business context now. It’s not just a cool tool,” says Peter Schroer, Aras founder and chief executive officer. “The new stuff is all about control and quality issues. This is what people are concerned about.”

Of course, despite support from boosters including Smith and Ashley, and a more focused value propostion, potential PLM users must still get approval from the chief financial officer’s (CFO’s) office, and that can be challenging, “positive economy” notwithstanding.

“CFOs typically look for ROI (return-on-investment),” says Ashley. “But they won’t see the tangible ROI until after a product is launched, and then will realize it through long-term manufacturing effectiveness or efficiencies. It’s easy to see these as ‘soft’ or intangible benefits. They are an investment in the future.”

That doesn’t mean the benefits aren’t real.

According to Peter Schmitt, vice president of marketing for PLM supplier Dassault Systemes, of Paris, PLM can be tailored to suit whichever business strategy a given company wants.

“Reduced time to market, reduction in engineering efforts/ costs/time, increased quality of design, reduced quality issues. All these process improvements, and increased efficiency—at the end of the day that makes the CFO very happy.”

For more information, search keyword “PLM” at www.automationworld.com.