Category

Business Strategy

Mar 18
Metamorphosis of Narcissus (Salvador Dali, 1937)

Digital Transformation and the Internet of Things

By Internet of Things (IoT), IT Strategy, PLM No Comments

The Internet of Things Enables Digital Transformation

I recently returned from a trip to Munich, Germany where I spoke at the Product Innovation Congress. In additional to the usual product innovation, PDM and PLM topics, this year’s Congress highlighted technologies, business strategies and use cases that use the Internet of Things (IoT) as a means to create a digital thread of product information to support product creation and service strategies.

As you might expect, a discussion on IoT and, in fact, any technology to drive enterprise digital transformation can generate a frustratingly wide range of definitions and, consequently, vague characterization of its benefits and economic justification.

During a panel discussion, I suggested that digital transformation isn’t simply a matter of establishing a new IoT-centric enterprise architecture. Rather, I maintain that we should look at the impact of the information and the digital thread enabled by the IoT in the context of organizational operations and decision making processes. Here is the approach I propose. You can use this to identify opportunities and assess potential value in a way akin to a maturity model. Read More

Feb 14
ROI: Show Me The Money

Show Me The Money!

By Business Strategy, Internet of Things (IoT) One Comment

The famous “Show me the money” catchphrase from the movie Jerry McGuire today is more than a clever quip. Thanks to regulations and increasingly vigilant executive management and boards of directors, corporate management is no longer satisfied with vague promises. It wants to see the actual economic return on their investment.

A client recently said to me: ”if the ROI of a new IT project is longer than 13 months it’s most likely going to be rejected.” It’s unclear where the 13-month figure came from, but the a detailed—and frequently unrealistic—return on investment (ROI) model is a prerequisite for almost any significant investment in IT project.

Generating an accurate and, at the same time, credible, ROI analysis is often difficult. If the ROI period is too conservative, management will not consider not attractive enough. If it is viewed as too rosy, it will not be believable and you will be sent back to the drawing board, or, if approved, you are running the risk of not meeting your plan.

The ROI Dilemma

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Sep 15

Unlocking the Value in PLM-ERP Integration

By IT Strategy, PLM No Comments

PLM-ERP Alignment is Critical

In the seemingly endless conversation about product development software, there are those that argue that PLM and ERP serve different roles in product development and product lifecycle management. Those on that side of the fence use arguments such as “PLM helps drive product innovation, ERP helps execute the business of manufacturing”, and prop their arguments by making debatable observations such as that ERP is a static system of record and PLM manages product changes; that product data structures in ERP are rigid whereas PLM’s are flexible; or that ERP can only handle hierarchical data relationships as opposed to the dynamic many-to-many relations data model of PLM. Some years ago there was even an attempt to restore the lackluster image of ERP by coining a new term:  “Operational ERP.” Read More

Jul 24
PTC LiveWorx 2015

PTC’s IoT Strategy: Realizing the Connected World

By Internet of Things (IoT), Mergers & Acquisitions 2 Comments

PTC’s IoT Journey

Since James Heppelmann took the helm at PTC in October of 2010, he has been hard at work, challenging the status quo among top-tier PLM vendors and seeking to redefine PLM and expand its influence beyond its traditional engineering boundaries. The comprehensive strategy has had multiple threads and terms, starting with service lifecycle management (SLM) and the notion of product “servitization”, and evolving recently to the Internet of Things (IoT). Mr. Heppelmann wants to keep the “things” PTC’s customers design, operate, and service at the center of everything PTC is doing.

This well laid out strategy was supplemented with a rapid succession of technology acquisitions. A quick chronology of the last five years or so might be instructive. Read More

Mar 15
The Money Lender and His Wife (Quentin Metsys, 1514)

Searching for Value in the Internet of Things

By Internet of Things (IoT), IT Strategy 4 Comments

The Internet of Things is Not About Things, Nor is it About the Internet

It seems not a day goes by without seeing breathless headlines predicting the magnitude and the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT).  For instance, Morgan Stanley estimates that by year 2020 there will be 75 billion devices. Harbor Research, at the end of the spectrum, forecasts an order of magnitude lower estimate: 8 billion. Cisco offers 50 billion, Gartner counters with 26 billion, and IDC is right in the middle with a forecast of 30 billion connected devices.

Do you get a feeling that they may not really know? Perhaps they are talking about different “things”? And, at the end of the day, does the number of connected devices really matter? And to whom? Read More