The Engineering Data Management Newsletter's Second Annual EDM/PDM ‘Issues and Trends’ Workshop, held at the end of 1996, was chaired by Jürgen Tempel, the Newsletter’s Editor in Germany, who provides the following report.

The following issues and trends came from the user side:

Load and go
Users are asking for solutions that can be implemented quickly. They are confused by all the bits and pieces on offer. They don’t want to be involved in extensive customization. They support the trend from user-specific customization to systems integration.

EDM Newsletter view:
The users are right. Vendors should listen to what users ask for and provide corresponding solutions.

EDM/PDM and MRP/ERP
Most users are far away from wanting to integrate EDM/PDM and MRP/ERP. They’d be happy if they could successfully implement basic EDM/PDM.

EDM Newsletter view:
Users need to focus on getting the business benefits of EDM/PDM for their companies - not on the latest technology developments in features and functions. Questions like ‘Is an integration necessary for us?’, or ‘What functions should the interface perform?’ need to be answered by the enterprise PDM strategy.

Configuration Management
There’s confusion about what this term means.

EDM Newsletter view:
Users need to understand how to get business benefits of EDM/PDM for their companies. The name of the technology isn’t important - the benefits it provides are. In most countries there are organizations that focus on CM and can help users see through the haze.

Workflow
Users ask if workflow is important.

EDM Newsletter view:
Users need to know the business reasons for implementing EDM/PDM. If workflow is going to provide business benefits then it’s important. Otherwise, it’s not. Workflow can bring great benefits, but it’s not easy to get them. Reengineering needs to come first, otherwise implementation of cross-functional workflow will be difficult. User awareness is a problem due to the wide range of users.

Web
This was one of the most exciting issues for the attendees. Two aspects were discussed intensively. Can we now overcome all our interface problems, and is the Web a competitor to EDM/PDM technology? Users wanted to know if they should be looking for Web-based systems and solutions.

EDM Newsletter view:
The Web will open up new horizons for EDM/PDM, but currently, only users in world-leading companies should look at Web-based systems and solutions to their problems. Users in other companies should wait until it becomes easier to separate hype from reality. And they shouldn’t forget that many of the problems during implementation don’t come from technology but are due to organizational and human issues.

EDM/PDM implementation
Users want to know whether Engineering or MIS should be responsible for EDM/PDM implementation.

EDM Newsletter view:
When users ask this question it shows that their companies still have a functional mindset. EDM/PDM is cross-functional. It has to be implemented by a cross-functional team. The people in Engineering have the best understanding of the needs of Engineering - but they probably have limited IS experience. IS specialists have a much better understanding of the pure IS issues - but rarely understand the user needs.

Successful implementation
Users hear about the high level of failure among EDM/PDM installations and want to find ways of making sure they don’t fail.

EDM Newsletter view:
Implementation will succeed if users first understand company needs and then look for solutions that will meet their needs. Implementation will probably fail if they just look for technology because they think it makes sense or because other companies are implementing it. We provided attendees with an overview of our ‘Engineering Plan 1996’ study. It helped them understand that the foundation of successful implementation is high quality planning.

Installation costs
Users are surprised by the high costs of EDM/PDM.

EDM Newsletter view:
Users are confused by the overall cost make-up (software, hardware, process work, integration) and its relation to benefits, but if they have correctly identified the benefits of EDM/PDM they shouldn’t be surprised by the costs. However, if they haven’t understood the business equation, and plan, for example, a PDM installation that does little more than save CAD files in a Vault, they’ll find the costs looking very high.

The following issues and trends were of concern to the vendors :

Working with the enemy
Vendors who are usually competitors find themselves forced to work together. They want to know if this trend will continue. This issue was also of interest to users who ask if they lose out from a loss of competition when vendors get close together.

EDM Newsletter view:
This trend will continue until individual vendors are able to offer complete solutions. Users need to read contracts carefully to make sure they really are getting the proposed benefits.

Where are the users?
Vendors are concerned there are not enough users of EDM/PDM and use is not growing quickly enough.

EDM Newsletter view:
Vendors should not believe their competitor’s hype any more than they believe their own.

Vendor shake-out
Many vendors are not meeting revenue targets because users are not coming on board quickly enough. How can they prepare for the future?

EDM Newsletter view:
There are too many vendors for the size of the market. Consolidations, mergers and failures will continue.

Web functionality
Vendors see their competitors investing in functions and features for the Web and ask if they need to follow.

EDM Newsletter view:
Even though there will be little demand from users for this functionality in the near future, vendors need to provide it. Otherwise it will appear they are not technology leaders.

Skills shortage
Many vendors feel victims of a vicious circle in which they can’t hire the right people because they’re not meeting revenue targets, and they’re not meeting these targets because they don’t have the right people.

The issue is also of concern for users faced with salespeople who have little knowledge of EDM/PDM or of user problems, hopes and requirements.

EDM Newsletter view:
Too many vendors are failing to grow into mature companies. A little bit of business planning goes a long way. A little bit of sales force training can have a big effect in front of the customer.

Competition from consultancies
Vendors felt they were losing out when they produced the underlying technology for a major business need only to find on one hand that users beat them down on the price and on the other hand that big name consultancies creamed off the implementation fees.

EDM Newsletter view:
Many vendors don’t seem to understand their own business model. Vendors have to recognize that EDM/PDM is a project business not a product business like CAD. They need to work out where they want to make their money - then act.

Pacific Rim
Vendors want to know when to get in the Pacific Rim.

EDM Newsletter view:
First of all, the ‘Pacific Rim’ is a huge and diverse market, so it’s impossible to treat it as a single market. However, just from the growth in subscriptions to the Newsletter in countries like India, Japan and Korea, we can see the market’s taking off in those countries, and everything we hear from Satoshi Ezawa, the Newsletter Editor in Japan, goes in the same direction.