experience point of view—avoiding the marketing jargon which often come along digitalisation discussions.

In this post, I highlight the top 5 PLM insights posted on Momentum-PLM in 2020, how well they were received, and what was interesting (or possibly controversial) about them. 

Foreword: momentum-plm.com made its debut mid-2020, there has been a growing number of posts over the past 4 months; rising numbers of viewers and followers reflect the increased awareness of the platform.

The 5 most popular posts of 2020, in absolute number of views, are:

  1. Attracting PLM talents: mapping competencies, skills and roles
  2. Career paths for PLM Professionals
  3. University degrees in Product Lifecycle Management
  4. Solution Architect – part 1: key responsibilities, core competencies and skills
  5. Managing stakeholder expectations when driving PLM implementations

These posts relate to the following themes, focusing on people:

  1. Attracting and developing talents
  2. Learning, knowledge management and education
  3. Solution Architecture (and the Solution Architect role)
  4. People and stakeholder management

1. Attracting and developing talents

Finding talents is obviously a popular theme on momentum-plm.com, a platform to connect PLM experts with hiring organizations, sharing insights about PLM and related industry news.

People are at the core of product development, data lifecycle management and business improvement. Finding the right talents is critical to design, build and deploy PLM solutions. On one hand, it is interesting to assess what new roles might emerge from developing or implementing new technologies and business models; including possibly in the field of enterprise data integration. On the other hand, some roles might need to evolve or require different levels of engagement, considering how they fit in the wider business operations. This was for instance discussed in context of the Solution Architect role, and how the rise of cloud infrastructure can contribute to reduced requirements for solution adaptation (at least for small and medium enterprises).

2. Learning, knowledge management and education

This is again a people related theme: how people learn, what and how knowledge is acquired, from formal education to on-the-job training and ‘learning by doing’.

PLM is a multi-disciplinary, increasingly wide and complex industry. Complexity relates to the breadth and depth of the topics covered and the challenges or coordinating all aspects of their implementation. Adoption can be challenging, especially when trying to do too much too soon, a.k.a. ‘boiling the ocean’ or neglecting to understand the ability of an organization to change. Also, considering the speed of change:

  • If too slow, the organization might lose interest and focus.
  • If too quick, the organization might not be able to adapt and learn to realize the expected benefits; hence the implementation might be perceived as a failure.

3. Solution Architecture

This is a core topic for any PLM and business-related improvement implementation: linking user requirements to existing / purchased platforms and the ability to adapt processes and tools. Solution architects are functional experts with the ability to understand business requirements and align expectations in context of what is ‘under the hood’ of the solution.

Solution architecture also links to integration architecture and enterprise data governance—a hot topic when it comes to data continuity across IT platforms.

4. People and stakeholder management

Finally, another area of interest emerging from most PLM and business change discussions is the importance of ‘people management’, or more precisely, expectation management.

Understanding what people need and why, how they perceive the need for change or eventual resistance to change are critical to aligning everyone towards adopting and making the most of business improvement solutions.

What are your thoughts?


This post was originally published on Momentum-PLM on 18 January 2021.

Disclaimer: articles and thoughts published on v+d do not necessarily represent the views of the company, but solely the views or interpretations of the author(s); reviews, insights and mentions of publications, products, or services do neither constitute endorsement, nor recommendations for purchase or adoption. 

About the Author

Lionel Grealou

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Lionel Grealou, a.k.a. Lio, helps original equipment manufacturers transform, develop, and implement their digital transformation strategies—driving organizational change, data continuity and process improvement, managing the lifecycle of things across enterprise platforms, from PDM to PLM, ERP, MES, PIM, CRM, or BIM. Beyond consulting roles, Lio held leadership positions across industries, with both established OEMs and start-ups, covering the extended innovation lifecycle scope, from research and development, to engineering, discrete and process manufacturing, procurement, finance, supply chain, operations, program management, quality, compliance, marketing, etc.

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