'When shall we three meet again?', Edwin Ecob

ERP (Enterpise Resource Planning) remains the most important enterprise application area for manufacturers, with more companies conducting ERP projects than CRM or SCM. However, software licence revenues from the manufacturing sector have fallen significantly over the last 12 months. To address this, vendors of enterprise applications are targeting a new area - Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Cambashi Principal Consultant Edwin Ecob told the Gaydon audience that this gives these vendors the opportunity to address the design and engineering operations within a manufacturing company. Indeed, whilst PLM can be viewed as a key solution for companies following a product leadership strategy, it also improves business processes for companies focused on operational excellence and customer intimacy.

While enterprise and engineering applications vendors today offer complementary PLM functionality, they will soon be head to head. Enterprise Application Vendors, with the ear of the Finance Director, are in the driving seat. Ecob suggests keeping an eye on the mergers and acquisitions columns.

April 2002: Cambashi's latest enterprise applications market review is now available - please complete the free information form to receive it.

Cambashi articles which may also interest you:

What are PLM and SCM?

What are the returns on investment from CRM?

Supply chain management: reinventing the wheel

Supply chain communications

CRM in the real world

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